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The Mysterious Rick Crawford...

20K views 59 replies 27 participants last post by  zepcom 
#1 ·
basically all i can find about whoever this is, is that a bunch of people swear by him but no one ever says what he does and i've even seen where someone had an intake ported and THEN Sent it to him too... so, who is this guy and what is he doing?
 
#4 ·
He's like Santa Claus you just have to believe in him...

Nah I met him for the first time last week, but have spoken with him before and seen his work numerous times. He is a genius at what he does. Why don't you just PM him on the board? Or talk to the numerous happy customers.

And what he does is up to what you can afford and what you want.
 
#7 ·
I will be having V8Muscle.net tune my car when i do either an LS9 or LS7 cam swap.
 
#10 ·
lol hence why i made this thread. someone posted his username on here in one of the posts above.
 
#12 ·
Rick Crawford:

Built my car from the ground up. I live less than an hour from him. One of the most knowledgeable mechanical folks I have EVER met! He builds Blackhawk Helicopters by day and performance cars by night. He is most likley the best LSx motor builder this side of the Mississippi. Not only does he do motors, but he can build trannies, suspension, exhaust, electronics, tuning, body work...I have yet to find something he cant tackle.

He can be reached at LS-4-Speed@nc.rr.com or G8-4-Speed on the boards. he is in the Hope Mills/ Fayetteville area of NC

I laughed like a mofo at the title of this thread....
 
#14 ·
I am only mysterious because if I make it out of my shop its like a BigFoot sighting. Try a google search with my name and throw intake in with it....
 
#23 ·
i tried that and found a bunch of people who said they had one of your intakes... no one was specific about what that meant tho. i just assumed you were modifying parts from the space shuttle program to fit the LS3 based on how people were praising you. I'm not far from you in Greenville, SC
 
#15 ·
He's the G8 Whisperer.
 
#17 ·
Word. :driving:
 
#16 ·
SOME SAY....He is covered in aluminum shavings and epoxy, and quotes cam specs in his sleep.

All we know is he is the LS Guru.
 
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#24 ·
Maybe this helps... Here is an exert from Rick from the following thread:

http://www.g8board.com/forums/showthread.php?t=66163

Its best to have all your mods ready and have it tuned once. Gears, stalls, TB, intakes, ect...

There was two episode of intakes for me. First was porting, tried everything and got nothing. It would flow the same as stock no matter what. 20+ hours in a intake and nothing other than hurting port velocity from making all the runners bigger. Gave up....

Time comes and I get another request for intake work and decide not to give another reponse of "nothing is there....". Over my earlier frustration, it is back to work....This time I got an idea. With flowing heads on a flow bench, you always use a radius plate on the port to make sure you get clean air running thru the head. Flow numbers are terrible without it. This gave me the idea of trying a radiused mold on the knife edge of the port entry in the plenum. POOF! like magic it started flowing better without touching the port. Next problem was coming up with something that's practical, cost effective, and could be installed in the plenum without worrying about it coming un-glued, loose, or have the chance of making its way into the motor. Molds and epoxy were out, couldn't be trusted long-term. Especially with all the oil that gets in to the intake. Looking around the shop I found some tubing and decided to try it, gave the same results. Tried several different sizes, even got a few special cnc's wood dowels from Jeremy, until settling on what I am using now. Finally got an intake that shows promise but will it deliver? Anyone who knows me can tell you it wasn't going to the dyno, it was going the track. If it doesn't go faster, then a better dyno number means nothing....With my car I only installed the bars. No cleanup, no pillars removed, nothing.....just the bars installed. Before the intake, it was running 11.80's-70's @116 with my 2800 stall and 285/40-18 drag radials. Now with a 2600 stall and 285/40-18 BFG KDW street tires. Made two separate trip to the track over two months and 11.70's-60's both time @118-119. On a side note, when just porting the intakes, I had the car as slow as 12.0's @114-115 when I tried to radius the knife edge in the plenum. It really hurt the flow numbers... Tested, worked, now to try and get good results beyond my car......

Virus would be the first, his went 11.90 @116+ at @+1200DA with tires I call "hockey pucks"....also his heads and intake is the first data put on the board to show the flow difference but collectively not separately. He was very helpful with all is support since my data and feedback looks bias....

Jeremy, Brent, Dave, and few other shortly followed and it has been gaining momentum ever since. Jeremy did a back to back dyno pull with good results as was the rest of his combination. Brent finally made it to the track as well as Dave. Brent put the stall stall N/A bar pretty high for such a mild cam running 12.0's at 117 during GONE. Dave had nice gains over his previous 1/4 runs and put tail lights on a G8 sporting the new 250cc PRC heads. John set a PB with 11.67 @119+ just bolting on the intake and running at the track, then went to NewEra for a tune update and settled at 18hp gain. Now with a good Possy on my side it is just a matter of staying on top of everything that comes along with it. Emails, tunes, and the work. All keeps me very busy since this is just a side venture to my other two jobs....

End result: Simple, effective, practical, cost effective, and similar price to other "ported" intakes. Next .....getting separation from the "typical" ported intake circle.:bs: Again, not ported, MODIFIED... But people generally look for a "ported" intake just like they do with heads which means want something that flows better for more power. Problem is nothing "ported" with this manifold really generates much of anything. I have seen some cut out the pillars but you can't measure any gains on a flow bench. It doesn't show anything. The math shows more volume but there is already enough so it is speculation to what it is worth. Plus port flow is still the same so it would be combination sensitive and gains would be minimum to none. Who wants to buy a "maybe"? I have put a ton of work in follow-up, tuning, and advice with all my initial intake buyers and with their help the intake speaks for itself. It isn't just a "ported intake", it is a AirRam with the potential to be faster........

Not here to sell you a ported intake, I don't have any.......
 
#25 ·
If you can make the IRS Eastcoast Shootout V in Darlington SC in Febuary he'll be there.
 
#27 ·
no offense to him at all since i don't know him or his reputation outside of the intake manifold but these guys a proven, seen too many cars leave reputable shops with horrible tunes get fixed by them. also seen them set records with bolton cars...
 
#28 ·
no offense to him at all since i don't know him or his reputation outside of the intake manifold but these guys a proven, seen too many cars leave reputable shops with horrible tunes get fixed by them. also seen them set records with bolton cars...
Kinda like Troys car with Rick's tune and work? He's setting records. There are quite a few members on here with tunes from Rick. I have never heard of the company you are using for your tune, doesn't mean they aren't good, just means I've never heard of them. I'm not kissing Rick's ass or any of that nonsense as I don't have any work done from him... being as he only works on LS engines, but I was going to have a bunch of work done from him for my G8 before I sold it.

Only you can decide what's right for you, but it's kinda odd you were asking about it but don't consider him for any tuning work or things like that. I have personally been in several cars he's tuned and they are far better than any other that I've been in , including my VMS tuned car.

Best of luck with your mods and car, let us know either way what you do and how fast you go!
 
#29 ·
Roadcone, can you clarify your statement? I can't seem to make sense of it. Maybe I'm too tired....
 
#30 ·
I'm driving up there one day to get him to work on mine!
 
#31 ·
I've know who rick is for a few hours now. I've know my local guys for years. Whil e I'm guessing rick does excellent work I refuse to just believe a bunch of user names when I have seen dozens of cars from my local guys. I'm actually waiting on rick to send me a quote for his intake mod because I see people having real gains with it while all other ported intakes are hit or miss at best. It also helps that I shoot their cars for them and it onlytakes me 20 minutestoget to them from where I live. Again, I mean no disrespect to rick. Just prefer to use my local guys
 
#32 ·
There is definitely comfort in going with someone local so I see you point. What other work are you thinking about having done on your G8?

Since your in SC you should come to the East coast shoot out in darlington on feb 23. It's going to be a blast and you can get some good runs in. Plus you can meet some of the the guys behind the "usernames"...


Rick and at least 3 cars built by him will be there. Plus the big dogs that run 9s in the G8s...


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#34 ·
Darlington sounds good but I am not running my car....too chicken to break something....we will let you represent NC Troy......plus you owe me a coke and a smile for the lug nut cap.......lol

Sent from my Inspire using Autoguide.com
 
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