Smallblock intake manifold shootout.

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I read an article quite some time ago that suggested the LD340 was second only to the Air Gap.(not by much) Sorry I can't remember where I saw it, anyway this was the #1 choice for street/strip.
 
The older designs are just that. Old. The LD340 is a decent part, but it's an aluminum version of the '71 Thermoquad intake. A good part, but limited for top end power, and heavy as heck. The RPM is taller, and not factory looking, but it goes a LONG way to be better than anything previously released for a street or street/strip performance engine. They did thier homework and it shows. It's good enough to feed 4" arm engines too. That's saying a lot. The small block SD was an ok manifold for it's day. That day's past. Conversely, for a B wedge, it's one of the best all around intakes you can get. Everything is different. The Victor is designed for larger inch engines and is sized for them. Making it soggy for street stuff with 3.31 stroke. The 6bbl is a dual plane, but it is very restrictive. In fact, the 6bbl setup was 35hp lower than an RPM and 950 Holley on a 416 I built when dyno'd.
 
Ryan from Shady Dell told me I would not see any gains going from an LD340 to a new Eddie RPM intake. I wanted to buy the new Eddie RPM intake from him port match and he told me to just stick with the LD340 that I already had.
 
stroked 340 said:
This coming from a guy that was running a MOPAR in a CHEVY:angry7::angry7:!!!
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did. sold. for stupid money too. I love MoPar guys. a MoPar guy bought it.
anyways just becouse the LD is old... dosn't mean it dosn't perform. otherwise we'd all be driving Vipers. on a stock engine.. the LD has the edge.
Ryan... ah yes forgot about him. I guess whatever he says is golden lol.
cheers
 
Mopar muscle, done this comparison, and always suggest rpm airgap, for a cammed up, build, to most that inquire. And read, many times, suggesting the Inquirer to throw their holley intakes in the trash can? Curious about these Airgaps, I decided to replace the 72 spreadbore Thermoquad, setup, with an rpm airgap and new 780 st. avenger carb. What a huge difference, better low end torque, and top end. only downside- warmup time:-D just my .028)
 
Now let's really muddle things up and go for new age: EFI
On the same engines what will give the best overall performance?
 
Best overall? A Single plane. As long as the distrubution is equal in all cylinders, a carb or EFI will perform great. FI has the abilty to overcome certain things a carb hs trouble with. Even more so with a single plane involved.
 
Everyone's got the right to thier opinion. What's right for an individual application is up to the owner and builder. If someone built a race engine and stuck the same intakes on it, the results would be much different. I ran stock intakes for years with great results (that '71 iron with a Thermoquad) on my 318 and 340s. But the performance of my engines has gotten better with using these modern parts. I have two of those Thermoquad intakes left on a shelf. Until I build a stock displacement mild smallblock, they'll sit there holdign the plywood down because better ones exist.
 
i remember the article your talking about, and srduster340 is right the airgap won the shootout. but i'm sorry i don't still have it.
 
stroked 340 said:
That intake they show in the article is'nt an the "air-gap" it's just a rpm,and it still beat the others..:toothy10::toothy10:
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Good eye! I missed that....I was kinda rushing through this earlier before I went to work.
 
LS-300 said:
Now let's really muddle things up and go for new age: EFI
On the same engines what will give the best overall performance?
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port injection and 8 1-bbl throttle bodies.. now that ladies and gents... is the ULTIMATE N/A engine show stopper. combine that with a 1 coil/cylinder setup, and its gonna be one hellava ride.
cheers
 
A couple of years ago, I saw a manifold test in a magazine (Car Craft, I think) in which they tested several manifolds on a dyno mule (360, moderate hop-up) and the manifold that made the most horsepower was an M-1 single-plane, but it only beat the Eddy Air Gap by ONE horsepower, and gave away a bunch of mid-range torque in the bargain. Not a very good deal..
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That is the kind of information I was looking for.

I was thinking about using the Airgap on the 340 to help out in the TQ department and the single plane weiand on the 360.
 
360Z28 said:
can't get much better then a T-Ram
cheers
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tunel021.jpg


tr016.jpg


Tunnelrams rock for sure! just as much torque down low as the airgap but alot meaner when the motors screaming at 7000rpms, and the sound when slamming 8barrels open is just :love7: :-D

but it may be alitle depending on the total combo your not gonna put a tunnelram with 2 750 doublepumpers on a 7.5:1 compresion 318 with a small cam and a stockconverter and think its gona scream, cause it wont
 
lead69 said:
Wow,in my internet searching I see lots of scanned articles but I guess its no suprise considering the corprate world we live in.
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I've raced just about all the intakes your all talking about. First it's a little unfair to compare intakes in this way. Nothing works like a good combo. Just what combo is best takes a lot of testing and tuning. Some intakes may work better with a particular cam and heads, while others not at all. Yes duel and open plenums are different in the torque ranges, but so too are intake configurations. Manufactures want you to buy their products, so they all say they make the best. The magazine findings help a little, but like so many on her have said, "it's all about the bucks". Best way is to go out to the track and talk to some of the people that do this all day during the test and tune times at the track. They're a wealth of knowledge. Good luck.
 
I,m building a 408 stroker with the Eddy RPM heads.I wanted to see which intake flowed better with the Eddy heads.So we tried the Air-gap,not bad.Then tried an old single plane Pro/Street intake I had laying around that I bought really,really cheap!The old intake outflowed the Air-gap by an impressive margine.Not sure if the 3,s are cc,s?,but it was 63 airgap,69 with the Pro/Street.I,m using the old one!:toothy10:
 
Intakes do different things to different combos, we know this.
If you have high flowing heads with an average dual plane, it's usually corked, and just from the un corking with a single plane that allows more air to the heads, can make more torque than the dual plane, and a load more of hp.

You can do a lot with a lil if you compensate=g stock 71 340 with their iron thermo intake cars for instance.
But we're not driving around g $tock drag car$

combo combo combo!

and what was their 1 combo they tested these on?

you don't know how it would run with a diff cam, or bigger headers, heads etc.

but I guess it's good as guide line?
 
Myron (Locomotion) is a very consistant racer and has won in his class several times as Champion.

HIS combo, he'll tell ya works best with what he has for HIS APPLICATION and it very well may not work for you in what your doing.

Just because a intake does well on this test doesn't mean it'll do well for what you ned it to do. But, if you follow the piped pipers song, don't blame the dancin rats.
 
stroked 340 said:
First off you should'nt be comparing any single plane intake to the air gap its a dual-plane..Secondly i don't really read much into what magazines say,they're trying to sell their product..as for me i run the Air Gap on my stroker and 360 it flat out works i've got time slips to prove it,and thats all that counts..:-D
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Have you seen or ever run something like this? its for a 440....... I just bought it and I dont know why!

!BeMekcg!mk~$(KGrHqEH-DcEri!ZYB0oBK8PNrFc-w~~_35.jpg
 
fishy68 said:
I hope somebody does come up with a link to the article. I'd love to see it. I saw an article in a Chevy high perf. mag. recently that tested a bunch of manifolds and the Air-gap pretty much crushed the opponents. They did the test with 2 different cams too. A mild street cam and a pretty aggressive roller. Even with the big cam the Air-gap did better than any other manifold below 5500 rpm. Only a few made more power above that and even then the diff. wasn't much.
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I saw that too - Good article (pity Mopar Muscle don't do the same)

I couldn't believe how strong the AG was even with the big cam against the tested SP intakes.
 
rumblefish360 said:
Myron (Locomotion) is a very consistant racer and has won in his class several times as Champion.

HIS combo, he'll tell ya works best with what he has for HIS APPLICATION and it very well may not work for you in what your doing.

Just because a intake does well on this test doesn't mean it'll do well for what you ned it to do. But, if you follow the piped pipers song, don't blame the dancin rats.
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To me, Rob, that statement makes the most sense. I've got a combo sitting here - granted it was built a while ago - which came out of dodgepower's Duster and is now in Pop's and my Dip. According to a lot of people here, and in the mags, this combo should never run on the street like it does.
The Duster certainly had no problems blowing off a lot big blocks, from a standing start or just being able to put your foot in it at 65mph in heavy traffic.
No, never got it to the track, Pop's not interested in drag racing, just being able to put his foot in it and going, whenever he needs to. And if that means taking it to the top end in a mile of highway then so be it. Nope, never got it on a dyno. Back when Pop built it, dyno's were few and far between.
Every response should come with an asterick (*). Your results may vary. And should be taken that way by the reader. Advice asked for and advice given is a great thing, don't get me wrong, and I'm trying not inflame a situation or step on anyone's toes, but use it as a baseline and go from there.
Same way with the mag articles. Personally, I love the mag articles which talk about "professional" results in your backyard when it comes to paint work...but I digress...

Oh, by the way, just for the sake of the original question on the thread, I like the intake sitting on the 360 now: Offy 360* single plane. Old school, maybe, and I'm sure there will be those on here who will respond that it's junk compared to something else, but it works. Too bad it's not set up for putting A/C back into the Dip...
 
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