Intake Manifold---Single Plane

[FirstEliminator]

  Still in the accumulation phase for parts on the 482 project I'm now looking for an intake. The Ford PI intake was top on my list until recently. Looking through Jay's Intake Comparo I can't help but consider either the Edelbrock Street Master or Holley Street Dominator. Both of these finished very well on the engines that seem comparable to the 482. These engines are the 428 375hp, 428 425hp and (somewhat) the 390 stroker. The 390 has way more cam that I plan to use. One element I need to consider is hood clearance. In an effort to maintain a stock appearance with no mods to the hood, hood blanket or snorkle air cleaner I find the stock intake puts the air cleaner pretty close to the hood blanket. With the strong performance in both torque and hp of these single planes, often outpacing the PI by 10 or more tq/hp I'm considering trying one.
  A few thoughts about the single plane are: Will these single planes affect idle characteristics? Would any slump even be noticeable? Idle and low speed are probably the range the 482 will most often see.  A low smooth idle of 600-700 rpm while maximizing mid range and hp to about 5500 is the goal. Yes, I like eating cake.

[blykins]

A 482 is very far off in displacement from a 428.  If you're trying to eat cake, a Street Master or Street Dominator will just not get you there.   I would look solidly at a Performer RPM or Blue Thunder M/R.   Remember, extra cubes eat up plenum volume as well as camshaft duration.   A 482 will need more of everything to be comparable, even at low street cruiser levels. 

[My427stang]

With a SM or SD (my preference is the SD), Brent is right, without work, you'll lose power IMO on a 480+ inch engine compared to an RPM.  I had an RPM with a little grinding, a stock SD and a stock SM on my 489 at certain points before the EFI and the SM petered out quickly, the SD not as bad, but the RPM ran real well WOT.  The only changes to my RPM are a notched and shaped plenum, some porting on the roof to blend the turn under the carb, and a good port match to a med riser port.  I think the changes would not be required with your RPM goals, but a port match and the roof work couldn't hurt.

That being said, my experience is that FE's love the small single planes for drivability from 400 cid and up if tuned correctly.  I have not seen the loss of response on that size engine, and especially not on a 482.  However, with your build goals, I agree that the RPM will run better part throttle with a dual plane. 

I think the RPM is a good match

[jayb]

+2 on the Performer RPM.  As much as I like the Streetmaster and Street Dominator intakes, I think you will be giving away some midrange torque with them on a 482" engine, as well as some top end. 

[CaptCobrajet]

x3.  All good comments above.  I do like a Street Dominator.  A worked Portosonic or Victor needs cam, big inches, and/or rpm to shine.  Hard to beat the Performer RPM for anything streetable.  They will tease a tunnel wedge up to 5500 on equal prepped,  625-650 hp 482 inchers.  If all you are doing is 6500.....hard to beat the RPM.

[ScotiaFE]

I completely disagree.
He can put any FE intake on the 482 and it will run up 5500 and idle at 600 rpm.
Now why he wants it to that, well...
A good well built 390 will do that all day, get decent mileage and cost less.

What I do agree with is that at the min the RPM is the way to go for cheap HP.
This sounds more like a parade engine than a HP FE, and hey nothing wrong with that.
But if it is a show engine than at least 2 carbs will be required. You know like stock.
And the RPM is not a show intake, it looks like plain stock 4BC intake.
Way kooler looking intakes than the RPM.
2X4 MR
Tunnel Wedge
Victor
Ed's 2X4
Something with Jays adapter.
Lot's better looking stuff.

[e philpott]

2x4 med  would Peg the cool meter and check all the boxes except maybe low idle speed

[Barry_R]

Have to agree with the crowd here.  Darn Performer RPM is a really good piece with very basic port matching and detailing.  I've had similar builds with it against single plane and dual quad deals and up to the 600HP range you can get them all pretty close.  For something that's easy, readily available, and priced right its hard to beat.

I also have to point out that I ran a highly modified Holley Street Dominator for about a decade on a street racer type car around Detroit and it was a great piece as well - but would be comparatively expensive to duplicate.

[bn69stang]

How much Barry ? , i have an untouched edelbrock streetmaster ,  lol  .. Bud

[Barry_R]

My Street Dominator was butchered up pretty good.  We did a bit of welding and then modified it to fit a 4500 carb.  Then ground on it some more and added some epoxy.  Repeat about ten times until happy with the results.  Then go to something else.

Ended up cutting it into pieces to do BT cylinder head development - kinda stupid to do looking back, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.

[machoneman]

Great thread here btw. Would be nice to sticky it or somehow memorialize for future posters to review. 

[Tommy-T]

My experience with intake manifolds is kinda funny. However, I've never seen large changes between most of them. I've never run a 480 inch motor...454 is as big as I've had.

On my '56 Thunderbird's 428 I had a ported Streetmaster and stock Edelbrock heads. When I put a +.060 352 in it I put the same heads, intake, and 2" headers that I was running and never felt it was lacking torque to move it around. If you're putting your 480 into a big Gal your results may be different. I always felt like I NEEDED to put a 445 into the 'Bird...until I'd hammer-down on the 352 and be pretty impressed by the little motor that I could never hurt, although I tried.

On the 454 incher in the Mustang I ran a Port-O-Sonic with ported Edelbrock heads. It was a fairly mild 11 second deal. I tried a port matched RPM and a Tunnel Wedge. I went back to the POS because it worked better for my particular combination. Intake manifolds can't read even really well written books.

I'm getting the vibe that hood clearance is the most important part of this manifold debate. If that is the case, your 5500rpm 480 incher will be perfectly happy with the lower Streetmaster or Street Dominator with some port work by somebody that knows what they're doing.

OK, I lied. I'll have to admit that adding the Blue Thunder single plane intake to my 454 incher made a HUGE increase in power. By far the most powerful intake I've ever had on a FE motor.

[My427stang]

OK, I lied. I'll have to admit that adding the Blue Thunder single plane intake to my 454 incher made a HUGE increase in power. By far the most powerful intake I've ever had on a FE motor.

That's kind of hard to believe...heck with all those beaters in the way when you look down the carbs, I am amazed it flows any air at all 

[FirstEliminator]

   In the Comparo book, it's mentioned that the RPM is low on torque until about 3000. Is this just a finding on the dyno and not realized while in a car? I'd suspect a little loss in torque would be a non issue since most people that would use this intake would probably be using a higher stall torque convertor.  The 482-Colony Park project has a low stall torque convertor. Trying to optimize mileage. On the other hand, with 482 cubes, low stall, and a little soft with off idle torque it may not have any traction issues at the track.

[My427stang]

I think the RPM is a little more aggressive than the SD or SM, and on a 390 I'd say would be soft, but not on yours

For you and how you are planning it, I would not let torque concern you, with the RPM range you are shooting for, vacuum will be high and response will be quick.  My 445 which is not much more radical than your 482 will be is like a light switch when you hammer it part throttle, and I can almost count the cylinders fire as I chug into the driveway and into the garage.  That's in a 4000+ lb 4x4 and 40 less cid

When it was on the 489 with more cam, I could easily cruise in 5th at 1500 rpm in the Mustang.

[FirstEliminator]

I completely disagree.
He can put any FE intake on the 482 and it will run up 5500 and idle at 600 rpm.
Now why he wants it to that, well...
A good well built 390 will do that all day, get decent mileage and cost less.

What I do agree with is that at the min the RPM is the way to go for cheap HP.
This sounds more like a parade engine than a HP FE, and hey nothing wrong with that.

   No matter what you do to the 390, doing the same thing to the 482 is going to be 90-100 more ft lbs all the way through the rev range. The car already has a 390, which is incorrect. It was originally a 428 car. I will keep the numbers 4-2-8, but revise an emblem to have 482. I want more pep, but don't want to give up smooth idle. Easiest path is more cubes. Kinda a Parade engine. But, it'd be a long Parade. More of an RV engine. Drove the wagon from Mass to Michigan twice this year and it usually goes to Carlisle along with getting driven daily when it's salt free on the ground. It's going to be mild. I just want to push it to the very edge of mild.

[FirstEliminator]

  Thanks for the all the replies. There is an RPM on the way. If there is conflict with the overall height of the engine, it appears the RPM is about 1 to 1.5 inches taller. There should be enough give here and there to accommodate that difference.


   thanks,
    Mark