Small port heads, big port intake. How bad?

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I agree fully. Mis-matched between 340/360 intakes to small port 273/318 heads just never sat well with me either. Aftermarket manifolds sold now dont port match to 318/273, which is why I bought a LD4B years ago and keep it. If I sell a car, I'll spend the $$ to get an Edelbrock performer which the new ones dont match or a Cast iron 360 4bbl manifold to go with the car and keep mine for my next project.

I also have the original Cast Iron manifold for my 273, and recently picked up a second one on a spare engine I bought for parts. Thats the only Small Port manifold I like better than the LD4B. But I am a bit biased and set in my ways. I havent had my hands on a '64/65 Offy 273 Dual Quad yet, I think that would be my new fav if one ever fell into my lap.

Ya I ran the 273 intake for quite a while and it performs very well, I would recommend it. It is very heavy though. If you can find an LD4B I hear that is a very good intake as well, and much lighter.
 
I think there is a lot of good opinions on here. I have to agree that what is hurting you most is the fact that the plenum is too big and the runners are to big(volume wise). I think the mismatch in port shape(Or cross sectional area) is the least of your concerns. Even if you reshaped the ports in your heads to match the intake, it would still be too big an intake. IMO you should get a small port intake and a good 600 cfm range 4 barrel that is in proper operating condition and then tuned to your setup. That should net you the best mileage and all around powerband.


x2

I do like the fact that it's causing the roof to be raised at the heads port entrance but..........................

When the air speed gets to slow, fuel drops out.

In other words, you could loose some low end torque.

NOW, with all that said.................you have the manifold, you have port matched one port and marked up another......

Finish up the port matching, install it and get back to us.

I thing you might just have improved the flow of the head by raising the roof entrance.

From my experience/experiment with my 360 head i would say, Don't worry to much about port matching the floor and DON'T port into the floor at all!!!!

Keep doing what your doing with the roof and port divider wall.

And let us know the resonates

P.S. You have pretty good control of the grinder!:tongue8:
 
There is a bit of confusion in this thread.

First, the picture above is one I found on the internet, not something I am doing. It is from the Junkyard Jewel 318 Hot Rod did some time ago. I was looking for the port sizes and tripped over the picture, so I though it might be worth adding to the conversation.

Second, I don't know the history of the car or motor as I didn't build it. I acquired the car as is and I'm just trying to figure out the best course of action. The first being, is the port mis-match hurting me enough to make a change necessary. For all I know, someone matched the ports before bolting it together, but I doubt it. Based on the things I have worked on so far, there wasn't a lot of experience put into the build, for example I get to try and extract a broken VC bolt because they used ones that were too long.

BTW, the car is 71 Dart more door, came with a 318 and 904, Kelsey Hayes disks, 8.75" rear, big front sway bar, Cordoba buckets (drivers side power seat), the afore mentioned M1 dual plane intake, 625 cfm Carter Competition carb, and even a early (69?) 340 unsilenced air cleaner.
 
I wish, that is Steve Dulcich's work, not mine.


LOL
If you haven't started grinding on the head, i would recommend the smaller 273/318 manifold for the reasons posted above.

I thing it will work better for your car, and the eng's present state of tune or power.
 
who knows maybe the turbulence helps keep the fuel atomized. anyway i have a big port intake im probaly going to run on my small port heads but thats because its what i have laying around.

Exactly the opposite. The air charge will flow a path similar to the head port and the sides will have lazy air that slowly siphons off onto the path of velocity. The only downfall to this is lazy air doesn't let the fuel stay dispersed and you will develop droplets at the outside of the lazy air causing wet spots In your intake that will occassionally be pulled in the runner causing a momentary rich condition.
 
raised?
last one i looked at width wise hung into the oval port window...but hey if you have'em ..I won't question what you say.

btw it costs money to cast a new small port window'd 4 barrel intake so thats how it ended up being used that way.

what came 1st?
the big port intake on the small port head?
or the matched big port intake/big port heads?

This was an old manifold, they quit selling it decades ago. I don't recall which came first, if there even was a first. All I'm trying to say is the port mismatch is the least of his concerns, it really doesn't make that much of a difference especially with a mild build like that.
 
Exactly the opposite. The air charge will flow a path similar to the head port and the sides will have lazy air that slowly siphons off onto the path of velocity. The only downfall to this is lazy air doesn't let the fuel stay dispersed and you will develop droplets at the outside of the lazy air causing wet spots In your intake that will occassionally be pulled in the runner causing a momentary rich condition.

thats good to know! thanks.
 
For a street grocery getter your probably not going to see much improvement by going with a small port intake. But with that said you are loosing some low RPM torque, which will hurt fuel economy some. If you were using this on a truck that was towing I'd say make the change. As for the carb you are using that should work quite well with the 318 though they are normally jetted for motors in the 350ci size so dropping down one jet size or going up one rod size will also help. Try to take it to someone who can load test it either with a dyno or at least with an O2 sensor and doing a brake stand (redneck version).
 
Like i said before. the large port manifold will slow air speed down......when air is slow, fuel drop out of the air stream, and runs into the cylinder as liquid fuel(only vapors are flammable!)

And, "TURBULENCE",..... It's like a "WET DOG" It Shakes all the fuel out of the air!

You will gain performance with the small manifold, compared to the large, Even tho the "large port" is more attractive.

JMHO.
 
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