harrisonm
Well-Known Member
YES IT IS WORTH IT. I was very impressed when I put mine on. I felt it.
AIR GAP INTAKE WORTH THE MONEY?
- Thread starter CFD244
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Thats gold Jerry!
I run my Eddy air gap with a 1" spacer on top. My hood still closes...
Do you have a low profile air cleaner? I am using my OE one and the hood barely clears
Locomotion
Well-Known Member
FWIW, An Edelbrock RPM Air-Gap is the same internally as a regular Edelbrock RPM. The "air-gap" can be worth a few HP (Minor jetting changes may be helpful.) but the regular version may be available for a little less cash.
A good distributor curve is a lot less and can produce more than 8HP.
Understand, I'm not arguing against the intake. It's a good piece. My argument is if ALL you do is the intake swap, be prepared to be somewhat disappointed. Now, if you do everything to take full advantage of it such as re-tune or upgrade the carburetor and exhaust......do you have headers now? If not, there's no way you will ever reach your full potential using the Air Gap. So, yes it's worth it IMO, IF you're willing to spend the cash elsewhere to optimize the intake swap.
AIR GAP INTAKE WORTH THE MONEY?
If your after performance it is. If you have a penny jar budget mentality, no. If you were at a swap meet and theres an iron and an AG intake sitting next to each other priced the same you take the Air Gap. Sounds to me like it might be time for a bigger penny jar
I certainly would..............Easier to carry it to the parking lot.
Yea, and wait until you're trying to lay that big chunk of iron over the gasket and ports. It sucks. In a few years you will have to take it off again and you'll wish you picked up one in aluminum.
Without having read everything… here is my take on the intake and opinion.
Speed and power takes money. How thick your wallet is vs your desire to make more power is an individual issue. Also what one thinks is worthy. Then there is where you want the power to show up. Earlier or later in the rpm range.
The factory iron intake is a very good performer. A budget minded person should grab one of the factory intakes and have at it. The only draw back is weight. An other possible issue is if you have a spreadbore and/or a square bore. This goes for ether mismatch of intake and carb.
Best option is the early TQ intake and carb.
The RPM intakes will provide a wide range of increase of any previous intake from anyone. The range is rpm based.
In order to justify the expense, I can not convince anyone, I just let the numbers do the talking. But this also applies to any part being considered. There have been those that decided to stay with stock cast iron exhaust manifolds. Most state a few good reasons or no leaking headers, bent pipes from hanging low, ease of starter replacement, but, the longevity is a big factor as well.
The increase in a set of headers and there after a good exhaust system can be worth 25 hp, 20ft. Lbs. on a small block 340/360.
By the time you add up the header & exhaust cost, even done cheaply, the cost is pricey.
A price check on headers @ Summitracing shows:
$260 for a summit headers (recommended small tube header!)
$235 from Flowtech - (I never used them)
$466 for a summit exhaust kit,
$338 for a Summit exhaust kit-No mufflers
Cheap headers plus complete summit exhaust kit for a total of $701.
Now you’re reeling in your head I bet saying, “Crap! This over a grand!”
Between the two additions for that 1K plus you’re picking up over 40lbs. of torque and 40+ hp. Add a cam and lifter set for another 20/25 hp & TQ. And your now around that $1500 mark by the time you get gaskets and 3 oil changes in to break in the cam, change oil for a 1,000 miles and change it again.
Depending on parts selected, the power increases can vary a lot and in different rpm ranges depending on the cam selected. After all of this is said and done, you yourself have to weigh in on its worth.
Is the total gain of over 60 hp worth the $1800?
Many will say it depends on what it runs.
If this is the case, pay attention to some members here and a few YouTubers that do more with less. @318willrun has shown some good tuning skills in getting lowly powered engines to run pretty good down the track and a visit to his forum posts or YouTube channel can help get a dead stock engine and car moving pretty good. Adding performance parts to go faster is your call. But a lot is based on the power sought and the goal at hand.
@RustyRatRod sticky post titled rustyratrods guide to hotrod bliss, Rob, myself and a host of others go through a lot of forgotten information and tips on general items and ways to enjoy hot rodding with longevity in mind as well as some inexpensive routes sometimes forgotten.
Much of this is a catch 22.
Not using the better intake, headed/exhaust system, camshaft while saving money won’t get you going faster, it’ll just save you money. Laying the piper is the only way sometimes. Only you can decide of the entrance fee is worth the ride. Only you can decide if less power is OK since it’s not always needed.
The RPM is a higher performing intake that IMO did not really show itself on Nicks build because there wasn’t a big need for it.
We have members here producing a good amount of power pushing there vehicles into the low 12’s and high 11’s with that intake.
While some will point out what others have done with a stock intake, they’re leaving a LOT of power on the table. If they’re leaving power on the table, they’re making up for it in other areas & maximizing their car to the best it can be in order to obtain what they’re doing. What the entails may not be what you want to do for a street ride.
Ops! Edit…
358 HP is not a lot of power and the rpm-ag is not being taxed. That won’t happen for another 200 or so HP.
I believe Dulcich did a dyno thrash on intakes that covered TQvsLD340vsAG, sure it's somewhere in the online HR/MT archives, not that any of this covers effects on combos/street manners etc..
Thanks but I’m thinking Loco may have some track testing
I run a drop base air cleaner that has a .625" of drop and a ~2.5" tall air filter element, with a holley 750 DP, a 1" spacer on the intake, and a small spacer under the air filter to clear the throttle cable. Less than a 1/2" of drop all said and done.
Some people don't get my humor!
Yeah, inside jokes on the internet, cool man.
There is a noted engine builder who is a member here. He stated that the Professional Products/Speedmaster dual bolt pattern Magnum/LA intake intake produced 25 horsepower LESS than the Edelbrock Air Gap.
it's all in the in the correct combination of parts
it's all in the in the correct combination of parts
Behind the RPM, above the Stealth, the margin between them would be very thin, IMO. The thing with the RPM is the path on which the air and fuel travel being a much nicer route even though the total cfm isn’t as great as one would think.
The LD-340, the Stealth (& the Action Plus) are old school designs not really super well improved on over a stock intake design. While the LD-340 flows a bunch more cfm in air, the path it takes isn’t as nice as a RPM. Same goes for the Stealth and Action plus. Which are (IMO) very good intakes.
Yes. He also ran a large (IIRC) TQ carb. He contacted me on the subject but I have not heard or read anything by @Locomotion on how it all turned out.
As the power level goes up the difference becomes larger.
Even though some people here live to praise that intake and how bad was it is, it’s not.
After buying and porting one the Speedmaster is probably closer to the LD4B than anything. It did ok but suffered from small runners that you couldn’t do anything with. An Abodiesonly member bought mine.
Went from consistent 7.85’s @ 87ish mph with a gasket matched (360 port) and properly tapered runners Action+ to consistent 7.64’s @ 89ish mph just by swapping to an OOTB Air Gap. Similar air temps, proper tuning etc. 60’ and 330’ times improved as well. YRMV
MopaR&D
Nerd Member
Take a close look at those torque numbers all the way down to 3,300 RPM. Picked up over 20 lb-ft there, picked up 11 lb-ft at peak with a lower peak RPM and carried the gains all the way past peak HP. Look at the area gained under the curve and that's pretty significant, it basically flattened out and raised the entire torque curve by an average of about 15 lb-ft. Definitely worth it IMO. With a drivetrain combo that makes use of the engine from 2,500-5,500+ RPM that's a big gain in overall acceleration.
Here's a 70 340 where they do a bunch of mods and air gap gains 25 hp
1970 340 High Performance Mill Dyno - Mopar Muscle Magazine
1970 340 High Performance Mill Dyno - Mopar Muscle Magazine
You know, Johnny Mac & BPE puts the airgap on their engines, for good reason!
I ran an AirGap on a 340 for a while and the engine was tuned on a chissis dyno producing 325 horsepower to the wheels with a 284/484 MP cam and port-matched heads. Otherwise a stock build. 10.2:1 CR. Although the AirGap cost a lot, it worked well and I am trying to save front end weight as I want the best handling I can get. The car is under restoration now and I am going with Edelbrock heads to save additional weight. This combo will have a Performer RPM with a TQ for better street drivability. But still saving weight is my goal.
I like the Mopar Action article where they put aluminum parts on a 383 and got the weight down to that of an LA engine while adding HP. Never a bad result.
I like the Mopar Action article where they put aluminum parts on a 383 and got the weight down to that of an LA engine while adding HP. Never a bad result.
Dale Davies
Well-Known Member
Wellll, not exactly simple to answer.
The Airgap is about 27# lighter and being an Airgap you should get a slightly denser air/fuel charge into the cylinders. One thing the Airgaps respond well to is annular primary boosters like the AVS2 carbs have. Performers can be changed up to the annular boosters.
Now if a stock appearance or concours car is your desire, stick with the factory manifold. Could do a little stealth work on the ports and make up a bunch of the difference.
My 1940 Ford has a 1966 289 in it. It came with a 2V carb, so when I got the whim for a 4V, I bought an Airgap. At that time the AVS2 were not available so I bought the Performer 600 CFM. I now have the annular boosters for the AVS2 650 CFM to install when I get the engine back together. The Airgap worked well on the stock 289. With the head work and 351 cam it should work quite well.
Deltatech
Well-Known Member
I'd put the $350 towards a stall, locker or gears before I'd let it go for 10-20 Horses. Headers are cheaper and give about the same resultsif it doesn't have em yet. Hell, I've seen better results from a plastic flex fan and aluminum pulleys on a dyno.
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