Hello all,

Background:
I own a 72' Cutlass Supreme with the 350 that I'm essentially building to W-31 specs (Except for the giant H. Balancer). The engine and trans are freshly rebuilt (balanced and blue printed) and are still sitting on the stand. I had forged flat top pistons installed, a crane powermax cam, 2 1/2" exhaust all the way back, Rally Pack gagues, Spoiler, and 442 grille. (Cutlass emblems of course, no cloning allowed.) Hooker headers installed after break-in.

I am planning on replacing the stock intake and carb. I purchased the Ram-air hood and the OAI top-end air clearner set up. I was planning on running an Edelbrock Performer Intake and 650cfm Thunder Series carb, but I'm curious to know if the Performer RPM intake will work with the set up I've listed above.

Any ideas?

 

I've got a performer rpm on my 350 I think you'll be fine.

 

Do you mean work with your engine rebuild, or work with the OAI?
As far as the engine goes, yes.
As far as the OAI goes, I've heard it's a bit higher and might interfere
with the hood. If that's the case, just bring it to a competent machine shop
and have them mill some height off the carb pad.

 

Sorry bout that J- and Ralley, I should have clarified.

What I meant was; will the Performer RMP intake with that carb work with the Ram-Air hood set up? I was hoping someone may have already dealt with a similar dilema.

Do you think I will lose a lot of ponies if I play it safe with the standard Performer Intake and still go with the 650cfm Thunder series carb?

 

Supposed to be 2" higher, my stock air cleaner would fit without the lid. How thick is the top foam on that setup?

 

Mine fits with a 3711 performer (non RPM) and a 2" spacer (needed clearance for TV cable and my 2004R trans). These pics are with the 1" spacer before the 2" spacer and TV cable were added. Note how far the foam is pushed down. It's even more now because it's about another 1/2" higher then it was in these pics (2" spacer minus removing rubber piece on bottom of breather)



engine3.jpg

engine2.jpg

I will be changing to an RPM and no spacer down the road. I don't expect to have a problem since it should be the same height it is now.

A few imporatant point:
1. I have orig motor mounts - brand new ones could cause you to have LESS clearance then me.
2. I do NOT have a screen on my repro all glass Ram air hood. This allows the highest part of the breather to go a LITTLE higher up. The screen would push it down a little.
3. I got the repro air cleaner and breather from The parts place. I ordered it with the 455 foam NOT THE 350 foam. The 350 foam is taller and will give you less clearance. Also the rubber piece that goes under the breather in the crease where it slips onto the top of the aircleaner lip MUST BE REMOVED. This gives you about another 1/2" to 3/4" of clearance. I did NOT have enough clearance to close the hood until the rubber piece was removed.
4. I'm running an Ebrock 600 carb. If your carb is a different height your results could be different.

Bottom line is it's going to be close but it CAN be done with some tweaking. I wouldn't deck the top of the intake unless you've tried everything else. You could cut the bottom out of the air cleaner and weld in a drop base if you still don't have enough room.

-Joe

 

I also have a repo hood w/ RPM & Qjet. I used a regular 4 bbl base (inexpensive & plentiful). IIRC I used a combo of mallet & "mushing to lower the profile of the base. "Mushing" technique was a 6x6 (?) block, put the carb flange on it & push down on the rim to effectively lower the base - think pushing a hoop down onto a wooden barrel. You can only go down so far without potentially running into throttle arm/accel pump, etc. I also trimmed the height of my foam gskt. Joe has good ideas noted, they would be easier & less visible though mine is not visible other than the half height foam.