More intake questions

[MaineShark]

Seems like a popular topic, lately.

I'm at a bit of a dillemma.

I really like the Edelbrock AIr-Gap intakes.

And, with my new hood, I can easily fit either the Performer Air-Gap, or the Performer RPM Air-Gap.

I've heard very good things about the RPM, and I'd like to go with that, but it's only available in squarebore, so I'd have to use an adapter plate.

Well, the adapter plate (Edelbrock part #2693) partially shrouds the sides of the secondaries. There is a pic available here. The plate also acts as a 3/4" spacer, and moves the carb 5/16" to the rear (supposed to improve fuel distribution, according to Edelbrock).

So, what do you guys think? Stick with the regular Performer Air-Gap intake, or use the Performer RPM Air-Gap and adapter plate?

Alternatively, does anyone know if it is possible to modify the squarebore intake, essentially building that sort of tapered neck into it, but not as sharply angled?

Thanks,
Joe

 

[clar2001]

I would use the performer so u could directly (with a plemium heat spacer) bolt on your spreadbore carb. would u sacarfise performance with the spacer you were thinking about.
I know the performer is good from Idle to 5500 rpm exelent off idle response.
The rpm I don't have experence with .

The air intake sounds great should help with cooling and looks cool too.........................

 

[MaineShark]

Back to the top.

 

[1979toy]

Your camshaft selection and the intended uses of your engine should be the driving factors on which intake you use. Since you have enough hood clearance I would use the RPM Air-Gap if it were me. I'm not a big fan of adapters though so the fact that the Q-jet style is not available in the RPM would drive me to the Performer with an open spacer to atempt to mimick the larger plemium of the RPM style manifold.
A better question might be; why are you still married to the Quadrajet? With a Holley or Demon you can buy jets and gaskets locally and there are people out there that understand how to make the carb. work, unlike the wait 10 days for metering rods and not have anybody local that you can get help from. I will admit that your gas mileage will drop with the Holley.

 

[Robin7TFour]

joe, i just read an article in Popular Hot Rodding ,they had nothing but good to say about the performer manifold. i am installing the regular perf manifold right now. i am expecting to vastly improve the drivability over the single plane manifold i have now.
btw, i will have an edelbrock Streetmaster manifold for sale very soon

robin

 

[Copdogcorvettes]

I have the Performer on my 400SB with The Q-Jet. It works great. Unless you have some really reason for the RPM air gap, I'd just stay with a Performer, but that's just me.

 

[MaineShark]

I'm not a big fan of adapters though so the fact that the Q-jet style is not available in the RPM would drive me to the Performer with an open spacer to atempt to mimick the larger plemium of the RPM style manifold.

I asked Edelbrock about that very thing, and they said that it really wouldn't help, because the runner design is different, as well.

A better question might be; why are you still married to the Quadrajet? With a Holley or Demon you can buy jets and gaskets locally and there are people out there that understand how to make the carb. work, unlike the wait 10 days for metering rods and not have anybody local that you can get help from. I will admit that your gas mileage will drop with the Holley.

I'm going to be converting to EFI at some point, so I'd rather not invest in a brand new carb. I'm actually hoping that I can teach myself to work on the Q-Jet. There really isn't much help locally, for any carb, so I'd be no worse off with the Q-Jet than a Demon or Holley.

Plus, at $1.80/gallon for regular unleaded ($1.96 for super) locally, I don't think that a gas mileage drop is a small thing...

Joe

 

[bossvette]

If planning on EFI, why wait and do the labor of an intake change twice. Intakes are one of the most common swap meet parts (or Ebay)that short of stripped threads not much can go wrong with so if you are looking for a short term fix try used parts and save for the EFI you will be glad you did.

 

[MaineShark]

If planning on EFI, why wait and do the labor of an intake change twice. Intakes are one of the most common swap meet parts (or Ebay)that short of stripped threads not much can go wrong with so if you are looking for a short term fix try used parts and save for the EFI you will be glad you did.

I'm not really planning on TPI (airflow problems) or even typical aftermarket EFI. I'm planning on machining a regular carb intake to accept injectors, and installing a throttle body in place of the carb. I'm looking at a fairly custom setup, but I'm still working on the details (and I have a lot of other things to finish, first).

Joe

 

[bossvette]

Unless you are a machinist and can weld and machine the injector locations yourself the total cost may be more then the setups already made by Edelbrock and Holley. As for flow for a street application there are aftermarket large tube runners or take a SLP runner and modify it to raise the torque peak. with a good set of heads these mods allow it to pull strong to 5500

 

[MaineShark]

I've done custom EFI before There are a variety of injector-mounting systems available. MSD actually has a pretty good selection, including screw- or weld-in pockets, as well as end mills to directly modify the intake.

The TPI certainly is a slick-looking setup, but I'm planning on a large-displacement small-block (427 or 454), so there's no way that even a high-flow TPI setup is going to let the engine breathe...

Joe

 

[bossvette]

I wanted the looks of TPI and kept my engine "small" at 383 and built it for torque there are still more ponys to be had and someday I will take it to a dyno shop for fine tuning. but for now it is a blast to drive.
that will be a sleeper have you seen Kinslers web site
http://www.kinsler.com/
neet stuff there
Craig sr