shaggy56

I just got my Edelbrock Tpi baseplate part #3860 off of ebay from a supposed speedshop. It came brand new in the original box. Funny thing is when I got it I noticed the runner openings were already ported. They measured 1 3/4" round on all ports. Did I just get lucky or is Edelbrock selling these things already ported now? The porting looks very professional and clean. I noticed the box has a lot # from just last august of 2005. The intake will be mated with a Superram plenum and runners that are not ported. It seems the intake ports are still the stock dimensions. What would you say the intake would flow as is? Im thinking hoepfully about 250 cfm. If so Im feeling pretty damn good.

superGMman

It's most likely a big mouth manifold from TPIS. They re-sell edelbrock manifolds and port a little.

LT1FUN

What name does it have on the base?

Both companies will have their name written right on them for all to see.

shaggy56

Its identical to the lower photo you posted with the High Flow Edelbrock embossment. I contacted the seller on this because the auction never stated it was ported. Either way Im happy as a pig in **** since I got the intake for a bargain.

RPOL98

I bought an Edelbrock TPI baseplate new from Summit. They come like that, with some basic "gasket matching" machining at the gasket entries. same like their cylinder heads. You need to break out the die grinder and blend in the transition where the Edelbrock CNC port opening abruptly ends, and blend it in to the as-cast intake runner.

make sure you use TPI gaskets that have the enlarged (larger than stock) runner holes.

also make sure that the top of the Edelbrock manifold-base intake port adeqately covers the cylinder head runner entrance. mine was a little chancy there.

I also had to grind a little to get the factory thermostat housing to fit.

and at least one of the TPI runner bolts breaks into the rear water crossover on the drivers side #7 cylinder (liquid teflon req'd).

but overall, it's a good piece.

D's89IROCZ

hmmm , I never knew that . I got some wierd coolant issues ( colapseing hoses and overheating ) I am wondering if this could be causeing it .

Rob Wade

Diddo on the #7 center runner bolt leaking coolant. You need to seal that bolt. Also install your fuel rails and injectors before you install the manifold and test fit them. On my tpis bigmouth ( FYI it has the edelbrock part # cast into the bottom of the intake) three of the four mounting surfaces for the fuel rails are machined, and one is not. This tells me that the quality control is garbage and this one pad is low. In fact all the pads are low and when I bolt the rails/injectors in place it pushes the injectors all the way down in the opening so that the body of the injectors are hitting right on the intake. The injector pulses are amplified and this motor (with stock roller cam) sounds like an old slant six dodge! Rattles like a badly adjusted solid cam. I added washers to space the rails up a bit. This quiets the injectors a bit but mine (bosch's) still hit the edelbrock runners hard on the inside of cylinder #7 and 2 so there is still quiet a bit of injectors noise. Not really happy about that.

HD4mula

Holy cow! Totally true. I have one out and went right away to check. Put a flashlight on the bolt hole and you can see light in the coolant passage. Looks like an 1/8" or 1/16" hole. Definitely need that sealant. Glad I read it here before install

RPOL98

when I had first installed the manifold and got the motor started, I had thought that I had a bad manifold-to-head gasket seal at the back of the motor when I saw the anti-freeze leaking down the tork converter dust cover and traced it to the intake manifold. I thought I'd have to take the whole darn intake assembly off and redo the whole thing. I was actually kind of relieved when I figured out it was just that one bolt. It wasn't something I would've suspected, but then this was my first foray into the TPI new world order, leaving the carbureted world behind, well, maybe only half-way. all of my pre-87 cars are Holley four-barrelled.

when I first started up my worked-on TPI motor with the new manifold, heads, runners, etc, I must've had at least a half-dozen vacuum leaks, heck, it isn't even possible to have that many vacuum leaks on a carbureted car. luckily they were all easy to find.