70’s-80’s era low rise single plane intakes

[travis]

I’ve been reading through some of my old early 70’s-early 80’s car and engine magazines lately, and now I’m curious. How good or bad was all the old small single plane intakes...weiand excelerator, street masters, street dominators, torquers, etc?

There are a lot of fuel economy articles from back then, and many of these articles showed very good mileage and performance improvements with one of these style intakes and headers/duals even while retaining the stock 2bbl carb. These are mostly stock cammed smogger engines with modest compression.

[SchmidtMotorWorks]

Some of the first single plane manifolds were made to cast the least expensive aluminum possible as the highest priority.
They were targeting what a guy in high school that had a job like working in a gas station or changing tires could afford with a 1 week pay check.

[PackardV8]

Some of the first single plane manifolds were made to cast the least expensive aluminum possible as the highest priority.
They were targeting what a guy in high school that had a job like working in a gas station or changing tires could afford with a 1 week pay check.

For true; the Edelbrock Torkers were some of the worst. The SBF Torker didn't do anything well on a street engine and the stock heads were all that were available then, didn't flow enough to really benefit from a single plane and be considered a race engine.

[Monza355]

I had a mild 350 chev once. Flat top pistons, L98 aluminum heads. 272 Crane HMV camshaft and a 670 Holley. This engine had an Edelbrock Streetmaster intake on it (very lowrise single plane) and it was a dog. It didn’t make much power but it ran decent and had good mileage for a daily driver with 700r4 auto. One day I did install a ported aluminum intake from a 305 sbc, yes a stock GM aluminum intake manifold and that was a drastic change. It felt like I had install a small nitrous kit on that engine. The streetmaster intake went straight to the dumpster !

I’we also had a torker (old style) on a somewhat stock, smog headed 350 chev. Small cam and headers.. and i’m sure it would have been better with the stock iron intake or an equivalent aluminum for weight savings

[Jeff Lee]

A Torker on a AMC to this day is still a decent intake for street or race. I’ve gone 10.02 with one on a so-so Super Stock engine and it had very little work done to it.
The Holley Street Dominator for the 383 / 440 Mopar was one of the best in the day; until the Performer RPM came out. I’ve seen plenty of 10 second Mopars with the old Street Dominator.
And yes, some of the worst low-rise, “hi torque”? for emission engines that were introduced (like SP2P, StreetMasters, etc.) were real POS parts. Probably worse than factory cast iron intakes in some cases. But you have to understand the times; emissions were introduced in the early ’70’s, fuel prices were on the rise to $1 I think around 1977, Octane levels were dropping, Detroit was hardly interested in performance.

[F-BIRD'88]

Less low mid end torque and not much top end either because the runners were too small VS the racing versions.

But were all the rage. Adding a full plenum divider helps. Some had this. Yup easy to cast and fit underhood.
(Where there is just no hood room for anything high rise)
Some of the ones with the curved runners like the weiand street ram are not too bad if you fully max port them end to end.. Carb spacers help. The vic jr is just better in every way.

[Geoff2]

The history speaks for itself doesn't it?

The Tarantula & Scorpion fell by the wayside pretty quickly. Then, some engines got the Torker, & then the Torker 2, both with the same rpm range?

[EDC]

Couple of versions of the Torker were out there at different times.




Both were horrible...

[Ken_Parkman]

I too have had very good luck with the AMC version of the torker; used in many higher performance street and bracket applications.Better on the dyno compared to the newer RPM airgap. The airgap did have better low end which is irrelevant on the street as you cannot hook anyhow. There is a new victor jr type AMC, but I am scared of how small the runners look, but will probably try one.

Just yesterday saw a test yesterday on YouTube (Nicks garage) on a 383 Mopar where the torker noticeably outperformed the newer Mopar M series single plane.

[BobbyB]

How good or bad is the 351C edelbrock torker for street/strip?

[Bob Hollinshead]

A wieand 7546 was the first aluminum intake I ever bought, it was in a summit kit... $176 for the intake, gaskets, 1850 carb and air cleaner LOL. It worked better than the factory manifold but an old Edelbrock c3b? dual plane worked better. The angle of the runners where they meet the head on some of the old single planes has gotta hurt flow

[canuc]

^^^ the early low and mid rise single planes did have a terrible kink at the head flange . but I remember them to be a improvement over stock manifolds from mid range up and a huge improvement with headers , GEARS , dp carbs etc . The designs have just improved from being developed just like everything else .

[rustbucket79]

I too looked down upon the Torquer intake but this year we built a mild 383 chev for a Corvette (70’s) and the customer already owed a Torquer, and better yet it fits under the factory hood. Although the actual numbers escape my memory, I recall being quite impressed at the outcome. Of course this wasn’t an ill conceived low compression 350, and maybe an Air Gap would have been even better, but in the end the customer was very happy.

[canuc]

its TORKER lol , and I'm sure your customer had a ton with one on a 383 . Perfect place for one on a 70's vette street car .

[1980RS]

Back in the 70's we used to run the Torkers and Tarantula intakes all the time with good results, just wished I would have known how to port them back then. Most of the other single plane intakes except for the Offy's single planes were just garbage. One time I ran a Eddy C4B and it was on a bone stock 400 SBC with a 3310 780 and the car ran pretty strong. Swapped the C4B for another Torker and wished I kept the dual plane intake. Same thing on the BBC's, the old canted Torkers worked pretty good on the 396's and 427's. Both newer Torker II's are garbage and make less power IMO than the stock intake will as the hi rise factory cast iron intake were pretty good, just heavy. Today I use all kinds of intakes and some work some don't, you just have to test them.