Lovely, like you said, let'* get the ball rollin'....

I love the word "cheap".

Just for reference for those that don't know or aren't sure, long runners are good for low end torque and horsepower. Short runners are good for high-end torque and horsepower.

Thanks I didn't know that.

I want the short runners....

One thing you do not want to do is remove the plastic runners from the UIM completely. This has been tried by a few GPGTers at the track with negative results.
ZZP'* HVII (http://www.easyperformance.com/ article in tech info) replaces the runners in the UIM with a smoothed bellmouthed transition.
This jump down in take runner length has been found to be way too sort to see 1/4 mile gains on a realtively stock car. (no cam or rockers)
They don't produce this anymore though so you would need to find a second hand piece.
The plastic intake runners could be cut a few different ways to shorten the runner length. The hard part would be keeping everything together in there since they are joined at the top.
And theres always swapping over an F-body upper/lower intake combo for the shorter runner length. Thats is lot of work and I have yet to see any gains from it.

I'm looking at a couple ways of modifying the OEM UIM to allow a shorter runner length and perhaps even selectable, semi-automatic, or fully automatic. (L36).

So my old UIM is going to be a test subject?

If I can talk Bob Dillon into letting me keep it.
Or send him another core.

when you say that the longer runners make more low end power does that mean you lose a lot up top or is it ok at the top

Yes, you will loose some up top hp but how much is hard to determine.

Gojo, it'* generally a trade-off. Either you focus on low end, or focus on high end. It'd be nice to have the best of both worlds, but realistically an engine will always be optimized for a certain range in the powerband.