i picked up an aluminum intake (4bbl) a while back. i think it was off of an 83-85 mustang. does anyone have any info on these intakes?
If it is the one with the long oval slot next to the carb pad, that is a heat riser. Mr Gasket sells a carb spacer with an extension that will cover that and block it off. I ran one of these on my original 302 that was in my Comet, prior to the 351 swap. It really woke that near-stock engine up with a 600 cfm vac sec Holley. Other than that, the motor was de-smogged and had a recurved distributor. Minor stuff, but immediately made me aware how inadequate 4 wheel drum brakes are ... almost wrecked twice, shortly after the swap. Not enough room to stop......
I hope you didn't pay more than $50 for it. The early 80's factory aluminum 4 bbl intake is good for the very bottom end of the rpm range and little else.
thats the one. and im throwing a holley 600cfm on there too. so i should plan on discs next huh? and yeah its the waffle one. and yes i paid exactly $50 for it hahaha. im not building a race car and i find it more attractive than the performer.
It's virtually a clone of the Performer 289. Grind the Edelbrock Id off a Performer and paint it Ford blue and you'll have what looks like a stock cast iron 289 4 bbl intake.
I'm not sure where you're getting that info from.. but I've owned, ported, and tested both versions and the plenums are definately different between the two castings. Also if you look underneath them you can see the slightly larger and improved angles on the Eddy vs stock. If anything.. that stock manifold is much closer to the factory 289 4v/2v manifold(though the aluminum 4v is slightly taller) due to the back angled center ports feeding off the upper plenum in a near log style fashion. But I do fully agree that on a stock motor it would hardly be worth the trouble to find another aluminum intake since it will likely beat the performer all the way up to 2,500rpm or so and make slightly better off idle torque due to smaller runners/plenum. Even beyond that though.. the 4-6 horse difference compared to the Eddy is hardly worth losing sleep over anyways. I also have it on good authority that the factory piece will start to have flow/fuel distribution issues when used with a bigger cam and spun up.. but you can be sure that the edlebrock is not without faults there either.. and neither was really designed for that usage anyways. At that point we need to start looking at the old Shelby styles or larger RPM versions which will trade some off idle and low range torque for improved rev range. A good head port match and plenum cleanup never hurts those little manifolds though.
Well I'm not sure where you're getting your info from, but there is no loss of "off idle" or low range torque from those intakes. I've run too many of them to know that's BS.
Here we go again...... Here's my simple opinion. ITs better than a 2 barrel. Bolt it on and have fun. Get those front discs on.
lol.. no we don't.. not even worth debating that one since that's why various mfgrs offer several different models to cover the entire spectrum in the first place. and you couldn't be more right. hell.. even a 4bbl adapter bolted onto a 2bbl manifold will make more power when you're in a pinch. Not much more.. but at little at least bit.
hahaha sounds good. im just taking it all in. although i do find both or their posts very interesting.
I do admit to being an over achiever.. and I've certainly wasted my fair share of money.. and others money as well.. just to "try things". If this motor is stock to mild?.. then it(at least this particular manifold) probably wouldn't be worth the cash($150-200 smackers) to have someone do it for you. That cash would be much better spent elsewhere.. such as removing those heads horribly restrictive exhaust "smog bumps" and adding a better free flowing exhaust. If you choose to run headers on low rpm setups like this.. stay with 1.5 inch primaries with 2.5 inch collectors and stay around 2.25 for the remainder of the exhaust. Free flowing chambered mufflers should be quiet enough without snuffing out the shorter power band. The old Walker Super Turbo's are still nice mellow mufflers even by todays standards and the price is right. However.. if you have some basic mechanical apptitude, time to study and learn some basics, an air compressor, a cheapy die grinder and aluminum burr to whittle it out yourself?.. the gains are much cheaper and worthwhile for the required half days work(only takes a "pro" about 1.5 hrs to do it). Especially if you add another carbide burr to also get rid of the exhaust ports restrictions as mentioned above. Doing both of those things yourself would give you power gains everywhere in the power band(off-idle to full rev) and also improve mileage while you're at it. At the very least.. I would have the heads milled about .020 - .030 thousandths to improve upon the poor'ish compression ratio over stock. If you were to add all those little mod's up?.. you can EASILY gain 20HP peak on even a stock cammed motor with more power and throttle response(fun factor) everywhere. Even more gains to be had if you decide to RV cam/rev it up a bit higher later on. Plus.. knowing "what's in it" when you juice a Honda at the light will make you feel proud of your accomplishment that much moreso than usual. lol As you can see.. it's easy to get carried away. Which means it's usually best to pick the weakest points and improve on them first. Which in the case of an early(and even late) small block Ford.. means you need to be looking at the exhaust flow next. Good luck with it all.
Apparently you've never tried a Holley 500 cfm 2 bbl then. Now that is "bolt on and have fun" without having to swap the intake.
