Clearance above LS engine?

M

Mark B.

Supporter

• Sep 26, 2013

• #1

Hi everyone,
Still a long wait for my car, so I'm working on the engine. I'm trying to see what kind of intake I want to go with on an LS engine I'm putting together. I know a stock style manifold fits but trying to see how much taller I can go.

Does anyone happen to know what the clearance between the deck of chevy LS engine and the roof line is? Obviously it slants down quite a bit so I'm trying to find out what the clearance at the front of the deck and the back of the deck is.

Thanks much!

-Mark

 

B

Les

• Sep 26, 2013

• #2

Dear Mark:

There are probably a lot of variables. Are you putting a supercharger/turbocharger/bundle-of-snakes exhaust atop the engine? Does the engine have a wet sump or a dry sump? All of those and more will affect the clearance between the engine and roof line.

 

Dave Lindemann

Lifetime Supporter

• Sep 27, 2013

• #3

Les -

I think Mark is asking for the clearance between the LS deck and the rear clip. Unless the engine mounts are changed this should be a pretty consistent measurement. He can then figure out what will fit.

Regards,
Dave L

 

S

Ricardo Montalvo

• Sep 27, 2013

• #4

The problem with giving the clearance # is the slope and curves of the rear glass change the # depending on where you are measuring. I went through this with my intake, air box, and filter selection.

Alex probably has the best records with all of the intakes he tried on his car during his build. Hopefully he will see this thread and chime in.

 

C

Cam

• Sep 27, 2013

• #5

With the race tail you start out with alot of room around 1ft. That slopes down to around 2" at the flipped TB. Then you have to allow for a 4" intake. Tight, 0" at the turn. I think the street tail adds a few inches?

 

Attachments

• 
  rear window.JPG

  139.8 KB · Views: 298

M

Mark B.

Supporter

• Sep 27, 2013

• #6

Thanks very much, guys. Cam, thanks for the numbers -- that's what I was afraid of, that slope just kills the clearance.

Oh well, that's why they call it the planning phase, right?

 

M

Jack

• Sep 27, 2013

• #7

There is a bit more room in the street tail. A couple of inches at the rear.
What were you planning Mark?

 

M

Mark B.

Supporter

• Sep 27, 2013

• #8

I did order the street tail so that's good news. I'm hoping to shoehorn in a holley Hi-Ram. Unfortunately, with the standard plenum, it's 12" tall off the valley right at the area of the least clearance in the SLC. I'm thinking about fabricating a different plenum since they just bolt to the base runners -- possibly a side-mount throttle body.

I definitely don't want to touch the bodywork or window, but I'm comfortable with metal fabrication.

I'm going over to Fran's shop next week so hoping to get some additional measurements to see if I'm even living in some realm of reality Absolutely nothing wrong with a stock GM manifold, but I love the looks of the hi-ram and it loves high rpms.

 

Ken Roberts

Supporter

• Sep 27, 2013

• #9

There is absolutely no way a Holley Hi-Ram will fit (under the stock unmodified window). Even with a modified upper plenum.

The LS3 throttle body mounted to a LS3 manifold fits comfortably with not much extra room. The slope back of the window at its lowest point (at the throttle body location) is the problem.

 

Last edited: Sep 28, 2013

T

TSR

• Sep 28, 2013

• #10

I'm still exploring Engine build options does any one know how much higher the truck manifold sits vs the factory LS3 manifold? Doing research I've found several references giving more power with the truck manifold. Can this option be realistically pursued with the SLC with a street tail?

 

Last edited: Sep 28, 2013

M

Mark B.

Supporter

• Sep 28, 2013

• #11

Ken, thanks for the pic. That helps quite a bit. Not a lot of room to play around with towards the back!

 

B

Les

• Sep 28, 2013

• #12

dlindemann said:

Les -

I think Mark is asking for the clearance between the LS deck and the rear clip. Unless the engine mounts are changed this should be a pretty consistent measurement. He can then figure out what will fit.

Regards,
Dave L

Click to expand...

Ah! Sorry about that.

Les

 

Fran Hall RCR

GT40s Sponsor

• Sep 28, 2013

• #13

As Ken has mentioned their will not be room for high rise or even low rise manifold for that matter. The best intake is the factory intake and they do perform very well, GM spent a lot of time , effort and money to create a component that gives everything from clean and stable idle through to some tyre destroying torque and horsepower...all supplied as a stock part on a crate engine

 

B

Stephen Taylor

• Nov 7, 2013

• #14

It would look really neat with an Inglese ITB setup back there, but it doesn't look like there would be room.

 

Fran Hall RCR

GT40s Sponsor

• Nov 7, 2013

• #15

Crossover ITB will work well though.....