Pro’s & Con’s Explorer Upper/Lower Intake- CLOSED!
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Terrorist 5.0
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Depends a lot on your setup.
The Cobra and the Explorer intakes are almost identical in terms of flow, the Cobra lower has slightly larger ports.
On a stock E7 5.0, a ported stock intake is better than a GT40 style intake, even with GT40 heads the Cobra intake robs a little low end power for improved mid and high end. The GT40 style is a little too much for low end, but the ported stock style retains more of it, while still vastly improving high end.
Now for your 347 of which I am not aware what heads and cam you have, it is going to need more air regardless. Your best bet is to online and look at other people’s setups to get an idea of what each combo does.
The Cobra and the Explorer intakes are almost identical in terms of flow, the Cobra lower has slightly larger ports.
On a stock E7 5.0, a ported stock intake is better than a GT40 style intake, even with GT40 heads the Cobra intake robs a little low end power for improved mid and high end. The GT40 style is a little too much for low end, but the ported stock style retains more of it, while still vastly improving high end.
Now for your 347 of which I am not aware what heads and cam you have, it is going to need more air regardless. Your best bet is to online and look at other people’s setups to get an idea of what each combo does.
ttocs
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how about a ported gt40 vs a ported stock intake? I have never heard anyone say that porting the stock intake is better unless you do some really serious porting on the stock and not on the gt40?
95opal
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I sont see the intake making much difference on your combo as it sits.
your low numbers come from your head cam choice which is small for a 347. Swapping to an afr 185 or bigger with a larger cam would be a better option. Your current cam is only good till 5600 or so. If you can design your combo to pull into the 6k range youd be able to take advantage of a larger intake. Throwing an explorer intake at your current combo is mute.
your low numbers come from your head cam choice which is small for a 347. Swapping to an afr 185 or bigger with a larger cam would be a better option. Your current cam is only good till 5600 or so. If you can design your combo to pull into the 6k range youd be able to take advantage of a larger intake. Throwing an explorer intake at your current combo is mute.
Terrorist 5.0
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This is from extensive research, hours of looking at graphs, visiting sites, forums, some decades old.
Supposedly, on a stock E7 headed 5.0, the GT40 intake is very good at providing a decent mid and high RPM boost, but flows too much air and you lose power at lower RPM’s. Not a lot, but with 2.73’s, you want all the low end you can get. A ported HO intake retains more low end, and still provides a pretty good boost in mid to high end. I believe IIRC that the GT40 intake will pass a ported HO at 4200 RPM and up.
Ported GT40 on E7 heads is equivalent to taking Quagmire’s manhood away. You are taking away all the low end torque the 5.0 is best at, and just letting it breath up top, where the heads are choking it out anyway.
I run and like the Edelbrock Performer RPM II intake manifold along with an Accufab 75mm throttle body. It's out of the box stock, but could use port work/gasket match to make a little more power. In my application, I simply add another pound of boost to compensate. LOL!
The 347 could benefit from a larger intake compared to your Cobra, HOWEVER if you are concerned about passing CA Smog, you might be better off keeping the Cobra.
Not sure how the "visual" inspection is out in CA as a different intake may cause a problem.
Ryan
The 347 could benefit from a larger intake compared to your Cobra, HOWEVER if you are concerned about passing CA Smog, you might be better off keeping the Cobra.
Not sure how the "visual" inspection is out in CA as a different intake may cause a problem.
Ryan
The circle/round runners and ports of either intake manifold will be the prohibiting factor for extracting power. How air moves, tumbles and flow through around bends in a given area is what kills delivery to the head. Tall rectangular ports with flat inner radius offer the flow to tumble around radius bends naturally, allows air to do what air does. We think the air fills the runner in its entirety, when in actuality air doesnt flow on the surfaces but more within the center of a port. Put a bend in that round port path and as air flows through, cavitation gets created....an internal theoretical restriction so to speak. If the port was rectangular/oval, had flat inner radius at the bends, air passing over could do what it does naturally....no cavitation.
Given your build, you would be much happier with an aftermarket manifold.
Given your build, you would be much happier with an aftermarket manifold.
The Explorer intake is great for GT cars that are looking for a cheap junkyard upgrade and that's it.
There's 0 benefit to swapping a Cobra intake to an Explorer intake.
There's 0 benefit to swapping a Cobra intake to an Explorer intake.
shovel
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Terrorist 5.0
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Personally I believe an Explorer lower is the tiniest bit better than the Cobra lower for stock GT’s. The slightly smaller ports may help out with that low end torque loss I was talking about earlier, although barely.
An explorer lower is much cheaper than a Cobra lower though. Something I considered for a while.
What's that got to do with the subject of this thread?
There is 0 reason to swap from a Cobra intake to an Explorer intake. There will not be enough of a difference, even on a E7 headed car, to warrant taking a Cobra intake off and putting an Explorer intake on.
There is not enough of a difference between an Explorer intake or Cobra intake to make a noticeable, real world, felt difference in power. You might be able to see a 2lb-ft difference on a dyno, but in real world, the only difference is one can be had for significantly cheaper than the other and one is subjectively better looking than the other.
OP
OP
Daryl
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Gotcha, guys. Thank you to everyone who responded. I was looking at joemomma’s upper & lower Explorer (for sake) post, but even he said the difference is negligible to zero, so I passed. Did learn a fair amount from everyone, so again, thanks to all!
THREAD CLOSED.
THREAD CLOSED.
RAU03MACH
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i will be offing off this engine once i get my 5.8 put together
there is a tubular gt40 intake lower and upper with aluminum gt 40 heads
Terrorist 5.0
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Sorry I just wanted to answer your question based on what I know, I didn’t mean to thread jack. My apologies.
Still though, an Explorer lower is cheaper and performs almost identical. Isn’t that better?
95opal
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These days youll get almost as much money for that intake alone than you will for the short block
RAU03MACH
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ya one reason to step up to the 351
iv reached the limit on the 5.0 platform
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