Just installed JLP's sheet metal intake on my built KB motor. Mods as follows:

New Ford crank with oiling mods
Billet Crower rods
CP custom pistons with ceramic barrier coating
Stage II cams by Crower to Dante's specs
Fully ported heads, titanium retainers, ported intake manifold
KB blower
JLP intake
Accufab t.b.
SCT Big Air MAF
SCT Pro Racer tuning
Bassani cat-back

Just got 1200 miles on the combo. Had a C&L intake installed with the new engine. With the swap from the C&L intake to the sheet metal JLP I picked up 1 psi of boost with the above mods. That tells me that even the C&L intake is still restrictive on a built KB motor and the factory intake is really restrictive.

Just an fyi. The install is pretty straightforward, but try as I may the blower must be removed. I actually got the C&L intake off and three of the four adaptor plate bolts off the KB with the blower in place. But I finally figured it would be impossible to install the JLP piece without removing the blower anyway. Mine has the new machined area for firewall clearance, but the firewall still hit on the rear of the plenum anyway. Slight denting with a piece of round aluminum stock and a hammer and all was well. The fit overall was nice, all the plumbing bolts up as normal. I had a slight mis-match between the EGR tube and valve but loosening the EGR valve itself at the intake allowed everything to bolt up.

For you who love to hear the blower, this intake ups the noise quite noticeably! It is a lot louder at part throttle which is cool. Add in the 1 psi of boost I gained over the C&L unit plus the fact that the intakes are on sale this month, and it was a win-win situation for me.

Jody

 

Congrats...glad you like yours. Mine is still sitting on the table waiting for me to finish the polishing on the KB. The KB had lost a little shine since ths time last year and needed a fresh polish job. Especially when I put the JLP sheetmetal intake on top. That thing looks like jewelry.

 

The main reason the JLP bigmouth is louder is because it is made of sheetmetal. It does not have the noise absorbing properties of the cast intakes. But to me , thats a good thing!

 

Jody how much boost are you now running?

 

Jody,
What did you use to seal the upper to the K/B? I tried rtv but that didn't work...tried a gasket and that failed after a few hundred miles...now I have a gasket and rtv...hoping it won't fail. I'm thinking I may have to pull it off and install it on the K/B before hand. All my installs have been after the K/B was on. Just curious as who else may have gotten leaks on this.
wjm

 

I always pulled the blower with the stock upper on. I cant imagine tring to install the JLP with the blower on the truck.

 

I do the same, but I was being lazy just to see if I could. I had the C&L off and three of the four plate bolts on the KB removed and had modded a tool for the fourth, but then looked at the shape of the JLP and realized there'd be no way to tighten up the rear bolts on it with it in place.

I used a good quality silicone and spread a thin even coat on both the blower and JLP manifold. Both surfaces on mine checked out flat and there's plenty of sealing area EXCEPT at the passenger rear corner. It's very thin between the counter-sunk hole KB uses for that bolt and the interior of the plenum, so I sealed all the way around that hole. I also ran a bead around the outside of the combo after installing and tightening the JLP unit in place. Wiped up the excess so it doesn't show. But if you get the sealer on evenly (don't use too much) you can see it just get squeezed out at the edges all the away around the mounting flange of the upper manifold.

You do need to let it set up before driving, or at least I recommend it. Seems perfect and once set up I cannot see it failing, hell you have to pry the stiff to get it separated later if you do need to remove it. Also there's no fuel or boost really up there, so I'm not sure why you would have a problem. Just watch the rear corner.

Wjm, how do you install this manifold with the blower in place? Didn't look possible to me. Take a good look at the passenger rear corner, I'd almost bet if it leaks that's where, not much surface area to seal.
Jody

 

I have seen JLP use blue rtv on his when he had to pull it off for repair...

 

Jody, Im confused. Are you saying your boost gauge went up 1 lb after the C&L intake and the metal JLP manifold?

Steve

 

No

He's saying when he went from the C&L to the sheetmetal, he picked up 1lb of boost

 

How do you measure that?

 

I'be been datalogging the truck some as I get more miles on it. I'm running the 3.5" upper pulley and a 6# lower and am making 15 psi of boost peak with this built motor. Keeping it conservative until I get the tune totally correct.

I went out yesterday and floored it through second gear and saw the same 15 psi peak on my Automoter gauge. I then swapped intakes and did the exact same second gear pull on the same road and same day/weather/temp. It now makes 16 psi of boost for a 1# increase. Since I changed nothing else it has to be the intake. There is a huge difference in inlet area between this one and the C&L unit.

 

Damn Jody, that looks good! I wish I could see it run.

Judd

 

Wouldn't the higher boost with same pulleys and conditions indicate worse not better airflow?

 

Boost will go up if you feed the inlet side of the blower more efficiently.
I've heard peaple say that the blower will pull the air through a restriction.....NOT......blowers don't suck.....they create a void or depression and then the air moves in at atmospheric pressure (14.7 lbs) and fills the void. The more bends and twists you take out of the system and the more volume you add, the better the blower will "Load the Rotors" on the intake side. And the more air you can load into the rotors the more it will pump. They are also sensitive to "direction" of flow on the inlet side.

I spent a lot of time on this with my Kenne Bell and got a ton of gains out of it but by time the boost hit the 23lb range I couldn't stop the belt slippage. One minute it would give you 23 and the next time out it would hit 18 and then when you look under the hood all you see is black belt dust on everything.
Dale