what do you think of this intake
What made the LD series intakes good were the runner layouts combined with volume and very close port matching to the two different sizes for the Chrysler small block LA family engines.
They were the first of their kind to pull it off. The Weiand manifolds are just as awesome. Slightly higher overall height on them and they come in square or spread bore layouts, with multi bolt patterns on the spread bore units.
The Edelbrock intakes were closer to the original port opening rectangle dimensions than the Weiand, but on a street engine, which is what they were all designed for, you wouldn't notice the difference, unless you ran an LD340 on a 273/318 port head. You want that intakes little brother LD4B for those.
The new Performer series is a middle of the road intake. Smaller than 340/360 and larger than 273/318 and works ok on all of them, so they sell a lot of them.
It all depends on what you are trying to accomplish with your engine. Some people do not need large ports. In fact, on low end torque engine builds, opening the ports to match will only create slow spots in flow at the transition and hurt velocity.
There is a reason why Chrysler put a Direct Connection catalog part number on the LD intakes. They were designed with very close tolerances to stock runners, with better runner arrangements.
I am not a fan of the Torker intake, although the Torker II had a dead spot fix between #5 and #7. I still prefer a dual plane on a street car for smaller runner volume/ higher velocity.
These intakes would show negligible amounts of gain in real life, over an iron 4bbl LA intake on a street application. Where they shine is when they are used in conjunction with a valvetrain redo, with a snappy open/closed cam and good cylinder heads.
If I were playing with a vehicle that wanted colder air charge on an electric choke or cooler fuel, I'd toy with one, coupled with some header wrap, electric fan and a composite body carb with the exhaust blocked.
Air gaps work good for hot climate, but are almost too much for places with a lot of temperature inversion like up in Colorado. Aluminum with a closed runner to cam galley is a good balancing act for hotter combustion temps, in climates that still require some temp on the intake runner to atomize. Iron is awesome, too, but with other mods, it can become too hot in low speed conditions.