Porting the Edelbrocks...Heads and Lower Intake

Topic: Porting the Edelbrocks...Heads and Lower Intake (Read 10726 times) previous topic - next topic

Porting the Edelbrocks...Heads and Lower Intake

Reply #15 – December 10, 2012, 10:14:15 PM

At least in my car the Edelbrocks make good torque all over the power band, much better than the GT40Ps they replaced. I don't see why your engine won't make good torque with the right cam and those heads.

BTW how do you like the Edelbrock intake? I'm thinking about picking up a Edelbrock Performer and having the lower ported to replace my GT40.

Porting the Edelbrocks...Heads and Lower Intake

Reply #16 – December 11, 2012, 03:49:06 PM

This car has the Edelbrock Performer RPM II upper and lower intakes and unless you are running good heads and additional displacement over a 302 then I would stick with the Performer RPM intake or a Cobra unit that has been ported. I lost some bottom end with the RPM II on the 306 but it gained on the top end. I bought it knowing I would eventually move up in displacement.

Darren

Porting the Edelbrocks...Heads and Lower Intake

Reply #17 – December 12, 2012, 09:46:39 AM

Quote from: Aerocoupe;404370

This car has the Edelbrock Performer RPM II upper and lower intakes and unless you are running good heads and additional displacement over a 302 then I would stick with the Performer RPM intake or a Cobra unit that has been ported. I lost some bottom end with the RPM II on the 306 but it gained on the top end. I bought it knowing I would eventually move up in displacement.

Darren

I was thinking of this intake, the Performer 5.0: http://www.summitracing.com/parts/edl-3821/overview/

It turns out that after doing a little research it flows about the same out of the box as a GT40. So I either buy the Edelbrock and have it ported or just get a GT40 lower ported. I think I'll just get another GT40 lower ported as they are easy to find cheap.

Porting the Edelbrocks...Heads and Lower Intake

Reply #18 – December 12, 2012, 10:56:56 PM

If you have a GT40 lower ported may I suggest a person to do it? He did my old Cobra lower and it made a huge difference and was only $100 plus shipping.

Darren

Porting the Edelbrocks...Heads and Lower Intake

Reply #19 – December 12, 2012, 11:12:25 PM

Tmoss? That's who I was planning on using.

Porting the Edelbrocks...Heads and Lower Intake

Reply #20 – December 12, 2012, 11:38:55 PM

He is the man I was going to refer you to. Did a fantastic job on the one I had on the car before this Edelbrock.

Darren

Porting the Edelbrocks...Heads and Lower Intake

Reply #21 – December 21, 2012, 11:24:07 PM

Well, I finally figured out that the ATI balancer I bought used was the right one. It was sooo much longer from the face where the crank pulley mounts to the end of the hub where the crank is inserted than my Motorsport balancer. I finally figured out that the Motorsport balancer needs a 0.95" long spacer between the face where the crank pulley mounts and the crank pulley. I bought one for cheap and sure enough now they were the same overall length. Took me a week but now there are no reservations about installing the ATI.

With that down I decided to port the headers. Port the headers you say? I do. The area I am talking about is where the head meets the primaries. These are BBK equal length shorties that I bought years ago due to the cheapo MAC's that I got in another deal were just the pits trying to get them to seal up against the heads. Anyhow, BBK welded these on the inside to make room for the header bolts and when they did this they must have not had much of a welding procedure or welding inspection because I would have fired a welder off the pipeline for shiznit like this. Here are some pictures of what I started with and what I ended up with:

Here is the side by side comparison, I had one header completely ported and the other is as is from BBK

Here is the one ported by itself

Its kind hard to see what I am talking about in the first two pictures so I zoomed in and just concentrated the pictures on one port.

Here is the unported picture

Here is the ported picture

You can see that there was a pretty good obstruction in each one and the bigger deal is you want a laminar flow in the exhaust to get it out as quick as you can. Intake ports you want rough so they promote mixing of the air and fuel. Anyhow, gonna get to work on the other header in the morning and then get them bolted up. From there its the starter, all the front accessories, and then the flywheel, clutch assembly, and bell housing.

Darren

Porting the Edelbrocks...Heads and Lower Intake

Reply #22 – December 21, 2012, 11:31:20 PM

Very nice

Yea never buy Mac ...... Total

Porting the Edelbrocks...Heads and Lower Intake

Reply #23 – December 22, 2012, 08:58:34 AM

Eh, my cat back on my T-Bird is MAC and I really like the quality of the fit and the sound of the lers. I had MAC long tubes on it and had no issues with them at all but I have heard others having problems. I think they are kind of hit and miss. I read up on the BBK's before I started to cut the welds down and others have had some issues with the py welds and sent theirs back to where they bought them and the second set they received were much better. I probably would have done the same thing when I bought these but the motor was a 306 with ported DOZZ heads so it was not making a ton of power and it was my daily driver so I needed it on the road and quickly. Anyhow, about to make my way into the garage and finish the other header.

Darren

Porting the Edelbrocks...Heads and Lower Intake

Reply #24 – December 22, 2012, 11:12:46 AM

Nice work Darren, are those older BBKs or something that's pretty new?
Reason I ask is because I'm going to order some 1515's soon and was idly wondering if the welds on them might be like yours before your "surgery".
It wouldn't matter anyway, I won't be at the power level you're at, but I might just send my intake to TMoss, and I'm going to go with a TFS1 cam.

Anyway, the porting of the headers is something that anyone should think about if they're putting together a really well done engine. Thanks for the tips and pics

Porting the Edelbrocks...Heads and Lower Intake

Reply #25 – December 22, 2012, 11:21:43 AM

Well I got out in the garage this morning and it hit me...wonder what the collector ID on the header is. Measured them both and right at 2-1/8" on ID. Searched around on the net and mostly the Corral and found that this is nothing new and that JBA is about the only one with a true or close to 2.5" ID. I took a black Sharpie and ran a 1/8" thick line around the opening of the collector where the X-Pipe slides on and proceeded to open them up. I was a bit leery of 2.5" as I wanted to make good and sure these things sealed back up right. Nothing worse than an exhaust leak....tick, tick, tick...annoying as all hell. Anyhow, got the one on the header that is already ported at the head side done and figured I would post up some pictures.

Stock BBK collector opening (you can see the black Sharpie outline):

After I marked the lip with a Sharpie and used a 4" grinder to knock the lip off of it. You can see the wide, flat edge that is shiny:

And the finished product measuring 2-3/8" ID. Not that it will gain me 15 hp or anything but I just could not leave it alone:

Here they are side by side so you can really see the difference:

Darren

Porting the Edelbrocks...Heads and Lower Intake

Reply #26 – December 22, 2012, 11:29:46 AM

I bought these headers over 8 years ago and they are the equal lengths so the part number is a 1512. Not that the equal lengths really make a hp wise it was just my uneducated self buying the hype. If I were to do it again I would just get the unequal length units (1515's) and be done with it other than cleaning up the welds and opening up the collectors.

I would strongly suggest that anyone do this to any power level motor. Back in the day a full 2.5" exhaust on a stock 5.0 Mustang was worth quite a bit. The exhaust side on these motors is so restricted that every bit helps. Plus its kinda fun.

Darren

Porting the Edelbrocks...Heads and Lower Intake

Reply #27 – December 23, 2012, 01:53:53 AM

A little more progress, headers are on and got the lower intake installed this evening. Should have it dressed out tomorrow and ready to go back in the car...finally.

Header shot:

Lower intake studs installed:

Lower intake installed:

Valve cover studs installed:

Did not install the valve covers yet. Had to use some solvent to clean the inside of them up and washed them down with some carb cleaner. Will polish them before they are installed tomorrow, it will be the only time I do it unless they come back off for some reason later down the road...hopefully not.

Darren

Porting the Edelbrocks...Heads and Lower Intake

Reply #28 – December 23, 2012, 02:15:33 AM

Love some motor porn

Porting the Edelbrocks...Heads and Lower Intake

Reply #29 – December 23, 2012, 10:33:38 PM

Nice. I didn't realize that the BBK headers had such bad welds around the ports. The FRPP headers I have are pretty good in that department. I would think that BBK had a machine weld the collectors and not a person but I could be wrong.