[Jason@JacFab]

I ordered an LGX intake manifold on Tuesday, and it showed up today. I really like some of it, but overall, it looks like there is a ton of room for improvement...

If the LGX responds to increased intake manifold airflow & velocity like the LFX did, if this thing is worked over right, I bet it could pick up a ton of power everywhere!

Pics below... I will update later with LGX stock, vs LFX stock, vs LFX ported airflow comparison... I will probably start playing with the LGX intake manifold tomorrow to see what kind of gains I can get out of it on the flow bench.

The funny thing is, even thought the LGX intake seems physically bigger, and more complex, it's quite a bit cheaper than the LFX intakes, so if I see some good results, I can probably just sell these modified stock intakes outright at a decent price, and not have to worry about a core charge like I do with the LFX intakes to make them affordable...

[GTIanZ28]

Very cool. Crazy how they just build these things out of plastic now.

How exactly do you modify them? How much power is typically gained? What kind of ballpark we talking for cost?

Also curious about the type of license plate bracket you will design this time around. Think a tow hook license plate bracket might work? Be nice to have one that is easily removable.

[JantzenOKC]

Very interesting.

[Jason@JacFab]

Originally Posted by GTIanZ28

Very cool. Crazy how they just build these things out of plastic now.

How exactly do you modify them? How much power is typically gained?

Also curious about the type of license plate bracket you will design this time around. Think a tow hook license plate bracket might work? Be nice to have one that is easily removable.

The v6 intake has been made of a composite material starting with the LFX in 2012, the LLT engine from 10-11 was aluminum. The v8s have had composite intakes for far longer.

I'll modify by removing reachable obstructions, match the inlet to the throttle body bore, remove sharp edges and overhangs from the short turn radius on the runner, and fill whatever I can to reduce turbulence and increase velocity.

Typically on the LFX intakes I see about a 20% flow increase as tested through the intake itself on my flowbench. Out of the box, the LGX intake flows 10% better than a stock LFX intake, but about 10% worse than one of my modified LFX intakes. However, it appears that the potential for more is available out of a modified LGX intake manifold.

Below is a dyno graph from testing the LFX modified intake manifold with one of my intake spacers on a bone stock 2014 LFX Automatic that I had.


Blue line stock
Red line, added the intake spacer only
Maroon line, modified intake manifold and intake spacer.
No other modifications were made to the car.

[Jason@JacFab]

Well today concludes experiment #1, I've reworked the throttle body inlet area, and filled the floor of the intake. Compared to yesterdays stock LGX test on the flow bench, today it's flowing 13% better and I have not touched the bottom yet. I'm going to try a couple variations with the fill to see if something may work better before I start in on the bottom.

I also called and ordered another stock LGX intake manifold, hopefully it shows up with no problems like the last one did. It will be handy to have a completely stock LGX intake to compare to the modified one on a daily basis. It also took me 4 LFX intakes to get to the "final product", so extras will be handy.

[Goblue1313]

This is great to see someone jumping in to start looking at possible upgrades. Keep up the good work. Looking forward to seeing what you can find to help unlock the V6's potential.

[fradaj]

What do you figure these are? Vortex generators?

[MikosV6]

Can we see a side by side shot of the LGX and LFX intakes together?

If what you say is true about LGX intake not working on the LFX engine, that sucks since it seems to flow 10% better stock according to your flow bench with even more gains possible when modified.

[Jason@JacFab]

Originally Posted by fradaj

What do you figure these are? Vortex generators?

They transfer the hurricane to the tornado dispenser...

Honestly, I don't know. I assume they act as silencers to reduce noise. The LFX intake has one also, but not two. I remove it on all LFX intakes and do not see any ill effects from that.

Originally Posted by MikosV6

Can we see a side by side shot of the LGX and LFX intakes together?

If what you say is true about LGX intake not working on the LFX engine, that sucks since it seems to flow 10% better stock according to your flow bench with even more gains possible when modified.

I ordered a second stock LGX intake late last week, I will take some pictures of the stock LGX intake and stock LFX intake side when the new one shows up.

I may have been wrong about the theory the LGX has potential for more, it's already pretty good but I'm having a hard time getting it to flow much better than the ported LFX intake manifold I've been selling for years. Right now, the LGX port work is only about 2% better than the LFX ported. Unless I stumble across something really earth shattering, I'm not expecting it to be much more than about around 5% better than the LFX...

The next thing you need to realize is that the flow bench testing I do can only be used to verify what's better, and what modifications increase airflow, and for work verification as to consistency that the intakes I do are all done about the same. I am only flowing the intake manifold by itself, so in reality, by the time you figure you strap on the intake system, throttle body, and put it to a head, the 20% gain I mention flowing the intake alone may only be something like 5% (this is theoretical number) when you figure in everything else if I were to flow the whole intake system through the intake ports in a head. Don't get hung up on huge numbers.

[fradaj]

Quote:

They transfer the hurricane to the tornado dispenser...

Honestly, I don't know. I assume they act as silencers to reduce noise. The LFX intake has one also, but not two. I remove it on all LFX intakes and do not see any ill effects from that.




The more I look at it I think they may work to increase the Venturi effect on the air coming into the intake. Could be for noise but I doubt it.

[Jason@JacFab]

Originally Posted by fradaj

Quote:

They transfer the hurricane to the tornado dispenser...

Honestly, I don't know. I assume they act as silencers to reduce noise. The LFX intake has one also, but not two. I remove it on all LFX intakes and do not see any ill effects from that.




The more I look at it I think they may work to increase the Venturi effect on the air coming into the intake. Could be for noise but I doubt it.

You could be right, but won't know until it's dyno tested. I removed them both and saw a significant airflow increase. Like I said, I remove the one on the LFX also and see no ill effects.

As requested, pictures below of comparison to LFX intake and LGX intake (I also threw in the Colorado, and 12-13 Impala LFX intake for kicks so you can see how different these intakes can be)

First 3 pictures shown Colorado and 14+ Impala LFX intake, 12-13 Impala LFX intake (and other FWD), Camaro LFX intake, and 2016 Camaro (and possibly ATS? I think the 16 ATS is supposed to get the LGX next year as well?) LGX intake.

3rd picture, Colorado intake is shown with the aluminum lower intake piece attached, the impala, and camaro intake do not show this. The LGX intake does not have a lower intake piece like the other intakes did, it is one piece.

4th pic, Camaro LFX intake left, 16 LGX intake, right... NOTE the new LGX intake is held on by 8 bolts to the engine while the 12-15 Camaro LFX intake is held on by 6 bolts.

5th Pic, Camaro LFX intake shown w/ lower intake piece attached left, 16 LGX intake shown right... NOTE the LFX bottom is FLAT, while the new LGX bottom is on an angle.

6th & 7th pic. LGX angled bottom shown up close, followed by LFX flat botom shown up clost... This is the biggest problem you will come across trying to adapt the LGX intake to the LFX... The adapter will be expensive, and it's probably not worth the time/money to try to adapt the LGX intake to the LFX engine because of this.

8th pic shows the mouths of the intakes. LGX shown left, double "silencer", LFX right, single "silencer" (I always remove this from the LFX intakes I modify)
NOTE, the LGX intake throttle body opening is smaller than the LFX intake. Is it APPX. 2mm smaller.

I'll be trying "take 2" of the ported LGX intake tomorrow vs the stock intake... Following that, I will move onto phase 3 of modifying the LGX intake and try it again...

Also, I have an LGX intake tube on the way, and stock airfilter. Unfortunately I was not able to purchase the complete air box assembly as it is not available at this time for either the v6, or the v8 car. The throttle body for both was also not available.

[fradaj]

How exactly are you testing for airflow?

[Jason@JacFab]

Superflow flow bench. I mention most of the testing method in the last block of text in post #9

Flowing through the intake manifold only to verify changes, but like I said, in the scope of things these big numbers I talk about would become not so big number wise when you throw in the air box, tube, throttle body, cylinder head etc.

[MikosV6]

Wow, they ARE quite a bit different. It looks like they eliminated the metal intake spacer. Thanks for posting the pics.