Old Edelbrock Tarantula Intake Any Good?

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71Demon340

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I have an old Eddy Tarantula intake that my dad had on his 340. The 340 is now a 416 with a Comp 240/246, 507/510, 110 LSA cam. I have J heads that have been ported, bowl hogged, 3-angle, milled .035. Should be around 10.3 compression. Will this old Tarantula intake work on my stroker? Its going to be mainly a street car. I also have an old Holley 1050 3-barrel that I'm going to attempt to use. Not that I need that much carb, but just b/c its kind of rare and my dad said it had a real cool sound to it when that big barrel was kicked in. He had it on the 340 back in the day. Can you say overkill!!
 
The Tarantula will do, but you could do better I think. I think, IMO, a RPM would be the way to go.

Go for the 3bbl Holley. Carter also made a version for the pontiac racing effort. You'll find the 3bbl. works very well in the high RPM range. If you ever decide to give it up, let me know.
 
I'm using a victor 340 edelbrock intake on my 415 with 10.2 comp ,holley 750 4:11 gears on the street and it runs good. I'm assuming it's similiar to the intake you're describing. Jysnflem
 
I'd keep the Tarantula and 3bbl just for the nostalgic look - and they should still work good as 'dusterdon' said. Geez, I haven't seen a 3bbl for years! You're gonna mystify a few people with that carb.
 
ocdart - I'm with you. I wanna keep them both just because of their nostalgia. I even have some cool Eddy Tarantula stickers that I dug out of my Dad's stuff. They have these big hairy spiders on them. I'm thinking of slapping them on the quarter windows. I also have an original set of cast aluminum M/T valve cover with the M/T logo and raised ribs on top. I want to polish them up or powdercoat them. My Dad is a packrat so I have all kinds of good stickers, papers, parts, receipts from the early 70's. Read my thread under member resto's about the history of my car.

I should have a custom sticker made for the air cleaner that says "340 3-Barrel". That would throw some people for a loop!!
 
Do you have a picture of the intake? Thanks Jysnflem.
 
Sell em both! Get the RPM Air Gap and a modern Holley. Manifold technology has come a long way since that Tarantula was designed. Hot Rod did a test last year on a 383 using a bunch of different manifolds and the RPM Air Gap outperformed an old Edelbrock single plane by a mile. I don't remember the exact numbers, but the bottom line is that for the street, you can't beat the RPM Air Gap.
 
jysnflem said:
Do you have a picture of the intake? Thanks Jysnflem.
Click to expand...

http://victorylibrary.com/graphics/TM5.jpg

Right from Edelbrock.

Now check this out, I found a brand new TM 5 on where else-E-bay for BIN $88 right to my door.

I have a Torker 340 and put the TM 5 together, yes on the outside they look the same but the runners are deeper on the TM 5. Everything is, right under the carb the Torker 340 is like a 3/4 of an inch higher up. That goes right in to the runners. The runners are slope down in to the cylinder head, where the TM 5 are flat because they are deeper. The runners are the same besides that. Its hard to take a picture of but I try.

Seems to me the TM5 is better for higher RPMs but I even got the paper work with the intake, it says this intake will increase low RPM power and you may need to reduce tire pressure to stop wheel spin. It says this is for street motors. Now remember this is 1971 when guys had 4.10 gears and the freeway speed limits were 70 mph and traffic sometimes went 90 mph, everyday to work !

I have a Eddy RPM on right now and it does idle great but with my 3.91 gears in 2nd at 70 mph it seems to be holding it back from my old Holley Street Dominator single plane intake I first had. When I get the time I think I swap the TM 5 on and see what happens. lol

First 3 pictures are the TM 5, the last 3 pictures are the Torker 340

Compare 001 (Small).jpg


Compare 002 (Small).jpg


Compare 003 (Small).jpg


Compare 004 (Small).jpg


Compare 005 (Small).jpg


Compare 006 (Small).jpg
 
lilcuda said:
Hot Rod did a test last year on a 383 using a bunch of different manifolds and the RPM Air Gap outperformed an old Edelbrock single plane by a mile. I don't remember the exact numbers, but the bottom line is that for the street, you can't beat the RPM Air Gap.
Click to expand...



Well 2 things come to mind, 1 did they change the jetting of the carbs since a dual plane intake should take smaller-but not always-jets than a single plane intake. Also it can usually take a smaller CFM carb to make best power-but my TM 5 papers saids for strip use, use a 850 dp-thats what it says.

And 2nd, the RPM air gap is for sale NOW, why in the world would a Mag. post something that would hurt their ad business ? Edelbrock spends big bucks every month running ads in Hot Rod Mag, kind of makes Hot Rod biased.

If you look at Edelbrock cams, the Torker 2 cam has LESS duration than the RPM intake cam. Which makes sense, the dual plane will make better power at lower RPM's so the cam could be bigger and this way the motor will still pull good at 6500. The Torker 2 cam needs less duration since the intake is tuned for higher RPM's.

So to really compare intakes, you need to change the cams as well.

I will say the RPM intake is a great-"can't go too far wrong intake" and it will work great in more cars than a Torker intake would.
 
I use a small port M1 W5 intake on my car, it's basically the same manifold as the M1 standard port single plane intake. We used one on my son's 318 with late 360 heads and it's a great intake. Better than the old or new Eddy's in my opinion (although probably not by much) except for maybe a Super Victor. I have no experience with that intake yet but I am curious.
 
Unfortunately, getting a **complete** rebuild kit to replace the 3-brl Holley's old dried-out gaskets and seals will be an exercise in futility.

You can find *some* maintenance components separately, but not nearly **all** the ones needed to restore a 35 year-old carb to reliable & running shape are available.

Went through an exhaustive (and exhausting) effort w/one last year to no avail, including dozens of calls to Holley staff, both current & retired., plus multiple specialty carb resto shops on both coasts. Same story.


So, the 3-brls were an interesting, but brief part in Holley's history.
 
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