Ok heres the deal, my simple replace fuel pressure regulator has turned into an entire intake job. I have the Edelbrock runners, I am going to be pulling my intake base to replace gaskets. I really don't want to spend $400 bucks on a new aftermarket intake manifold. I have already bought AFPR, new injectors, Edelbrock runners, EGR, Gaskets, I have gotten into replacing everything while I am at it. So what turns me off (besides the high price tag) is that all these aftermarket bases suggest porting anyway. Can't I just port my stock ones and get the same benefits? I also have read where people don't see much gains from these aftermarket TPI bases so I really don't want to throw my money away on something that may not help me much.

 

Porting your stock base will help a bunch... but porting an aftermarket base is the best way to go, as they have a lot more material and can be made much larger.

 

How much material are we talking about here. The stock ports on the plenum and runners is about 39-40mm my Edelbrock runners have 42MM ports. I was thinking maybe porting all out to 44mm. Can I get this out of the stock base?

 

This is a specific I can't help you with - all I know is, the stock base has little to port. Alot of people have ruined a stock TPI base trying to go to far and breaking thru to the neighbor passage, or bolt hole etc. An aftermarket base (ANY AFTERMARKET base) will have LOTS more material. I mean A LOT. There is no comparison b/w a stock ported base and an aftermarket ported base.

 

If you’re comfortable with a grinder,,, an aftermarket intake on stock heads is a waste of money. Stock heads typically flow in the neighborhood of 200 cfm and a mildly ported stock base will supply that amount of air without problems. With the stock heads you wouldn’t need to do any more than remove the rolled edge (lip) at the runner entrance and mildly port (not much more than smoothing the castings) through the ENTIRE LENGTH of the intake (following the stock port contour) – going an inch or two in is not porting. You’ll need a 6” shank bit,,, or if you’ve got a lot of time on your hands, you can use a dremel with a wand attachment.

Be sure you don’t make your intake exit larger than the ports on your heads and make the intake entry a little larger than the runner exits – I usually go 1.65 – 1.68” on the intake with a runner exit of around 1.63”. I don’t know what gaskets come with the Edlebrock runners, but if they’re the small stock type gaskets (like those that come with the SLPs), buy a set of MR Gasket 1.75” gaskets. If the gaskets hang over into your port work,,, it could flow worse than if you had done nothing at all.