mcm95403

This morning my best friend let me use his garage again to install the LS6 intake on my 99 - Thanks Mike!

I learned several useful things I thought I'd pass on:

No need to open the cooling system to remove the TB - you can just lift the intake up at an angle to clear it.

Apparently GM hired an out-of-work Ford guy (IDIOT!) who designed the connector setup for the little plastic tube at the back of the intake. Turns out that the key to getting this back together is to put the rubber elbow in the plastic tubing, then hold it in place while you and your friend slide the intake the last couple of inches back, then blindly slip the other end of the elbow onto the nipple at the back of the intake.

Plug the MAP sensor into the electrical clip before the step above. That way it's right there and just slides down into place at the back of the intake as well.

No need to change the water pipes and all that. I used a sharp chisel Mike had and knocked off most of the ribs on the flat underside to clear the 99 water pipes. Took less than 10 minutes and worked perfectly.

Aside from that, it was probably the easiest intake swap I've done in 30 years of working on cars. Working casually I spent about 3 hours doing the whole job including cleanup and putting away tools.

So far, I've only driven it from Mike's place back home (about 30 miles), but I can tell you for sure that it picked up mid-range and upper end power. It was a little lazy to rev past 5K before, now it goes to 6K no problem at all. Also, it's warm today (maybe the warmest weather I've driven it in yet with the new tires) but getting on it when I wasn't quite pointed straight in 1st, it got a little squirrely, and when I banged 2nd gear at redline the traction control actived - it didn't do that before

I got my headers back from being repaired and ceramic coated, so in a couple of weeks when I get those on I'll be ready for a dyno tune. I'm hoping to hit 340 at the wheels with the tune - we'll see what happens.

The water lines are the small tubes on top of the valley cover that look like an "h". Two lines from the back, then one piece of that crosses over near the middle, going to the front of the engine from there forward.

YearOneC5

Thanks for the info!

ColeTrain'sC5

yep i saved the coolant pipes as well on mine. The LS6 swap is an easy job

MaximumHP

Thanks for the write-up, this is on my to-do list in the near future too.

mre1974

Thanks for the information. I'm still tossing around the idea of doing this to my '99. I'm really interested in seeing how you modded the bottom to keep the coolant line. This makes it all the more appealing to me now. Post pics when you're able to.

mcm95403

Pics added

neutron82

unless you plan to move up to a fast intake in the near future there should be no tossing around the idea of doing this swap if you're running an ls1 intake, it's a no brainer!... also one of the cheaper and easier mods to do... imo it's much easier/cheaper to knock the ribs off of the bottom of the intake instead of swapping over the coolant pipes... i put an ls6 intake on my old trans am and the ribs easily broke off flush with the bottom of the intake so it looked nice and clean when i was done... and with how easily those ribs broke off i highly doubt they add any kind of structural rigidity to the intake, just my 2 cents

mcm95403

HO-LEE FRICKIN WOW Batman!

Now that the computer has had some time to adjust I'm REALLY impressed. WAY more throttle response and mid range. I whipped past a Mustang tonight on the outside of a corner (2 lane ramp on the freeway) without even trying. I only changed lanes to avoid potholes in the left lane, but I BARELY touched the throttle and launched right by - awesome, especially considering the speed I was already moving at. NO loss of bottom end power either. It pulls the same or better than before from as low as 1100 rpm in 6th.

83Camaro

what other mods are done to the car? yours is a 6 speeD?

baxsom

The easiest way to do the AC vacuum hose on the back of the intake is the put a piece of flexible tubing on the hardline and extend it out a few inches to allow you to replace it back onto the intake before you slide it into place. You can also use a pair of pliers to pinch the ribs off of the bottom. Grab the rib and twist and it comes right off. takes maybe 10 minutes to completely smooth out the bottom side. Once you get the old intake off you might want to consider pulling the green plastic clips underneath out as well. they just hold the knock sensor wires in one spot and it is reported that they can interfere with the intake as well.

mre1974

Great to see and sounds like you're really pleased with the intake manifold. Do you have any pics of the bottom after you had removed the ribs that you needed to remove? Or did you remove all of them? I want to make sure that when I get the manifold that I removed the right ones so that I can retain the coolant pipe like you did.

mcm95403

I added pics up at the top so you can see. The easiest way to make sure is just to remove them all.

mcm95403

Yes, it's a 6 speed. Mods listed in my sig in the first post.

mre1974

Yeah, I saw that you had added the pics but it looked like you were still removing the ribs at that time. Maybe I'll do waht you said and just remove them all...they don't appear to have any structural significance.

lucky131969

......of course they don't. The engineer just wanted to consume another 4 hours of his time (not to mention added expense to the mold tooling), so the price per unit.....could be passed on to the customer.

LoneStarFRC

White shoe polish on the line. Leaves nice, easy to follow witness marks.

Do like baxsom said and visit the Vacu-Tite section at your local AP store. About three inches of 1/8" black nylon tube and a rubber splice to push the ends into. Btw, I would use a dab of contact cement on the nylon line (about 1/2" from the end) before inserting it into the rubber splice.

Might consider replacing your A.I.R. check valve behind the manifold while you're there. There'll never be an easier time to access that thing. They're cheap too.

00 Rooster

great post, thanks for the info. I need an LS6 intake to go with my headers. Its on the shopping list

VegasJen

Sure hope you did the remote OPS relocation while you had the manifold off.

83Camaro

For someone who has a 99 also with a stock motor with blackwing, is ls6 intake worth it would i even notice a difference?

mchicia1

Thanks for the pics OP, that is awesome that you can just remove the waffle from the bottom and not have to touch the coolant lines. I will be doing the same thing when I put mine on. You just saved some members here a few $ .