So I have an opportunity to buy one of two different intake manifolds at what I think are probably good prices…
EDELBROCK 2121 Performer Intake Manifold (new never used) $100.00
POWER+PLUS 54025 CROSS WIND POLISHED INTAKE MANIFOLD $125.00
Are either of these worth picking up? I’m a noob don’t forget, so, changing my intake manifold, would there be other changes required along with that? Right now I’ve got an Edelbrock 1406 on a riser that I would guess is about 3/4" or 1" tall, and the stock air cleaner. Would I need to change the riser, or any other parts, or could I just swap the manifold?
And most importantly, are either of those worth switching to from the stock one? What would the improvement be, if any?
Would stick with my Edelbrock 1406. I wasn’t looking for intake manifolds, but had messaged a friend who has some extra parts… Before I buy a bunch of stuff from WCCC I wanted to check what he had since I knew he had a fan shroud that I needed (my car has none) and he mentioned some other parts he had, including these two manifolds. Figured I’d ask and see if they’re a worthwhile upgrade.
Then i guess i would recommend the Power Plus intake, as that one is a high rise with air gap, the only upgrade a regular Edelbrock Performer intake is over stock, is mostly weight reduction. The Power Plus intake seems to be more similar to the Edelbrock Performer RPM Air Gap intake, so i would definitive go for the Power Plus intake from Professional Products over the regular Performer intake.
I want to drive on the street 99.9% of the time, maybe go to a track at some point if I’m lucky but maybe it will never even happen once, I dunno. I don’t really wanna make the fuel economy worse, wouldn’t mind making it better. And I would like to be able to floor it and throw myself back in the seat every once in a while. That’s about it really.
Then stick with the Performer intake and your 1406 carb. Once you start getting into high rise intakes and other race equipment, you really change the characteristics of the car. Maintaining reasonable driveability should be your main concern since veering from that path requires you to be far more knowledgeable than you have indicated you are.
You don’t want to end up with a hodge podge of speed parts and a car that runs like crap, right? Use the collective wisdom of the Ford engineering staff until you have learned enough that you think you can improve upon their design.
I for sure do NOT want to ruin the performance of my car by putting mismatched parts on. That’s why I asked about whether swapping the intake manifold would require changing any other parts.
The only non-stock element of the engine at this point is the carb, and the stock 1406 isn’t anything extreme from what I understand. I’ll also be swapping out the points for an Ignitor II in the near future, springtime probably.
So the performer intake would be an improvement in that it reduces the weight, but not really change the performance substantially? That sounds reasonable. Reduced weight is a fine idea, right? What’s the difference in weight? 10 lbs? 50 lbs? Enough that it matters?
Right now the choices are either of the two in the first post of this thread, or sticking with stock. I have other priorities for where my Cougar money is going, but if either of the manifolds mentioned in my first post are worth getting I will just because dude is offering me such great pricing cause he’s just that cool.
I would go with the power plus. the added cooling capability would give that the nod for me. Not only the air gap under the intake plenum but the added cooling passage in the back of the manifold is a plus.
But will it mess up the performance of my car for normal street driving? Like how some fancy cams make the engine perform better at 5k rpm but perform badly at low rpm and idle? I wouldn’t want that
Putting a nice flowing dual plane will not adversely affect performance. Quite the opposite. Factory manifolds are dual plane just not as efficient. After market will most generally have improved intake runner flow, better plenum mixing, cooler air/fuel mix, and of course lighter weight. However the most common mistake is putting on too large of a carb along with that improved flowing intake, resulting in air fuel ratio problems will actually kill performance. Putting on a better flowing intake will only net you some minor improvement. Better exhaust will compliment the intake. Anything more means internal changes to the engine. Here is a quick hit calculator for CFM. It does not cover it all like some engine programs do, but it will work for a quick and dirty look. http://www.carburetion.com/Calc.asp
The Power Plus manifold is designed for best performance at 1,500 - 6,500 rpm while the Edelbrock manifold is designed for best performance at idle - 5,500 rpm. The Edelbrock probably delivers more torque at lower rpm’s where you will be doing most of your driving.
I would leave the stock manifold on before I would spend the coin and time and effort on something that is basically a lighter stock manifold. Low end? Pulling a plow? You won’t notice much low end diff between a high rise and a low rise intake on a stock engine. But once you get over 1500
RPM you will! If you romp on your car, how much time is spent under 1500 rpm? I went with a performer RPM that is good for much more RPM than I am rev limiting, but I wanted some gain in the rest of the RPM range. if you are not going to upgrade the exhaust or anything else in the engine, stay with the stock. Unless you want the bling of aluminum.
It really does depend on how you plan on using the car. My car came with a Motorcraft 2100 and the stock Cleveland 2V intake. A 600 Holley 4barrel, properly tuned, would give better performance at arguably the same mileage. My car’s IPO figured that out but did NOT do the entire job, So I got the car with the Holley 4V carb sitting atop a 1" funnel spacer (best term I can think of) which in turn sat atop the factory iron 2V intake. Seriously!
First purchase I made was an Edlebrock 2750 (what they used to call the “Performer 4V”); which was designed to do nothing else other than mount a 4bbl carb on a Cleveland with the intake ports cut smaller to match the ports on factory 2V heads. And it did exactly what I wanted. It picked up the torque and gave me 2-3 mpg if I didn’t try to melt down the rear tires too often, even better if I drove like my 60+ yr-old (at that time) father. Oldest brother taught me that back in 1980 when he sold me a '73 Gran Torino with the identical powertrain to my Cougar. And when I go “up” with an aftermarket cam, will re-tune the Holley and maybe lose 1 MPG.
BTW, I don’t plan to pull a plow with the Cougar. At its ‘curb height’, the poor thing would sink to the rockers about 2.23 seconds MAX after I finished the intial cut and started cross-hatching the field. And that’s without adding a pump and tank in the trunk to power the hydraulics that control the cut depth on the plow.
At its ‘curb height’, the poor thing would sink to the rockers about 2.23 seconds MAX after I finished the intial cut and started cross-hatching the field. And that’s without adding a pump and tank in the trunk to power the hydraulics that control the cut depth on the plow. 