Hey guys.

I'm having a little trouble deciding my intake manifold choice. I can get either the Edelbrock RPM Performer at a good price, or the Edelbrock RPM Performer Air-Gap at a good price. I can't decide between them.

The rest of the motor:

360 cid
Vortec Heads - Ported and enlarged valves
XE268H cam - 224/230@.50 .477/.480 *(with 1.5s)
1.6 Rockers

Figure I want to make power from about 1500-6000. This will be an almost daily driven, stock weight, T-5 car. Some strip use.

From looking at their descriptions I can't seem to find a real difference between those two manifolds except the Air-Gap makes it cooler supposedly. Is it worth the extra $40 bucks over the regular rpm performer?

And yes I searched, didn't find anything with my particular question

 

I have never seen a back-to-back comparison of the two.

In theory, the Air Gap should provide a denser charge. But, whether that holds out in real-world conditions, I can't honestly say.

But, when it came time to put in the order, I got the Air Gap.

 

For the track or a street/strip weekend warrior I would go with the airgap no doubt. For a daily driver I would go with the regular old performer RPM. The airgap tends to offer poor a/f vaporization and atomization on cold starts and cold days. It takes a while longer for the intake to warm up, if it ever does. During that time, you will have to use a richer air/fuel mixture than a standard performer, throwing your economy out the window.

 

Okay thanks guys. I'm gona go with the airgap.

 

If you go with the Air GAp, and try to drive it on cold mornigns and such, you will hate it. The regular RPM will give you less grief for that situation, at the expense of very little difference in power.

Neither one is going to be legal for use on the street where you are.

 

Hmm, I'm not planning on driving it without warming it up (usually 10-15 minutes while I eat). Also smog is not an issue.

Still think I should go with the regular Performer RPM? I'd like every bit of power I can get, but if it's going to be really unfriendly then I might just go with the regular one then