93-12Smoke

Crazy Carl, available from Diesel auto power

ofelas

I installed a Crazy Carl (user name "turbolvr") billet intake plate this morning. No where near as good fit/finish/machining integrity as any Keating piece, or even a factory cast piece for that matter. The piece has a lot of rough edges unlike a Keating or factory piece.

Setting the intake plate on a glass surface - rocked from 1-2 mm end to end - not sure how this passed quality control/frequent jig checks.

Being a sucker for shiny bits, tossed it on anyway. Torqued the bolts to 20 ft-lbs, doesn't seem to leak, but a non flat sealing plate is unacceptable in a cast piece, let alone a high dollar billet piece.

The bolt hole placement next to the intake horn closest to the valve covers was improperly located - had to grind the side of the horn a bit so the supplied socket head bolt would thread into the horn/head straight.

No copper washers supplied, and non flanged bolts...no slightly added insurance against potential steel to aluminum degradation...potential boost leaks

Lastly, the placement of the horn could have been moved forward or back by 3/16"...not possible to screw another bolt in without discarding the clamp, and cannot torque that bolt without moving the bracket for the bolt right behind it. So one of those bolts torque is a guesstimate at best.

Next - smoke, spool, boost, EGT.

No difference in smoke, no quicker spool, no boost drop indicating less restriction, and no "additional" EGT drop at WOT or idle/shutdown.

Like, how many of us install 6 individual temp probes to measure cylinder equalization resulting in closely balanced EGTs...thats up to the manufacturer to do, and have graphs/results to back up the gains.

I can safely conclude that any prior "improvements" with smoke, spool, EGT on a 12v were reported by owners with old, compromised intake plate gaskets. Not applicable in my case, as my intake & grid heater gaskets are 6 months old; I still used new gaskets though.

Definitely needs R&D and some serious quality control; actual fitment on an engine by the vendor would be a definite plus.

I will recheck torque values/hand calculated mileage claims in about a week & report back.

jimbo486

I think I can understand why the flange is forward from the location in the factory plates and in conjunction with the "tunnel," to increase the airflow to #1? But, with the "tunnel" in front and behind the inlet doing what it's said to accomplish, why can't the flange be kept in the factory position, thus, being able to use the existing holes in the intake shelf and not having to grind some material from the flange to even start a mounting bolt? Does that distance make much of a difference to the airflow? Not to mention, all of those inner holes are bored-through to the intake manifold which require a sealant on the bolt threads.

OVERTORQUED

Was seriously considering one of these also... guess I’ll have to do some more research.

ofelas

Yeah that was the easy way out to produce cheap, its a rough piece ready for customization, don'tcha know, comes complete with paper thin intake gasket & grid gaskets. I tossed that $hite & used Cummins gaskets, what a waste.

Agreed about the inlet placement, a 1/4" fore or aft tunnel extension would have kept the intake horn placement correct.

However - the inner holes won't require sealant when you think about it; they're all sealed & shrouded by the grid housing/intake horn placement anyways.

If you meant the row of bolts closest to the valve cover, yes, I used a sealant on those.

This faux "billet" intake plate looks like its been cast in a Qatari sand mold, no CNC process visible.