Long Runner or Short Runner?

[95mustanggt]

Assume that I will have a pair of TFS heads. Which intake should I look at:

1. TFS Street Heat
2. TFS Track Heat

I kind of want to stay with one Manufacturer for everything. I think you just get more performance that way. Plus the TFS intakes seam to be price reasonable. around $500 for the 95 5.0L

I have 3.73's and may put a blower on the car in the future. Which is best?

[fastang]

The Street and Track heat are both long runner intakes. You want a long runner anyway. The TFS intake is defintitely the best bang for the buck manifold. It also looks the best in my opinion. Good luck Cam.

[95mustanggt]

Which intake is best? I assume that even an idle-5500 RPM intake is going to be higher than the stock intake. Is 1500-6500 too much for the TFS heads?

[FoxBuilder]

Actually the Track Heat is 1" shorter in runner length than the Street intake. I take my TFS Twisted Wedge heads to about 7500 RPM and they haven't disappointed me yet. Runner length really depends on at what RPM you planning on making your peak torque and does your camshaft match the same criteria. This is only crucial on an N/A application. On a forced induction you really don't have to worry about induction wave tuning. If I was in your shoes I would buy the TFS Track Heat and a 1" TFS heat spacer, this way you can bounce between both intakes just by adding or removing the spacer.

Just an idea
Randy

[jimberg]

You want the street heat intake. Why get something that works in an RPM range that you cannot reach because of your rev limiter?

[LOWKEY]

With a stock cam the street heat intake would be a better combo. But using a 1" spacer on the track heat intake is a good idea if you plan to turn up the rpm down the road. It really depends on what you plan on doing in the future. With your current combo you would be happier with the street intake. If you had a blower and or a good cam the track heat would be better. Just remember, stock bottom ends don't like 6500rpm not to mention the cpu cuts you off at 6250rpm.

[95mustanggt]

Thanks guys. I don't plan on keeping the stock cam. I plan on using either a comp cam or (most likely) a TFS cam recommended for the heads and intake.

I may go with a blower in the future, but I think I go with the Street Heat intake to begin with. Since the lowers are the same I cam always buy the Track Heat Upper in the future.

[fastang]

Fox builder, I know that the Track heat has shorter runners than the Street heat, but I believe its still considered a long runner intake. A short runner would be a TFSR, or one of the box uppers right?

My Holley is a 1500-6500 intake. Why would you want an intake to make power a idle? My car idles at about grand anway. I dont need the power WAAY down there. I would much rather have an intake that flows much better up top since 2nd 3rd and 4th are all ran up top from 3800-6grand.

The only time I can see needing power near idle is if your launching on street tires and dont want to bring the revs up. But then your worried about spinning anyway and really dont need power at idle.

[FoxBuilder]

fastang, you are 100% correct most of the time they are considered long runner intakes. It's just me, but I don't like to break intakes down into two major groups (long runner or short runner). When I tune an intake system I could care less of what catigory it falls into, I want to know the exact intake runner length, head intake runner length and camshaft intake timing.

The only real reason you would need torgue at an off idle RPM is if you are involved in road racing or you just like to street race. In a drag car you shouldn't be at idle even when the lights are coming down. If someone lowers there launch RPM because of spinning they either have suspension issues or they need to consider getting slicks.

As the rev limiter goes it all depends on how the car is set up. A buddy's car we put together has a 306 with TFS Track Heat intake w/ 1" spacer, TFS TW heads, TFS Stage 1 cam, stock ECU, 4.30 gears and 28 inch slicks. The car goes through the traps at 6200rpm. This year we are going to remove the spacer and install the TFS Stage 2 cam, but we will have to extend the rev limit.

95mustanggt, you might want to check with some companys to see if they offer selling the upper and lower intake seperatly. If I'm thinking right I ran into an issue on that.

[95mustanggt]

I believe that TFS sells the upper and lower serparately. Atleast the Summit Catelog I'm uses to set up a budget sells the Track Heat upper separately. I assume that the 94/95 TB adapter can be re-used or used in both appplications.

You guys make good arguements for both intakes. Right now the car is a daily driver (my ONLY daily driver), however that is going to change here in the next few months and it should be a "fun" only car. But, I still want to cruise around, and not keep it as a "track only" car.

[red82gt]

I think that there would be less of a difference between the two intakes if you used a blower, they both have the same cross section size and since the air is being forced in the extra 3" of runner length aren't going to amount to too much power lost if your keeping the revs to about 6000. If you wanted to build a block that could rev to say 7000, the track heat would run away.

The biggest difference would be the better performance of the street heat when your not under boost (below 3000 rpms) and when the boost is less than 3 psi.

Personally, if I had an SN95 mustang, I'd get the street heat for the extra torque.

[fastang]

Originally posted by red82gt
If you wanted to build a block that could rev to say 7000, the track heat would run away.


Personally, if I had an SN95 mustang, I'd get the street heat for the extra torque.

Gearing can make up for the little extra torque at launch. After the launch its all 3800-6grand. Wouldnt the track heat perform better at those rpms? Even if you never go past six grand at least you know your motor will breathe up there and not lean out on you if you miss a shift or something horrible happens.

If the Track heat is done making decent air at 6500 it probably makes the best airflow numbers at 5700-6100 and starts going down hill after that. But I could be wrong about that. I dont know for sure.

[red82gt]

If he goes with a blower the air is forced through so the peak airflow #'s will be higher than in a naturally aspirated engine so there won't be much of a difference in power below 6000 rpms. Go look at almost all of the dyno tests and you'll see that the short runner intakes in a N/A motor make less power until 5300+ rpms and then creep past afterwards. Add a blower and that # gets even higher.
When I'm talking about power out of boost, I'm talking street driving, accelerating onto a freeway, passing on a two lane highway, you know, stuff that doesn't start with dumping the clutch at 6000, in these situations the street heat is going to be a much better choice.

[red82gt]

Originally posted by fastang

Even if you never go past six grand at least you know your motor will breathe up there and not lean out on you if you miss a shift or something horrible happens.

Your motor will go lean from not enough Fuel and too much Air, not the other way around so it would go rich at too high of rpm.

[fastang]

Yeah, with a blower the intake selection isnt as important as NA. I agree. Fuggit Cam, get whatever you want.

[95mustanggt]

Thanks guys. I think the street heat will do fine. How does this sound:

TFS Heads
TFS Street Heat Intake
TFS Stage 1 Cam
70mm TB
30# Injectors
190 lph Fuel pump
Adjustable FPR
75mm MAF
MSD Ignition
Shorty Headers (maybe Long tubes)

That ought to be good for near 350HP, eh?

[jonnyk]

I cast a vote for the Track Heat intake. It will really open the topend up above 5500 revs...a good match for the blower. That combo looks like it would be right around 350 hp...

[Green9550]

I'm not sure but you might want to use 24# injectors. 30's sound a little much for that combo. But as I said, I'm not sure. Hope this helps.

-Billy

[AJSTANG]

This topic is the subject of an article in the April issue of 5.0 Mustang and Superfords. They tested several intakes on the dyno at AFM. The intakes were divided into three categories and tested on a blower car. The street intakes were Edelbrock performer, Cobra and Trick flow Street. Edelbrock had the highest peak numbers , but the trick flow street intake had the best avg torque and HP numbers.

The street /strip intakes tested were Edelbrock rpm, Holley systemax II and TFS track Heat. The edelbrock intake had the best peak and avg. HP and torque numbers. This is sure to cause some controversy.

[AJSTANG]

This topic is the subject of an article in the April issue of 5.0 Mustang and Superfords. They tested several intakes on the dyno at AFM. The intakes were divided into three categories and tested on a blower car. The street intakes were Edelbrock performer, Cobra and Trick flow Street. Edelbrock had the highest peak numbers , but the trick flow street intake had the best avg torque and HP numbers.

The street /strip intakes tested were Edelbrock rpm, Holley systemax II and TFS track Heat. The edelbrock intake had the best peak and avg. HP and torque numbers. This is sure to cause some controversy.