Hey guys-
I am getting ready to swap out the 305 for a 350HO long block, I am yanking the computer and therefore the carb and distributor. I have been looking through different manifolds and carbs and cant decide! PLease share you experiences with different carb and intake combinations- thanks!

-Luke

i've heard nothing but good things about the edlebrock air gap intake mainfold. as far as carbs for a daily driver anthing between 650 and 700 cfm is good. also you might want to look for a manifold with with an rpm range from off idle to 6000.

I am using a Holley Avenger and a Edelbrock Performer intake and have no complaints. For the street a dual plane manifold with vacumn secondaries is hard to beat.

Edelbrock performer intake & edelbrock carb 1406 is a great combo. I am very pleased. Probadly the best thing I have done for my elky.

If you want to keep the car emissions legal, I agree the Edelbrock Performer (EGR) is the way to go, if your looking for something a little better and retaining emissions equipment isn't a concern an Air Gap. But then again there's always fuel injection, dual quad tunnel ram, superchargers, turbochargers, etc etc etc. :evil:

On the 76 I have an all Edelbrock upper half. Edelbrock Performer RPM Heads, RPM Air Gap Intake and a Performer 750 CFM carburetor with electric choke. I will replace the carburetor I don't care for it I'll go with a Demon or a Holley. On the 80 I have the same intake and Carburetor but I have AFR 195C Heads.

I like the set ups with the exception of the carburetors and that is just my feelings on those some like them very much. All was brand new out of the box when I installed it.

Yeah haha- well I gotta atleast keep it under the hood and under a 16 year old kids budget too! :cry: Yeah I have been looking for an electric choke carb and the edelbrock 1406 looks like a winner for what I am doing with the car..err truck. I will put a 6AL msd on also so that will help burn away stuff before the cats have to deal with it. Where is a reputable place to get an air gap intake? And I was looking at jegs (ordered from them before-worked well) and they have some chioces for it:

SB-Chevy 262-400 | View Product | More Details $199.99

350-7516 SB-Chevy 262-400, with Vortec Heads 1996-Later | More Details $219.99

Now I know I need the Vortec one- but it says 96-Later? I have never built an engine before- but is this the right manifold?

Thanks for the help- I just gotta start collecting parts and sooner or later an engine will be born out of them.

I like Edelbrock products and I have used a lot of them. However I am not fond of their carbs and my acquaintance with them goes back to the '60s. My first experience with a four barrel carburetor is with the Carter AFB which is the grandfather of todays Edelbrock carbs. I thought those AFBs were the cats meow and in retrospect they were pretty good, but the first time I used a Holley I knew the Holleys were superior. Smokey Yunick, probably the greatest small block Chevy mechanic of all time, wouldn't use anything but a Holley.

If it's good enough for Smokey it's surely good enough for me.

Yeah- the holley street avenger does look interesting- I'll have to do some more research. thanks

-Luke

You need a Vortec style intake manifold only if you have Vortec style heads. You say that you are replacing your 305 with a 350HO engine, is this a GM crate motor or an used engine? The GMPP 350HO crate engine uses Vortec heads. Chevy small block V8s from 1996 on used the Vortec heads, older V8s had the traditional heads. The manifolds are very similar but not interchangable because of the bolt pattern. Older style intake manifolds can be modified for use with Vortec heads but it is not recommended because of potential sealing problems.

For your information Vortec heads are superior to all Chevy cast iron heads and most of the aluminum heads. Yes the Vortec heads will outflow even the Camel humped fuelie heads and LT1 heads. They are definitely the way to go.

Woops yeah I forgot to tell ya that I am gonna get the 350HO long block from one of the chevy dealers near me. (free shipping) So it will have the newer vortec heads on. Are the ports different too?, or is it just the bolt pattern?(looking at headers) Awesome- thanks for the help.

-Luke

The Vortec heads use the standard small block exhaust headers. You made a good choice with that GMPP crate motor, with a change to a more aggressive cam and good carb/intake/exhaust/ignition you can approach 400hp with a good streetable engine.

Yeah I cant help but reading the Humble Pie articles in "i think" in Super chevy mag. They took the 350HO deluxe and see how far they could go with simple cam swaps and bolt on head parts. I think they got up to 425 actually. I get excited when I read things like that. hehe

-Luke

A couple of my friends told me that they tried the edelbrock carbs and they all had problems with flooding. one guys even washed the cylinder walls down. but i didn't listen to them so a bought a new 600 performer and i had the same problem with flooding.so they replaced it with another it did almost the same thing ran like crap, so i returned it and bought a holley 670 avenger it was a little more money but my car never ran so good im realy very pleased with the holley.

Yeah I think I am gonna go with the street aveneger- unless something else comes up. kinda pricey but prolly well worth it.

thanks
-Luke

Of all the reading , research & talking to guys that use the edelbrock carbs, this is the first site I have ever heard anything negative about them. It surprises me because mine as worked so well.

I've seen some people have good luck with the Edelbrock carbs and they are well suited CFM wise to a small block.

As for intakes, the Edelbrock Performer or Performer RPM are as good as it gets depending on the cam used as to which intake. The air gap is one of those things that sounds good in theory but I haven't seen anybody prove they are better than the performer or perf. rpm, they just cost more.