Hello again, In a recent thread, I posted about 10 million pictures of my mystery intake, and most everyone seemed to think its an Edelbrock Performer. My question then becomes, how is this intake viewed by the Buick community? I mean, I would assume its better than stock, but is it a strong runner? Or should I consider getting my hands on an SP-1 pretty soon? Or a poston? I am a new guy to Buicks, so I was just wondering if I could get some general opinions about what different intakes are out there, and what the general consensus is about them. For reference, my motor is a 72 455, currently in mostly stock trim (besides intake and carb). Hopefully soon though, it will get the 68 big port 430 heads from my old 455, and possibly its cam too (dont know what brand cam, or any specs, its a hydraulic flat tappet, with some decent lope to it, but idled relatively sanely, and managed to pull enough vacuum to work power brakes without a hitch). I currently am running a 600 cfm edelbrock, but eventually, I have a quadrajet I will probably swap on (its in need a rebuild BAD!). So would the performer be suitable for my needs, and even if it is, just for curiositys sake, what is the general feeling about the other intakes out there for BBBs? THANKS!
Corey, The Performer doesn't seem to perform much better than the stock one. But if you look at the Car Craft Build build-up, you can still crank out a lot of HP and TQ with that intake (with the right heads). It weighs a lot less than the stocker, and that's pretty important when you have to remove it while it's still in the engine bay. That alone is worth the cost as far as I'm concerned. You'll have to check your hood clearance if you want to run the SP-1. Since you've already got the Performer manifold, I'd still use if for now. Might want to talk to some of the head porters in the Buick community, if you want to port the heads for more performance in the future, you might as well stick to the 455 heads. Supposedly there is more meat in the right places to do this with the 455 heads. The 430 oils the through the head, and not the pushrods, so some adjustments will have to be made. 600 CFM ou: It's no match for a well set-up 800 Quadrajet. The carb rebuilder is going to have to know your final engine combination before he can set-up your carb correctly. Your future camshaft selection may or may not impact how your carburetor performs.
