The grueling FAST intake testing is now complete. The test car had the following mods: Bully Cam, ARH, Vette-Air scoop, Killer Bee, 160 stat and yes, a ported LS7 intake.
It has been super hot here in Dallas Texas, if you live here then you know how hot it has been these past few weeks; we are talking no less than 100* days or worse with the heat index.
As many of you guys know by now, our first FAST intake test was a bust. We literally spent the money and purchased 5 units just to test. Initially our idea was plain and simple: open this thing up and see what happens. That approach did not have any positive returns because for many streetcars, air velocity is better than air volume…the LS7 intake is not all that bad if you have a stock or mild cam.
We later realized that perhaps we needed to revisit the fueling approach of this set up and in doing so, we discovered that our LS7 stock injectors just didn’t quite cut the mustard; so we decided to install a set of 60lbs Siemen’s injectors. These injectors combined with the higher flow capabilities of the FAST intake proved to be the key elements of our winning combination.
As with any modding endeavor, tuning is key, and these FAST intakes are no exception.
These intakes flow more air…period! You will need to tune even if you choose to leave your stock injectors in place (not recommended). The FAST KPA readings were at 100% during all the test runs where the ported LS7 readings were best at 97% KPA. In case you didn’t know, 100% means no airflow restrictions; which is also a clear indication of our port/clean up job on these intakes…. more on that later.
Now to the good stuff, we finally got the FAST intake to work. As previously mentioned, we had 5 units for testing and ended up trashing one due to our own greediness…yeah, more/bigger is not always better! In the end, we ended up with three FAST units: Virgin FAST, Cleaned up FAST and Ported FAST.
The Virgin FAST vs. Ported LS7 was almost a dead heat; we noticed gains of 3rwhp/4rwtq after some MAF table tweaking…not too shabby.
The Ported FAST vs. the Ported LS7did not offer any gains even after tuning. We were baffled; perhaps the full porting approach is best suited for bigger motors with high compression ratios, ported out heads, FI and NOS application. The bigger dose of air ingestion may be too much for the stock LS7.
The cleaned up FAST was the winner in our test. The GM LS7 casting is pretty good compared to the FAST. Heck, we noticed that in some cases some of the runners in the FAST had different openings sizes…yeah, isn’t that crazy?
As you can see from the Dyno sheets below, the best ported LS7 produced 521.8/489.0 VS. Clean-up FAST 537.0/512.5! Look at the run conditions, but better yet, look at the power under the curve! In some areas under the curve, the FAST made over 25rwtq vs. the ported LS7. It averaged roughly 20rwtq and 16rwhp during the entire curve NOT just at peak. And believe me, you can feel it on the streets especially as speed increases. Now do you see why I would opt for the bigger injectors?
Forget about the bigger TB for now, no gains were recognized and it takes a bundle of time to tune plus the cost is insane…save your money and get the injectors!
I believe we took a scientific approach during testing. As always, we took into account coolant temps, ambient temps, air temps, DA and so on. Our FAST clean up procedure consisted of taking apart the unit, setting the base of the unit on the heads and matched each runners to the LS7 heads intake ports. YOU MUST do this in order to have clean and smooth air flow. We created a guide plate off the stock LS7 head and FAST so going forward all clean up will consistently match. We also clean matched each individual runner, which bolts to the base eliminating casting flaws and thus avoiding air turbulence.
As previously mentioned, it has been super hot here in Dallas Texas and we believe greater power will be had under better conditions. If you cared to compare apples to apples, then check this: the test mule made 540 to 540 plus during 65* to 68* air temps; with air temps in the 100* range, she was making between 518 and 522; down about 20 ponies due to heat, all else was the same.
Under the same crappy and steamy conditions, the FAST intake made almost the same power the car was making under cooler/better conditions. I am pretty confident the FAST would be about 15 to 20 rear wheel better in both the HP and TQ dept. under cooler conditions. In my opinion, our 537.9 ponies in this steamy, heated and thick air is pretty darn good. I can’t emphasize enough how hot it has been here in Dallas Texas…those who live here can attest to this. Heck man, look at the run conditions and we did around 49 pulls in three days!!!
Well there you have it folks, we took the time for testing, spent the cash to buy all these intakes and sweated many gallons of water just to find out what this new product can do and bring you real world results. It was not easy and it kicked our butts, but in the end I think our ideas, tuning and FAST cleaning approach prevailed.
Your result may vary; you may make a little less or a little more. In my book, if a car can make between 12 and 15rwhp and between 15 and 20rwtq throughout the power curve in this heat then it’s worth it. And remember, many of you can tackle this job in your driveway in 1 hour (1st timers) or less than 30 minutes for those who have swapping intakes experience.
If you are interested, we will be putting a package together and I believe we will keep it under $2K with free shipping for now…mail order tuning will be available and of course, local install and tuning will available as well. Heck, headers are about the same price and they do not give you this type of ROI right off the bat, and many of you can’t install them.
All right, we did our part now let the questions begin… Oh yeah, not all tuning secrets will be shared but we will sell them…LOL.
Many thanks go to Manny and Chris from HPP; I drove those guys nuts and their input was very valuable. Thanks to Patrick and Keith for helping me keep my head above water and for the encouragement.
Thanks,
Carlos
www.quality-motorsports.com
Corvette Store
FAST Intake,Tested & Re-Tested. Long reading!
It would seem that the price of the 60's would be offset a little by not having to purchase the adaptor kit that would be required to run the stock LS7 injectors anyway correct?
