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Ford Mustang Intake Comparison - Spin The Throttle
With An 8,000-Rpm Small-Block On Tap, We Test Six High-Rpm EFI Intakes
By Steve Turner
Photography by Courtesy of Anderson Ford Motorsport
Rick's red coupe is an old... Rick's red coupe is an old workhorse. Since its Clean Power days when Rick ran in emissions legal trim, this car has seen a number of wild combinations and a nearly uncountable number of dyno pulls. During our latest series of high-rpm, naturally aspirated testing, the car shed its supercharged past for an 8,000-rpm D.S.S. Sportsman Renegade short-block fitted with an AFM N113 camshaft and Stage V-ported Trick Flow Twisted Wedge cylinder heads.
If you're new on the scene, you might be wondering what kind of tubing is attached to the throttle body in all our photos. Well, that's one of AFM's Naturally Aspirated Power Pipes. That's right-they're not just for blowers anymore. These large-diameter tubes are designed to place the mass air meter in the inner fender and provide an unfettered path for inlet air, which usually results in several more horsepower to the rear wheels of your Mustang.Wouldn't you like to have... Wouldn't you like to have a trunk full of intakes like this? You would if you wanted to run roughshod past the factory 6,250-rpm rev limiter all the way up to 7,750 rpm. Keep in mind that these aren't out-of-the-box intakes, however. Each intake has received Stage II port work in at least the lower intake (the boxes can't really be ported) and has had the throttle body-openings expanded to 90 mm if necessary. Such port work will set you back $425-$475 (the additional cost is for cutting and welding intakes such as the Trick Flow R). It's also worth noting all the upper-only, box-style intakes were run on the same lower-a Trick Flow R lower, which sells for $250 before porting. Edelbrock Victor
Obviously... Edelbrock Victor
Obviously Rick thought highly of the Edelbrock Victor 5.0 intake, as this is the intake with which he kicked off his combination. As such, these numbers should sound familiar. The Victor 5.0 cranked out 458.8 horses at 6,750 rpm and 391.6 lb-ft of torque at 5,750 rpm. These are certainly respectable numbers, and for $593 from AFM the Victor is in the middle of the pack from a price perspective. And, it's tough to beat the slick looks of the Air-Gap lower intake, along with the easy porting offered by the removable plenum cap. During the course of three days, Rick swapped the intake manifolds and dyno'd each with the same settings in his trusty Programmable Management System, taking great care to make each pull at the same engine temperature for consistency. As deadlines approach, Rick usually regrets agreeing to test a pile of hardware for us, but when it's over he's usually glad he did it because he learned something (and if he learned something, we can all learn something). And this test was no different. Rick had questioned whether the new generation of simple box intakes could perform as well as today's modern short-runner designs, and as it turns out, they can. Having a Fit
Rick's adage for aftermarket parts is "If it goes right on, it won't go fast." That seems appropriate for our little intake test, as he had to jockey with spacer thicknesses and bolt lengths to get many of these intakes to fit with his tall Trick Flow valve covers. We're taking the time to mention this here because most people looking to run 8,000 rpm are going to run a rocker stud girdle or shaft-mount rockers, which will mandate tall valve covers. Since these are race parts, we assume there will be some custom work to do. We just didn't want you to be surprised.
Anyway, here's how things went. The Victor 5.0 fit fine as is with a slight grind on the passenger-side valve cover for throttle-linkage clearance. The EFI Spyder went on with no clearance issues. The Reichard Billet Upper required a 1-inch and a 31/48-inch spacer, but it was the only intake to supply variable bolt lengths for just about any fitment. Surprisingly, the Trick Flow R-series needed the most help to clear Trick Flow valve covers-two 31/48-inch spacers and some grinding to clear the driver-side valve cover. The Trick Flow box only needed a 1-inch spacer, as did the Vortech Mondo Box.
Ford E-250 Research
Get updated on all your car buying needs from safety features, to specs, to crash test ratings and options. Get all the information you need if you are interested in buying a new car like the Ford E-250. Fuel efficiency is important and the 2010 E-250 has fuel economy comparable to other cars in its class, and also comes with comparable safety features. The Ford Shelby GT500 and the Ford Mustang are other vehicles that might interest you.
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