I have always liked the Victor Jr depending on how your motor is built. Nothing wrong with the 472 if thats what you have.............

 

Just driving around on the street, I'd clean up the one you have,unless you just have the extra cash laying around I'm sure the RPM has better casting with smoother curves than the 50 yr old manifold.
I have the Edelbrock CNC port matched Victor JR makes good HP I had it on a chassis dyno,
but for street an autocross I swapped on an RPM air gap,I need to pull out of corners from low rpm.
I still have the JR. for when my car stays above 4000 rpm a little more.

 

FWIW I just put the Edelbrock Air Gap on my new 355. Its power RPM range is 1500-6500 RPM vs the standard Performer, idle-5500 RPM

My motor dyno shows HP starts to dip at 6300 RPM

While I have a cowl hood, the Air Gap should fit under a stock hood with a 3" filter as the Air Gap is a good 1" taller. Just use some clay on top of your existing air cleaner to see how much room you have if you want to check height clearance

If your motor has the PCV canister in the lifter valley, a Air Gap won't clear it

 

Both are good intakes, I've had both. But I don't think you're going to be happy spending money on the Eddy, expecting any greater degree of performance.

 

Air Gap, not for street use, as it has NO heating provision for the plenum and runners, carb runs too cold, jetting is a nightmare, and you can do a lot better elsewhere.

Some people have used closed cell foam to close off the openings on the side and rear of the under plenum area, and allow the fan to blow hotter air under the plenum, but that doesn't help the running too cold issue. What would help would be an insert to use heater coolant to a collector under the plenum.

Now, although DRAG RACER engines like the freezing fuel and carb, they only go a quarter mike, opposed to a street engine running for longer periods, So, if it is a drag race engine, Air Gap will work, with a lot of carb work, but, on the street, get off the star struck idiocy of trying to get a frozen carb to work for more than a quarter mile. Yes, there will be some that say they had great results from them, and some will say they won the dyno war on the Air Gap, but, those are not good results in the real world street engines.

One of the best small block intake manifolds was/is the Edelbroke C3B (designed to use a Holley 3bbl carb, but works equally as well with a 4bbl), which is astounding, because most Edelbroke stuff is not so great. Weiand has a few great street intakes as well.

 

Unless you are looking for that last few horsepowers at 5,000 to 7,000 rpm for the track - save your money. In my opinion you won't feel the difference in the seat of your pants and the bragging rights don't last long in you head after you start dealing with the problems of the swap.
I put a C3B on the 68RS 350 to replace the GM snowflake (66 era 490). I think I may have noticed a very small seat of the pants increase in performance, but nothing to write home to momma about. Had to add an electric choke, make a coil mount, etc.

 

The air gap doesn’t stay cold for very long anyway. The whole thing is heat soaked just like the standard rpm after a few miles.

 

No Air Gap for the street, a good dual-plane design works well for street.

 

"The air gap doesn’t stay cold for very long anyway. The whole thing is heat soaked just like the standard rpm after a few miles."

Sorry, more than a few testers have found the above info dead wrong, the Air Gap is designed to NOT "HEAT SOAK", and it does that very well, including making carb settings a nightmare to get nowhere but issues/problems

 

Sorry, Physics and heat conductivity of aluminum in my car must be different along with my temp gun.


let me add to this just so you know where i'm coming from.

My buddy has a 63 Nova SBC with edelbrock dual plan RPM (non air gap)
I have a SBC Dual plane RPM air gap. Same exact manifold except I have the dropped floor over the lifter valley to make the "Air Gap"

We were both at my house, we drove our cars to my shop a few miles away. We were checking water temp gauge on his car and using my FLIR temp gun with display,
we were both parked next to each other hoods up. checking temps on both cars with the temp gun we noticed manifold temps about the same, negligible differences.
With hoods closed unless you have an A/C blowing through the "Air Gap" it's going to get heat soaked,it's bolted to the heads, it;s gonna cook just like a standard manifold. just how it is.
Now it may cool off better and take a bit longer to get hot, but it's gonna get just as hot.

We both commented, no point changing his manifold to an Air Gap, other than they look cool.
And bolts and things fall under it.

 

OP

one "adjustment" to the standard RPM Performer manifold is to mill down the center divider like the Air Gap has which does bring it closer to the low/mid range TQ the Air Gap provides

The world will not end using a Air Gap on a "street car". With that said if your motor is 1st gen SBC, especially the heads, there likely is no advantage to a Air Gap.

But design and technology have improved since the 50's-60's SBC intake and head design. Higher cube 350's with, new modern heads, cam, headers, modern carbs all are part of the equation for using a Air Gap where the typical dyno pulls between it, Victor and the standard RPM Edelbrock the Air Gap has shown more TQ in the "meat" of the RPM range (read under 5k rpm) and are good up to 6500 RPM.

It comes down to what your build is and like any build timing and carb adjustments (metering rods, jets, springs) come into play with whatever manifold you use.

Some in hot climate conditions that experience vapor lock swap in Air Gaps.

 

Spend that money burning a hole in your pocket.

Keep that economy moving.

Doesn't matter whether the particular manifold swap actually helps or hurts. Just Do It !

 

Get a new heat gun, and bone up on your "physics", you are lacking.

 

okidoki dave.
but your issues will be a little more difficult to fix. Lol.

 

Depending on the use, would depend on what intake you would want.

I tend to lean more strip than street, so I use a Vic Jr. as I'm not looking for MPG, passing emissions, and such.

As for some of the bickering above, come on, we're adults, act that way please.
We can agree to disagree on things...
Not every one is looking for the best performance, best MPG, passing emissions, and such. You can't have it all.

 

Doug beat me to it.

I've been following this thread and the reports from some members.

As Doug said we are all adults here.

If you have an issue with a member's style you have to decide is the information offered valuable enough that you can read it and ignore the presentation comments. Sorta like taking advice from Grandpa.

If not you can do one of 2 things. Save your click or add that member to you ignore list.

If you find some of there comments offensive try Yellow Bullet or some of the FaceBook Groups. They will flat out call you a F** moron or worse without hesitation. Really nothing to take personal IMHO

 

Hey. I know you guys aren’t talking about me. I like Dave
he doesn’t bother me a bit,’he’s just a salty mo fo I know a lot like him.
Been around the world a couple times, I like different opinions. I'm good.

 

Haha. Not talking. About anyone in particular.

however if the shoe fits......

 

thoughts on different intakes for a street driven small block,, is the edelbrock 'air gap' manifold worth the money for the street,, i have the factory 'winters' snow flake intake now just wondering about spending the almost $300..
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Depends on your goals. I've been using a Winters on a 327/300 for nearly twenty years. Driven almost daily. You'll have no problem selling the snowflake if you need to change intakes.

 

Before recommending a intake change, would need to know if the engine in stock form or whether a cam and heads were changed. Usually its the sum of all matched components involved that makes a real difference.
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