Chinese intake port alignment

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LXguy

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Well, doing some comparo between the Pro Products Chinese intake and the Edelbrock Magnum intake. I'm running Edelbrock Magnum aluminum heads.

Of course the Eddy intake comes with all the bypass and everything set up for late model stuff, which does me no good, so I thought I'd try the Chinese deal since it has bolt patterns for old-timey and Magnum.


I don't agree that this intake is a ripoff of the Edelbrock Air-Gap. Yes, it is an air gap style intake, but there are significant differences. The size of the runners on the Pro intake are noticeably smaller than the Edelbrock, for one thing.

Port alignment on the Pro leaves a lot to be desired, however.

I laid the Edelbrock intake gaskets on it(these gaskets are AWESOME for port fit, btw), torqued the intake down, and etched the visible gasket edges so I could be sure to get the intake re-oriented to the gasket as it was when I had it on the motor.

Like, I said, the ports on the gaskets lined up with the heads perfectly. Here's the results on the intake.

This is the passenger side, but driver's side is much the same.

IMG_0515.jpg


IMG_0516.jpg


Pretty sad really. The part that you can't see here is how poorly the divider between the ports lines up. Also not obvious is that a couple of the port openings are different sizes.

I could open it up with a grinder I suppose, but then the ports that are the most visibly misaligned would actually be bigger than the ones that line up semi-correctly.

I'd say anyone using this intake out-of-the-box is probably giving up some noticeable horsepower.

Steve
 
... and I always get called a liar when I say they are different...lol. As with most things, you get what you pay for. For guys running the Crosswind... if you think it's working well, make the switch and you'll see what you're missing.
 
Vic Edelbrock proved this same point on a program i watched awhile back,i hope all you guys that claim your chinese "junk" is as good as the real thing take a good look,when you want the good stuff it cost more fact of life!!!
 
Vic Edelbrock proved this same point on a program i watched awhile back,i hope all you guys that claim your chinese "junk" is as good as the real thing take a good look,when you want the good stuff it cost more fact of life!!!


Yep. That's why I ordered my Magnum Air Gap yesterday. No chinese intake adorning the top of my engine!
 
My solution is going to be to have my heads drilled for the LA intakes and get an LA style Air Gap. It sucks that Edelbrock set up the thermostat/bypass arrangement for the Magnum version the way they did. Oh well.

Anybody want a Pro Products intake? It's cheap! Only been torqued down once!

:)
 
Well, it is aluminum. Should be worth the equal of a whole bunch of beer/soda cans at the recycler! LOL

Anybody want a Pro Products intake? It's cheap! Only been torqued down once!

:)
 
FWIW, I have a CrossWind and when i laid the gaskets over the intake they were not off any more than the Weiand Xcelerator I had lying around. Certainly not like the pictures in the thread. I have heard enough horror stories about every intake manufacturer to be firmly convinced they all produce a turd from time to time.

My motivation for going with the CrossWind in the first place was the dual mounting. I wanted to go with magnum heads but was concerned that the 10.6:1 compression those heads would yield wouldn't work on 93 octane. I wanted the option of swapping the open chamber heads that came on my 360 back on.

I would have gone with the Edelbrock if it had dual patterns. It actually kind of pisses me off that Edelbrock would design the Air Gap with only one pattern when the magnum engines had been out for quite a few years before the Air Gap arrived on the seen.
 

I've had both and can tell you first hand that my engine seems to run better with the Edelbrock intake on there. The professional products intake also must be made out of a different aluminum as it made a whole bunch of noise when the engine was shut off which it does not do now.

The reason why they only make the edelbrock in one pattern is for compatibility with OEM belt drive systems. Notice how the magnum intake from edelbrock allows you to use even the A/C from a magnum engine. They really don't think people are using them in an application with an LA front cover. I also think that the dual bolt pattern looks cheezy. You could easily modify the edelbrock air gap for magnums into a dual magnum/la intake. It runs nice and is an extremely nice piece. I am very pleased with it.

100_0799.jpg
 
Seems like a lot of stuff does not fit and I am all ways moding it to work. Bolt on my butt. I try to stay away from the chinese junk but now adays it is hard to do. It seems like every thing says "made in china" on it. I wonder why there are no job's here?
 
well I will tell you what, IF you guys want, when I get the motor finished and to the strip I will run it with the crosswind and with the RPM if I can find one for a good price and put this to a END. But of course this isnt for a while
 
Well said, as a matter of pricipal I go to some lenghts to make sure there is no Chinese anything on the duster. I dont care HOW good it is supposed to be. It gets more difficult every year it seems.

-LY
 
Dave, I know you have one, and you make a very good point on the mountings. I was trying to cut, I just believe that there is decent power to be found by replacing it some day. My customer had to jet up 3 jet sizes to get it right after swapping, and the car gained accross the board with it.
 
I had purchased a street harmonic balancer from this place that sells the intakes. Professional Products. I had it on the car for 2-years & less than 500 miles. the outer ring detached from the hub. I emailed them & just stated that I knew it was out of warranty. I just wanted inform them that I didn't want anything & I was dissapointed in their product. Well I got a reply from them , stating that I should have purchased their race balancer. The balancer that I bought was rated at 6500rpm. Well, I shift the car @ 6200rpm. My engine isn't something thats radical. I informed him that I had stock balancers that had a longer life & that maybe he should change the RPM rating on his imported balancer. he then replied that although it was out of warranty, that he would email an RGA form to return it. I did return it. After 3-weeks, I have not heard anything & they won't return my emails. If it had been left up to me, I would have just throwed it in the scrap pile & saved the money I spent on freight. I guess my reason for this RANT & stealing this thread is to warn everyone. I tried to save a buck & it bit me in the ***. New balancer $300.00 + old balancer $79.00 + return frt. $15.00, means I should have bought a quaility part to begin with.
 
Mike, It's not the first time I've heard of the ring moving on Pro Products. i have used those balancers on mopars and non mopar for going on 5 years now... so far, no failures. Unfortunately, up north the cars dont get much milage and typically if you do have a problem, you're out of warranty anyway. It's BS that they offered the rga and have not sent it tho. I've never bought direct from them.
 
Seems like a lot of stuff does not fit and I am all ways moding it to work. Bolt on my butt. I try to stay away from the chinese junk but now adays it is hard to do. It seems like every thing says "made in china" on it. I wonder why there are no job's here?

It's called greed. Investors want high return on thier dollar,so company execs cut costs by moving to China.

Those same executives forget that the worlds largest consumer market got it's spending money from good paying jobs that are now gone.

Sorry for the rant!

Personally avoid all Chinese crap when possible. It's hard to do as our market is flooded with it.
 
The guys that built that thing are total badasses.

I love how they used the Crane kit to convert to stud mount rockers. You know, the one that's not for competition use. LOL!

Steve

With all the money in that motor..just 477 h.p.....big deal!!!
 
Looks like theres a lot of time in it. Don't know about a lot of money.

Chinese intake, stock block, stock crank, stock heads, flat tappet solid cam . Chevy rods, probably a custom piston setup. Probably a seriously cheap motor for Engine Masters.

Don't forget the rules either:

"With a 10.5:1 compression ratio limit, 91-octane pump gas, and a mandatory flat-tappet cam"

1.5 hp per cube NA on pump gas is pretty darn impressive, especially from an iron headed motor that most consider a boat anchor.
 
After reading that article, I'm not impressed at all. Never mind the intake, it's far from any engine you'll want to run. Low tension rings (by bending std ones??), an oil pump that does not exist, oil drainback over the cam stopped, a 340 crank with $600 worth of work into it, $600 pistons, a water pump setup that nobody makes (and losing the parasitic effect of it)... No wonder it made decent numbers.
 
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