Intake Question

[DGrant09]

On our 390 we have a 4 barrel intake from a 64 T Bird with a Holley 600CFM. I have wanted a Edelbrock Street Master but they're hard to get up here. Also, every time I look at the Holley I am having to tweak it for one reason or another.
This evening a Edelbrock Performer and an Eldelbrock 4105 showed up on CL for 200.00 (like new).
Would it be much of an improvement performance wise to go that route or should we stay with the setup that I received with the truck?

Thanks
Dan

[390F100]

I would go with the edelbrock...your not going to gain a ton of hp but the weight savings is huge and anything is better than the stock cast iron...just my

[DuckRyder]

Ever wonder why all the Edelbrock performers have an EO #? It is because they are all certified as a stock replacement.

It is my opinion that you will gain nothing from a performer intake except a weight savings and a marked reduction in casting quality.

As for the Carter uh Weber uh Edelbrock carburetor... We have discussed Edelbrock vs. Holley extensively it comes down to which one you like.

[Joshpow]

The intake would give you lots less weight. Otherwise, I'd say no real gains. As far as carbs, it is a personal preference thing. If you get a good Holley and tune it right, it'll not need tweaking until major temp changes. Then, you'll have to adjust the idle. I switched my 302 to an Edelbrock carb, and I regret it. I want the Street Avenger 600 CFM Holley back on it. I set it and had no problems. The Edelbrock constantly has little annoying glitches. However, you may love the Edelbrock. All the intake/carb setups are just a preference. Each person likes a little different combo. b You may have to try stuff til you find your favorite.

[swissranger]

The cast iron intake has on the other side some advantages over an aluminum intake:
It's much stronger when it comes to bolting down the screws.
It's much stiffer so the machined areas become more accurate when the intake is bolted down.
It expands the same amount when the engine becomes hot. An aluminum intake will expand about 0.02 inch more than the cast iron block by an increase of temperature from 68 F to 170 F.

Roman

[DuckRyder]

Good to see you back Roman!

Excellent points about the cast iron intake as well.

[1967AceStroker]

I'm not sure what hp you would gain from just the intake itself, but on my 352 I put an edelbrock aluminum performer 390 intake, a 600cfm holley 4 barrel, hedman headers, and dual exhaust with glasspacks on mine, and there was a very noticable increase in power. And it is a lot easier to put the aluminum intake in because its so much lighter than the cast iron.

[swissranger]

Good to be here, Robert.

Regarding the weight of the cast iron intake. I have fabricated four lowering elements which has to be installed on each edge of the manifold. With this method the heavy manifold, with a lot of sticky stuff on it, can be lowered in an acurate way. Of course it's still a hard job to put the intake on the block but it's much easier to aline it. It takes not much time to fabricate such elements and they are very helpful.

Roman

[My427stang]

I would never debate that iron is stronger than aluminum in many areas

However, I truly dont see any benefit of keeping the stock intake if its already off unless:

1 - its an iron CJ intake, which runs better than most alum intakes
2 - You are restoring the truck to stock
3 - You cant afford an alum intake

The only alum intake that had strength problems if overtorqued is the Edelbrock Streetmaster, as the second bolt back on each corner is unsupported by a good casting. Even then if you torque it properly to 25-30 lb ft, it works just dandy.

All others that have come across my bench over the years have had a reinforcing rib underneath that 2nd bolt back

The expansion rate is a valid point, but what does it affect? At most it will grow a couple of thousandths at the valve cover rail, its just not in an area where there is as much heat

Save yourself some work and add some cool points. Slap the Edelbrock on there, maybe add a 1 inch open phenolic spacer, a set of headers, and it'll run great.

I personally wouldnt put an iron intake back on unless I had a reason, thats after many years of FE work, even when they were used as fleet trucks and hot rods. Nowadays I take those back breaking lessons and apply them to fun LOL

[fomocoguy]

$200 is an outright steal for that setup, as long as they are like new as the ad says. My experiance with edelbrock carbs is that they are great. I've used quite a few, and I can usually bolt them on and run them right out of the box with either no adjustment or very minimal adjustment. They are a great all around carb. That being said, put two identical mildly built engines side by side and put a holley on one, edel on the other, and the holley will probably outrun it. On my old cutlass I switched from an almost new 600 edel to a rebuilt 600 Holley and it pulled a lot harder from 3k rpms and up. It also used a lot more gas and required more adjustment.
So, if your Holley is in great shape then you may be dissapointed with the edel, or pleasently surprised at the extra miles you can go on a tank of gas.

[DGrant09]

Thanks for the input and experience!! Reading these responses and considering what we would want to achieve with the setup we'll probably for-go and stick with what we have. Which really is not a bad setup, I actually enjoy the tweaking once and awhile (I just need to get comfortable with messing with the carb). Plus we've had the typical family run on the check book this week! Youngest (18) getting braces, next up wanting furniture and our Dodge heater failing just as the snow starts, but it's all good. Keeps me outta trouble! I just need to find more layin around $$ for the truck.. Thanks again!!

[fomocoguy]

Well, seems how you don't want it, will you post a link to the ad? I may be slightly interested....