Intake Manifold Replacement and ???

I recently bought a second vehicle (1984 K10 Chevy) and can take some time to address a leaking intake manifold that has been leaving oil spots all over in my garage The car has 120K miles and I bought it with 75K two years ago.  I don't know of anything that the previous owner did to the engine outside of general maintenance.  

I was conservative with the mods I have done to this point due to the riv being my DD.  What would you guys suggest I do while I have everything tore apart, either mod related or general maintenance?  I was reading the thread about porting and polishing the supercharger last night and that may be something I do while I have it off.  I thought about putting in rockers while I have it apart since the back side is somewhat difficult to get to and I will have everything ripped apart.  

I really have all winter to get the car back together now that I have a second vehicle.  When I start looking at stuff on this site I just get information overload.  (Great job of building a really informative forum) Just looking for thoughts and expertise...

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

you have to state a performance objective. The stuff you would do to make a more reliable daily driver are not the same as the things you would do to minimize 0-60 or 0-100 times.

I don't take the car to the strip or competitively race it nor do I plan to. I do enjoy stoplight to stoplight acceleration though.

I guess my performance objectives are all acceleration and boost related. I also plan to install a CAI and the colder plugs. At some point in the future I may also put in the larger downpipe and smaller SC pulley.

I wasn't really sure if there was anything directly around the intake that I should be doing while I have it off. I replaced the valve cover gaskets about 8 months ago and if I had known the intake was also leaking I would have replaced it at that time since I already had a lot of the "stuff" off the top of the engine.

Some people remove the "muffler" in the air box and say it improves air flow (I kinda doubt that).  

Larger downpipe and smaller pulley won't actually do much of anything unless you return, or have a shop retune, the PCM (engine computer).

You could replace the SC coupler with a better one, if not done already, as preventive maintenance.  If your coupler is not already rattling or chuckling at idle (sounds kind of like a bad bearing but unlike a bad bearing the noise goes away when you rev the engine) this may already have been done.  There are couplers for sale (like this one) that make the maintenance a once-and-done job.

You can have the injectors cleaned and flow-matched.

You may or may not want a hotter cam and stiffer valve springs.

You may want to switch to synthetic oil if you've not done so already.

Check the oil pan and oil pressure sender, while you are at it, for leakage.

kmorris wrote:

I recently bought a second vehicle (1984 K10 Chevy) and can take some time to address a leaking intake manifold that has been leaving oil spots all over in my garage The car has 120K miles and I bought it with 75K two years ago.  I don't know of anything that the previous owner did to the engine outside of general maintenance.  

I was conservative with the mods I have done to this point due to the riv being my DD.  What would you guys suggest I do while I have everything tore apart, either mod related or general maintenance?  I was reading the thread about porting and polishing the supercharger last night and that may be something I do while I have it off.  I thought about putting in rockers while I have it apart since the back side is somewhat difficult to get to and I will have everything ripped apart.  

I really have all winter to get the car back together now that I have a second vehicle.  When I start looking at stuff on this site I just get information overload.  (Great job of building a really informative forum) Just looking for thoughts and expertise...

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Jui_T41PRZo

I used this guys YouTube videos to port my supercharger outlet. I kinda regret not doing the inlet as well to put the north star throttle body. The 1.9 rockers would have been nice while the supercharger is off. I did intake manifold gasket to felpro upgrade

Modding a car can be a lot of fun, especially on boosted engines, and it isn't risky if done thoughtfully and not taken too far.

The process of modifying for performance does not in itself promote wear or compromise durability, unless you exceed the operating limits of the internal parts. Our engines have relatively high operating limits. It's accessing the increased power and torque (putting your foot into it) that can shorten the life of the engine. If you access maximum power at every chance, something will break eventually, but if you just goose it now and then, the engine may actually last longer, because performance parts are often (but not always) stronger than OEM versions.

i.e. If you correctly mod the engine for ~300 HP, but drive it normally every day, the engine will likely outlast the car. In my case, I began modding at 30k miles, first rebuild at 246k, and now running fine at 279k with no troubles to speak of.

The biggest drawback to modding, imo, is NVH. If is very difficult to retain the smooth, quiet OEM drive quality when you swap parts. This is the reason that, other than a set of stainless headers, my exhaust is entirely OEM from cat back.

Welcome, and happy modding!