either the world sportsman II heads and a edelbrock torker II intake, or the GM vortec's (with spring work) and the performer RPM airgap vortec manifold. the sportsman II is a lot more $$.. but how much more power does it make to justify the cost?

which would flow better for a strip car with a 355, 10 to 10.5:1 compression, 750cfm carb, comp 284 cam (240/246 507/510 110) or comp 274 (230/236 487/490 110), th350, hooker long tubes.

maybe even the LT4 hotcam if i go roller? im undecided on cam yet.. but somewhere in that area

looking for minimum of 400 horsepower/400 torque with the setup.. is it way off?

 

Those are 2 different manifolds.
Edelbrock makes the RPM.

 

doesnt edelbrock make part #7516... RPM airgap vortec $219.99?

unless that airgap doesnt make much of a difference in anything, then ill stay with the regular performer RPM manifold... ah just give me some opinions on intake/head combonations that im tryin to choose from

 

The air gap will make a subtle difference..........

 

You can't run that cam with the Vortecs unless you mill the valve guides down.

That's exactly why I just sold my unused pair or Vortecs. Screw-in rocker studs $60 if I do it myself, $120 if I have them installed. $120 to mill the guides down. $150 for an intake that fits.

That's $390 for stuff the Sportsman II's already come with...if you already have the intake for it.

 

The World product Sportsman II's are beauti heads but are GREAT! heads *if* ya take 'em home and port them.
They need the bowl opened up and the valve guide slimmed,
trimmed, and streamlined. The port opening needs to be carfully matched to your intake gasket. The port walls do not need
heavy reshaping just a good cleanup. DO not lower the floor.
The exhaust port is plenty big (too big) so just streamline the guide and clean up and polish it.
I'd pass on the torker II manifold . It is a compromized design. It will be the 1 factor that limits your power.
The Victor Jr is a much more powerfull manifold.
The Performer RPM is a good dual plane if you want to go that route.
Both of these manifolds will need their ports carefully matched to
the manifold gasket. There is big gains to be had here
specific to the Sportsman heads.
Both of these intakes will fit under your F-Body hood with the right drop base air cleaner assembly.
Combine these tweeked heads and manifold with either
of the XE cams mentioned and you'll have a screamer that exeeds 400 hp.
If you pass up on cleaning up the ports on these heads
as they come, you'll fall short of your goals and won't get your money's worth. These heads were designed to be ported.
Both intakes have intenionaly small port openings to allow you to gasket match them to what ever head you're using.
There is a book by david Vizard called:
How to build Chevy Small Blocks on a budget.
It shows specificly what to do with the Sportsman heads and Vic JR.

 

thanks people, thats just what i was looking for

 

Go with the vortecs/rpm air/comp 284 setup. Thats almost EXACTLY what I have on my firebird, and I have NEVER even come close to being beaten by a Sportman headed 350 powered car. For that matter I have yet to be beaten by an aluminum headed N/A 350 here in Tucson, though I know my friends chevelle with $4,000 ported canfields runs 12.1 and he would edge me out for sure. My friend with a 78 malibu, weighs about the same as my firebird, has a 350, ported sportman 2 heads, comp 274 cam, 4.11 gears, Th350, long tubes, dual 3inch exhaust.........ect......I smoke him soooo easy. All the vortecs need is a little porting and they will outflow a suprising number of heads out there. They build TORQUE like no other.

 

I'm with ChrisFormula355 on this one. I did a home port job with a dremel on my vortec heads and spring work. I'm really impressed by these heads. I also have the "RPM Air Gap" intake. The vortec heads outflow a whole lot of aftermarket heads up to (I think) .500 lift. The runners are 170 cc's which help in the torque department. I have used many different head and cam combinations and this is the best I have had for such little money. You can get the vortecs off Ebay like I did for less than $300. I have seen them go individually for $50 a piece on there. If a person could just buy one at a time for $50 to $100 per head you could come out cheap and still have excellent heads. Then if you did put some money in them for machine work it wouldn't be such a big deal.

Another couple things I like about the air gap besides it looking cool is the dual distributor hold down holes. On my car it's much easier to get to in the other side and I really like how the intake bolts are straight up and down and very easy to tighten. I know this is long but I'm sold on vortecs for a budget engine.

 

For a strip car, he's going to need a cam with more lift than the vortechs can handle.

 

For not very much more than regular Vortecs, Scoggin Dickey sells a whole set with the valve guide bosses already milled down and new springs installed. Go to SDPC2000.com . It's like $950, including the RPM Air Gap intake, for a pair. In my mind, it's either these or the Pro Lightning 180s.