In this view you can see the...
In this view you can see the 75mm throttle body opening and the slight curve in the runners. Ron had originally planned to make the runners perfectly straight, but fitment around the alternator created the slight bends you see here. The runners are about 10 inches long, which is as short as Ron would go for hood clearance while still keeping them long enough to promote low-end torque. And don't worry-though the intake necessitates billet fuel rails, the complete kit will include the necessary hardware to hook them up to the factory fuel lines.
Fox Lake main man Ron Robart staked his company's name on its cylinder-head porting packages, particularly those on the original Trick Flow Street Heat heads. How did he gain insight into making these heads sing? Well, Ron once worked as a head porter at Trick Flow before it became part of Summit Racing Equipment.We have long complained that the aftermarket has taken its sweet time addressing the major hard parts necessary to take the 4.6 modular engines to the next level of performance. Yes, we are spoiled by the myriad products available for the pushrod 5.0, but we would like at least a few choices from outside the factory to push modular performance. Well, the good news is, that's beginning to change. We've seen Reichard's high-rpm, sheetmetal intake, and a flood of upper intake elbows for the stock plastic intake. Now there's a new intake that seems to work well on stock and modified 4.6s-and it's from noted head and intake porting shop, Fox Lake Power Products.
The Fox Lake P-51 intake will...
The Fox Lake P-51 intake will be available in two configurations. Just the manifold will sell for $999. This is for customers who already have aftermarket fuel rails and who don't mind a little custom work. Those who want the complete package need pay only $1,299 to get fuel rails, along with all the necessary hoses, bolts, gaskets, and so on to install the intake.
So, Ron came up with the concept of creating a cross-ram-style intake for the 4.6 Two-Valve engine. The benefits of a cross-ram arrangement are attributed to its split personality. By using tuned equal-length runners, low-end torque is promoted, and that's a plus when you have only 281 ci. Moreover, these same runners are kept relatively straight, so at high rpm those same runners create a ram effect that actually tries to overfill the cylinders. Naturally, when you're talking about a high-revving, overhead-cam motor, this high-rpm power is a plus.
You know we can't let a new...
You know we can't let a new 4.6 intake hit the market without seeing how it fares on the chassis dyno. The perfect car to see how the intake would respond on a warmed-up 4.6 was the test car from our Feb. '03 dyno marathon ("Modular Revolutions," p. 50). Owned by Rick Anderson of Anderson Ford Motorsport, this car's combination has been updated a bit since our test and has run an 11.94 at 112.77 prior to this testing. The '00 GT's current combination includes a D.S.S. short-block; AFM Stage III-ported PI heads; AFM 15h10 camshafts; an Accufab 70mm throttle body; a Dragon Performance elbow; a stock plastic intake; Bassani Mid-Length headers, X-pipe, and after-cat; 4.30 gears; and Bogart wheels with Mickey Thompson 26x10 ET streets.