O.K. heres the deal,I am pretty sure I've got a leaky intake manifold gasket,and its sucking air.If I go to the trouble of taking off the old manifold I would like to put a better one on.I don't want to spend a ton of money on one,something in the 130.00 to 150.00 range I have been looking at Edelbrocks which I can get down at the nearby Advance auto,I want to keep my Q-JET I just rebuilt it.any suggestions as to what model I should get,can I get a NON EGR one or do I have to stick with EGR,any help would be appreciated

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C3VR Lifetime Member #93

Do you need to worry about emissions? If your going to be tested you should get the EGR. If your state doesn't care, then I would go with the non-EGR.

You may also want to think about watching ebay for an edelbrock. Sometimes you can find decent ones for a pretty good price.

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Glenn's Bright Blue 75 T-Top
L48, 4 Speed, Dual Exhaust

No emissions in Upstate New York after 25 years old

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C3VR Lifetime Member #93

I installed a non-EGR Edelbrock Performer on my '78 L82. My car was missing the AIR pump when I bought the car so that wasn't an issue. I also took off the EFE actuator and the vacuum switch that threads into the thermostat housing. I replaced the thermostat housing with an aftermarket one. I also had my Q-Jet professionally rebuilt. Doing all this cleaned up the appearance under the hood quite a bit and eliminated any number of potential vacuum leak sources. The car ran much better afterwards.

One option is Edelbrock also makes an intake specifically for use with the Quadrajet. It's called the Performer RPM Q-Jet and they give it better performance numbers than the standard Performer, but I'm sure it's more expensive. I wasn't aware of it when I bought mine, but I'm quite happy with the standard Performer.

As far as aftermarket intake manifolds go, the Edelbrock Performer is likely the least expensive quality unit on the market that I've seen. As gmurray said, you can do better on a used one on Ebay, but a new Performer is about $115-$120 new, so unless you get a real bargain on Ebay, I'd stick with a new one.

I'd be interested in how close a performer RPM fits under a stock hood.  An easy way to find an intake leak is to take a hand held propane torch, turn on the valve, but don't light it, and move it around the running engine's intake areas... when you get up to a leak the motor will run up because it is sucking in the propane instead of air.  Why pull an intake when it can be a hose or carb plate leak.

Edelbrock says their Performer RPM won't fit under a stock Corvette hood. Maybe a drop base air cleaner may allow it, but I don't know. A lower profile carburetor than the stock Q-Jet may make a difference as well.

You definitely have a point...find the source of the vacuum leak before replacing parts.   

That was going to be another question,any problem with hood clearance with a stock air cleaner

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C3VR Lifetime Member #93

I put this one on my car. Kept the Q-jet. Used a GM drop bace air cleaner and it fit under the stock small block hood with no problems. Looks great, woun't break the bank and a nice preformance gain. Check it out.

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem& ;category=36474&item=7981232477&rd=1

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Any more advice out there,B4 I go and buy the performer

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C3VR Lifetime Member #93

  I have the Weiand 8004 manifold. Fits fine with stock air cleaner. Also you can run the Q-jet or a square bore carb................Relatively inexpensive too...................

                                                            Reid  '72 T-top

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    Reid    '72 T-top

www.wildbunchcarclub.com
www.vannuyscruisingassociation.com

Weiand has two new intake manifolds out on the market, that make kick butt power over the edelbrock piece and should fit under the hood fine as they are much shorter then the edelbrock piece and  not much taller then the 8004 Weiand that VNCRUISER is using.

here is a link to the dyno chart.  While this is for the Vortec Heads the same runner and flow design is being made into a standard head version as well.

http://128.121.65.5/data/Products/Media/8121_Power_Curve.pdf

The part numbers are: 8121 for Vortec and 8120 for Standard

Overall we averaged 25 more HP and 25 More Ft Lbs across the entire power curve.  The guy that designed these is a guy that we hired a year ago that was Edelbrocks cheif manifold engineer.  We bought him some new state of the art design and computer air fuel flow annalsys software and so far the results have been outstanding.

After Shark38531.4448842593

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I believe the Weiand out performs the Performer, fits under the hood, run one on the L-36 car, runs great.

I put a performer rpm on mine with a drop base and a 2" tall k&n. Probably 1/2" to spare with the stock hood.

Runs great. Although I'm using an Edelbrock carb. Depending on how much cam you have, the regular performer may be the way to go for 30-40 bucks less...

Good Luck!

Luke

LukesVette38531.755

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I put the Weiand 8004 on as well.  Fits very nice, and HP improved over the stock manifold.  I'm pleased with it.

I've got a performer with Holley 600 and drop base air cleaner, fits fine.