I let the cat out of the bag in the lounge other nite before I was ready to post, still need to finish some other stuff under hood before I call it done (permant relocate fuel filter for one) but here are some pics of a project that has been on hold for a while.

Was going to do a F to S swap long time ago, Katrina put the intake under about 3' of mud & water, looked really crappy, so I had it blasted & since one of the 3 Jet Hot shops in USA is in my town I also had it creamic coated, a respectable chrome color :D . Though orange, blue, black, & terra cotta red were an option, to best of my knowledge lime green, or florescent yellow are not (sorry Canada guys).

Main reason for the ceramic coat was so aluminum would not continue to leech out corrosion/salt that might be down in the metal post Katrina, I also wash engine bay on occasion so detergent/water won't cause intake to corrode now either.

I'm hoping to also maybe see some benefit of lowered IAT with ceramic coat not allowing as much under hood heat soak/migration, removing free flowing hot EGR gasses will help there anyway.

Jet Hot does straight powder coat for less than ceramic which would have sufficed for corrosion protection, I had a few extra coins wanted to try the ceramic for grins, plus IMO looks very nice, pics don't do it justice.

This was a straight forward swap, direct replacement, new set of gaskets were all that was required, and replaced some anti-freeze, I removed the upper rad hose only for more room to work.

While there I relocated the OPS (I'll cover that in another post), I don't see how one would try to replace in factory location without pulling upper intake, IIRC on later 6.5s less room that earlier ones. Relocating OPS gets in way of fuel filter mgr, moving fiter manager to more accessable location is something I've been wanting to do anyway.

BTW Canada guys really wanting to maintian a colorful underhood paint scheme, powdercoat comes in just about any color in the rainbow, so all is not lost:D

you suck:joke: im not gonna lie.... im jealous:o:


looks very :cool2:

Very, VERY nice!

Dave

Hmm....looks good.....not 'orange' good....but good enough nonetheless....:D

Wow, I am florescent lime green with envy....;)

where is the fuel filter?

Currently it is tie wrapped off to the side just fwd of the master cylinder, I'm looking for best real estate location that will allow better gravity drain of the bowl, and give better access for filter element changes, it is in the last picture of that bunch

Tim,

On a scale of 1 to 10 how difficult would you say it is to just swap the intakes? I've looked, but not real close. Does anything have to come off other than stuff that's attached to the intake. Is it all doable with hand tools? No impact guns required?

What covers the EGR port on the head when switching to the F intake?

Thanks,
Dave

Sexy!

Very easy to swap, so easy in fact if I ever encounted a late model truck with bad OPS I think Id pull the intake rather than try and make a OPS socket work, the F intake covers the port see the pics, no hole in the intake, and gasket seals it up.

Damn! Now I'm going to have to add it to my list of mods. :)

Dave

How much does the ceramic coating cost down there? I am afraid to ask what the shop in Calgary charges for it. I was considering getting my exhaust manifolds done.

Is there not a shop in the HAT that does it cheap, i reason i say this, My friend in Brooks sent his bike parts to be powdercoated their and said it was cheaps place in alberta for coatings. I dont know the name of the place though

Upper & lower clean & coat was $150 took a week turn time to do

Turbine Doc, notice any difference in the way it runs with the new intake? Also do you think the balanced cooling is a wothwhile investment?

Very easy to swap, so easy in fact if I ever encounted a late model truck with bad OPS I think Id pull the intake rather than try and make a OPS socket work, the F intake covers the port see the pics, no hole in the intake, and gasket seals it up.

Doc, that is awesome. I've been sitting on a complete F-intake for almost 2 years now. I just thought it was going to be pretty tough. I'm encouraged by your story. How long did it take, and do you have any tips? Perhaps I'll do it finally with your encouragement!

Sincerely,

Rob :)

Turbine Doc, notice any difference in the way it runs with the new intake? Also do you think the balanced cooling is a wothwhile investment?


Sorry for late reply must have missed this in midst of dealing with Dad's cancer battle

No difference in running I can tell but I'm ICd and also ran blocked EGR to begin with.

Balance flow is a plus IMO, though no longer offered normally for the 6.5 truck, it is something Heath sells for the Hummer still, thier feeling h/o cooling kit they offer is sufficient for most, since I do put the truck thru it's paces pulling 18K I want everything possible in way of added cooling for it.

I have seen a few times you mentioned balanced cooling by Heath. What's that all about ? I'm in the market for an F myself. where did you get yours ? Did the F correct a coolant flow problem ? I'll bet edelbrock could make a fortune offering aftermarket F manifolds.

I did a lot of searching but would have never thought to try S to F.

Looks like all I will have to remove to get to the manifold is the alternator bracket.

So are the F engine heads ported for EGR and just blocked off or do they have no exhaust ports on top?

When you did yours did you notice it getting any quieter?

Pulling the manifold isn't bad, just the alt bracket, the injector line clamps and a few wire brackets. Bolts don't torque very tight either, like 35 lbs-ft IIRC

I have seen a few times you mentioned balanced cooling by Heath. What's that all about ? I'm in the market for an F myself. where did you get yours ? Did the F correct a coolant flow problem ? I'll bet edelbrock could make a fortune offering aftermarket F manifolds.

Balance flow no longer offered generally to non Hummers, you have to call Heath to see if they still have available, it takes water from rear of heads, captures it in a chambler to equalize flow for left & right side of heads at all speeds, since I tow very big I wanted every incrimental cooling improvement out there, my F intake setup came from another 6.5 er. Plug and play swap on intakes I didn't pull injector lines, nor do I recall pulling alternator bracket, but mine is a later model with alt on pass side so maybe that is the difference

Looks to me like pulling the intake is a prerequisite to replacing valve cover gaskets because of fuel lines, so the intake swap would be an optimal time to do the valve cover gaskets as well...which I need to do.

Nice looking intake setup btw, think I'll be pushing this up on my list.

Tim
would a F manifold from a 96' fit a 97' S? I ask cause I was reading somewhere that there were different head contact angles, is this true?
thanks for any input.