I was given one of these chinese aluminum intakes a while ago. I thought I'd write what I learned about it in case anyone was thinking about buying one.

The ones on ebay are a copy of the ones from speedmaster, which seem to be a copy of the Offenhauser Port-O-Sonic. As a side note, I believe the recent dyno testing shows the offenhauser intakes as the worst performing intakes, even compared to stock.

When I first opened the bag, it had lots of aluminum beads left inside. Not a great first look.


The sealing surfaces were flat and machined to the proper angle, but I ended up having to seal an unusually large gap in the end rails.

The next pain was the lack of vacuum ports. I ended up using the rear facing 3/8-18 NPT (nitrous??) port. I went through a lot of effort to set it up for power brake and distributor vacuum.



Other notes:

• I needed an adapter from square to spread to use the quadrajet.
• I had to use an electric choke
• There are raised bosses, advertised to be used for port injection.
• There is enough space to accommodate an HEI distributor
• requires different bolt lengths than stock
• The bolt holes are absurd. They have huge slots, and you can't even get a socket on some of them.
• The price is super low, but you need to add in other costs and effort to make it work, like the vacuum adapters and the washers I had to grind to certain shapes. A used manifold is worth it

"Low rise"

 

Uhh, ever think about using a socket instead?
Most performance intakes don’t have provisions for a hot air choke, or a Qjet.

 

I actually had to remove material to spin the bolt without a socket. I wasn’t interested in digging much deeper into the runner.

 

There are 2 spots on my Performer 7111 with poor access, so I used Allen head cap screws in those spots. The heads are smaller diameter to fit between the runners, and an Allen socket can fit easier than a regular socket.

 

^^^^^^

 

Can I ask the part # for that distributor is? Does it interfere with the air cleaner? Fwiw I live in northern, NJ. Thanks

 

Many years ago I’d purchased a new Performer RPM (s/b) that had the two twelve point reduced head bolts included in the box. I don’t know if they still include these bolts though. It was still a bit of a stretch to make it work.

 

McMaster has allen head, reduced 12 point head, and Torx-plus head cap screws. Some are beyond grade 8 at 170,000 psi.

 

The distributor is a standard delco remy HEI from the junkyard. I took the carb from the 455 and put it on the 350, so I can only guess on the air cleaner. Here are some reference pictures.



Cap screws and washers from bolt depot would work pretty well once I get back into the 455.

 

Be sure to use Grade 8 or similar hardened washers. Regular ones will bend significantly.