From there, a version was created in wood to test fit on the engine. Ron says that first version was fairly close. He was actually able to hook up all the hoses, sensors, and even the throttle cable to the wood model. It turned out the only significant change was to angle the front of the manifold down a bit to clear the hood. Once the minor corrections were programmed into the CAD software, a real prototype was cut from a solid chunk of billet aluminum. This is the unit Ron has been testing, and the one he brought for us to run on the AFM dyno. The real P-51 versions you can buy will, of course, be cast aluminum. Ron's predicting they'll take flight by mid-March.
| On the Dyno |
| Baseline | P-51 Intake |
| RPM | Power | Torque | Power | Torque |
| 2,500 | 117.0 | 245.9 | 113.9 | 239.3 |
| 2,750 | 122.6 | 234.1 | 121.9 | 232.9 |
| 3,000 | 139.7 | 244.5 | 134.4 | 235.2 |
| 3,250 | 168.0 | 271.5 | 156.1 | 252.3 |
| 3,500 | 191.8 | 287.7 | 190.7 | 286.1 |
| 3,750 | 224.8 | 314.8 | 219.0 | 306.7 |
| 4,000 | 249.1 | 327.0 | 242.4 | 318.3 |
| 4,250 | 262.8 | 324.8 | 264.0 | 326.2 |
| 4,500 | 279.3 | 325.9 | 275.0 | 320.9 |
| 4,750 | 295.0 | 326.2 | 286.1 | 316.3 |
| 5,000 | 304.6 | 319.9 | 301.6 | 316.8 |
| 5,250 | 310.8 | 311.0 | 314.0 | 314.1 |
| 5,500 | 316.7 | 302.4 | 322.5 | 307.9 |
| 5,750 | 320.0 | 292.3 | 324.0 | 296.0 |
| 6,000 | 321.4 | 281.3 | 326.3 | 285.7 |
| 6,250 | 318.4 | 267.6 | 327.9 | 275.5 |
| 6,500 | 313.0 | 252.9 | 327.0 | 264.2 |
| 6,750 | 300.8 | 234.1 | 315.9 | 245.8 |
| 7,000 | 294.5 | 221.0 | 309.0 | 231.8 |
Ron Robart of Fox Lake made...
Ron Robart of Fox Lake made the trip to Clinton, Illinois, to bolt the prototype P-51 intake on Rick's '00 test car. Swapping 4.6 intakes is fairly easy, and the only real trick to installing the P-51 is the placement of the Idle Air Control motor. It's under the intake, so getting the hose onto it can be a little tight. Otherwise, this intake bolts right on. Rick reported the car ran a bit warmer with the P-51, and that was attributed to the smallish -6 AN coolant fittings on the prototype. The production part will accept 51/48-inch hose, which should keep things plenty cool.
Our baseline combination includes all the parts mentioned in the captions, but it's important to note that Rick Anderson says the Dragon Performance intake elbow was good for 9 hp and 5 lb-ft of torque over the stock elbow on this combo. Both the baseline and P-51 pulls were run at exactly 196 degrees of engine temperature to maintain consistency. As you can see, the P-51 did give up a little power and torque down low, but it definitely pulled harder from the midrange to the top of the tach. That's fairly impressive on a car modified to the level of the AFM test car. When Fox Lake did its own testing on a bone-stock 4.6, it was said to pick up power and torque peaks by 17 hp and 21 lb-ft, respectively. Better yet, it improved power across the board on the stocker.