Intake/Carb Question

[Guest]

Hi. First of all I wanted to thank all of you that have taken the time to share your knowledge and experiences to save the rest of us a lot of grief.

I have a 73 Delta 88 that is presently almost all stock. The quadrajet that is on it had a very poor rebuild a few years ago and I have had nothing but trouble with it since. So, right now I am deciding what replacement I should use. I could go with another quadrajet, but I have heard that the Edelbrock performer carbs work quite well. If I go with the performer, I would most likely get a performer intake. Has anybody had any experience with switching to a performer that might help me decide (or would you recomend something completely different)?

My three biggest concerns are the throttle linkage, using a manual or electric choke instead of hot air (which would be easier), and the lack of support for emmissions equipment(my county does not require emmissions, but I am not sure what to do with the parts that are supposed to plug into the carb/intake).

Thanks again for taking the time to read this.

[Sgt Art]

I have Edlebrock performer manifold and carb on my 455. I really like the way it works. The carb is a square bore which means all four bbls are the same diameter. It's based on the old Carter AFB's I think. If you use the Edlebrock Performer Manifold and the square bore carb, you will need Edlebrock's adapter plate (I can't think of the part number but it only costs about $5) because the manifold is designed for the spread bore which has small primaries and monster secondaries, which by the way are seldom used in daily driving. If you don't get the adapter, you'll have a vacuum leak, rotten idle etc. I used two gaskets (which were pretty thin) one between the manifold and adapter plate and the other between the plate and the bottom of the carb. I have a really smooth idle with nice accelleration and good top end. I can do one wheel burn outs (no posi) until I turn the drive shaft into something that looks like a dish rag.

Some people don't like the square bore carbs. I've fooled with Holley's, Quads and Edlebrocks Quad and nothing was as simple as the the set up I've just told you about. The carb is a 650 cfm which works just fine on the big old 455. That surprised me, I thought I would need at least a 750, but some research and a knowledgible friend said otherwise. They were right. This car is a daily ride doing 100 miles a day with no problems.

My carb came with elect choke and it worked just fine. You may have to go to and aftermarket air cleaner for clearance. I had to shorten my throttle linkage a bit to make be able to get the throttle plates to open fully. I did this by cutting off the swedged connector and using (of all things) a steel wire connector that I swedged on the throttle cable. Works fine. BTW, You can get a replacement cable off a wreck for your car and have it done professionally at where ever that kind of thing is done rather than do what I did. The square bore has little in the way of emmissions hook ups. There's a PCV port, and two others one for ported vacuum and one for timed vacuum (this is for the distributor and one in the back for your power brake booster. It's a pretty easy swap.

[BryanDRussell]

I have the torgue intake with the same carb. I was told the performer was a better intake for street performance, do you know if that is true?

Oh, yeah, this is a 70 455.

[Sgt Art]

I don't really know for sure as the Torker is a single plane manifold designed for high performance. Depending on what cam your using, you probably get a fairly lumpy idle. This is fine if you want to drag race or if it doesn't bother you. I have an 85 LeSabre 2 door that looks pretty much like a grocery getter which is what I wanted. I didn't want a "whuump-whuump" idle which attracts every cop in the neighborhood. My son put Flow Masters on the Trans Am and my buddy, Chief of Police in our little town noticed it. Yeah, I warned him. Anyway, I was interested in decent performance but a stock appearance sound-wise. Also, as I'm sure you know, the cast iron manifold on that 455 weighs more than the Titanic's anchor. The aluminum manifold knocks about half the weight off. All things in life a compromises and high performance and streetability usually are at odds with one another. All things being equal, I'm going to say the Torker will probably give you better off the line accelleration than the Performer. Just my opinion, I could be wrong.