Technical Original Edelbrock Torker intake

Ok Guys, last question I asked was about an L-79 camshaft and you guys came through with fantastic answers! Yesterday a good buddy of mine gifted me a nice Edelbrock Torker intake manifold. From what I have found on the inter web, it’s about 50/50 as to weather or not it’s a good intake. And the posts I found did not sound like many of these “experts” had actually ever seen one in person, much less used one.
This is the only place for true hot rodding Gospel, so here it is: the engine is a P/N 10067353 Chevy 350 that I bought new and pulled from my old O/T Suburban. My Dad, Son, and I are installing it into a 1963 International C1100 two wheel drive pickup. We are using a fresh 700R4 and 2500 stall converter with a 3.73 rear axle. It will mostly be a cruiser, with no strip plans (in case my wife finds this post!). I would like a nice rumbly idle, but a good strong running engine. I certainly understand proper parts matching, so I’m asking you Guys who have used this manifold, what is a good combination? I want to use the rotating assembly, but cam and heads are open for discussion. My hope was to use ram horn manifolds, but that can be changed too. My original idea for this truck was this short block, L-79 Cam, Vortec heads and buy an intake. I know, not exactly H.A.M.B. friendly. That changed with the intake gift. The easy answer is obviously a Duntov 30/30 and 461’s. I wished I had kept my 461’s, but they are gone. So, thanks for reading and what do you think?


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Torker and victor Jr are both single plane intakes. Unless you are running an all out strip truck, I would opt for a performer or Gm type dual plane manifold. It will have more torque in the low end. It will be way better for daily driving.

 

I really like the guys in Tacoma that run Delta Cams. They will grind you a cam for less $$ than the Big Name boys off-the-shelf stuff. Tell Ken you want a cam with some "attitude" but still decent street manners. (106-108 LSA) He'll grind you one and stand behind it .
6sally6

 

manifold is for 3500 rpm's or higher. not a cruiser intake unless you switch to 4.56 gears or lower and keep the rev's up

 

Short answer - one of the worst street manifolds Edelbrock ever sold. Do the hot rod universe a favor and sell it for scrap before it gets into the wrong hands.

(And yes, I was there when it was introduced and believed the whores at Hot Rod Magazine who swore it was the way to go!! Wasted some of the best years of my young life trying to make it work.)

jack vines

 

Toss that intake in scrap pile.

Now if you find an SP2P that would be a better choice, but it's a turd above 4000 rpm's.

Reality is dual plane intakes work best on the street. Nothing wrong with a pre-EGR Q-jet cast iron intake, and a properly set up Q-jet. Vortec heads with the edelelbrock performer intake works great, with a Q-jet.

Did I mention the Q-jet works well?

 

Yeah! What he^^^^sez.... I'd get the performer rpm air-gap intake for that motor...

 

Torker ll ranked dead last in Hot Rod magazines 19 single plane intake shootout. With that being said when I first put my t-bucket on the road I had an old spread bore torker and a 650 spread bore Holley, it actually was the best seat of the pants and gut feel the car ever had.
You honestly would loose your stomach when getting on it and not just me, several passengers said the same thing. I switched the spread bore for a square bore 650 dp with an adapter and it instantly lost the kick in the gut. I then went on to the low profile 2x4 setup, the last two setups were overall faster but they never compared to that shot out of the hole of the first combo.

 

Don't think it will bolt on Vortec heads without modifications, and then the ports will not match.

Keep your Vortec heads with a Comp Cams extreme energy 268 cam and a Vortec specific dual plane intake and your engine will make 350+ hp with lots of torque under 6000 rpm.
Running this engine combination and 700 r 4, 373 gears, with a Summit #sum-226018 Vortec square bore intake in my street 64 Chevelle and I really like it.
This pkg goes down the interstate nice (about 2300 rpm @ 65 mph) and has run a 13.29 @ 105 mph on 225-75-15 rear tires, It would be scaring the 12s with slicks.
When Vortec heads came out in the late 90s, The Hot Rod magazine junk yard jewel series, said they made 396 hp at the crank with this combo so I cloned it

 

I have an original TM-1 sitting on top of the stroker "305" (334 CID arrived at with a .030 over 305 block, 400 crank and rods, and a forged set of 305 pistons- a baby 383 if you will) in my DD, OT, 3/4 ton Truck with 3.73 gearing. At the time, it was the only intake manifold I had for the engine I was assembling, and was intended to go into one of my 56 Sedan Deliveries; I even had the Hydro flywheel rebalanced to the stroker motor. As luck would have it, the Target Master 350 in the truck dropped #8 exhaust valve right after the warranty ran out, and the stroker motor went into the truck, after a camshaft change. It's been in the truck for 20 plus years now, fires right off every time, runs smooth, and has a "sweet spot" right at 70 MPH on the freeway. I have thought about swapping the TM-1 out for the used Performer I have on the shelf, as the truck could use a little more low end torque for towing the Bracket Car. But, I'd also like to find an original TM-1 (NOT one port matched or messed with) for my 265 and 283 engines going together, so don't throw a TM-1 in the scrap pile without talking to me. They were't "meant" as a street manifold, and I remember all the hype when they first came out 35-40 years ago; God I'm getting old. Small engine, manual transmission, decent cam-carb-headers, along with LOW gears were their target setup; not my truck at all. I am Butch/56sedandelivery.

 

I still have a Torker 2-302. Yes it ranked dead last in the single plane power test, but first in drivability. It's a single plane that can be street driven without driving you nuts and will give more power and RPM than a dual plane. IMO

 

I have this one in my 32 roadster with a 327 and l-79 cam with 3.55 gears , 31" tall tires and it works great at all speeds.

 

Agree, ran one for years, street use, good response at part throttle. 355 SBC

 

All single planes will work if you tinker a bit. I personally like some carb heat for driveability but it's worth a try since you have it. If it doesn't work right they way you want from the begining, I would work with jetting, timing, dist advance, etc before I gave up. Advance the cam a few degrees for he street too. They do look good on an engine.

 

Ok here is my experience with one. My daughter had a Camaro with a 305/350auto in it when we bought it. It had the Torker on it and ran not very well. I built a 350 with 487x heads, Crane Fireball 290 cam, headers, yada yada and we used the Torquer with a Holly 4010 on it. I put a 9" with 3:55 gears in the rear in it, kept the 350 trans but I forget the stall speed. I never drove it myself but my daughter said it ran really good. Good enough that she wrecked it twice. Just going by what she said, it appeared to be streetable but like I said, this is not actual driving experience on my part, just what I was told.
If I were you, I would use it. If it doesn't work the way you thought it would then you can get another manifold. You would only be out the time and price of gaskets.

 

I hear about all of these opinions and I have to laugh. You know what they say about opinions. He is getting the manifold for nothing, will it work, yes. Fuel and air will get to the cylinders. Put a conservative carb on it and it will run fine. I've had them all and while it's not ideal it will work. By the way if you want to scrap it at .45/lb and it weighing 15 lbs. thats $6.75.

Pat

 

I ran a Torquer on a '64 Comet (Yeah, not a Chevy but same design) and it worked fine. But this was a 4-speed car... I got the intake from a guy who tried to run it with an automatic and the car was nearly undriveable. YMMV....

 

I put a torker with a carter AFB (edelbrock) on a stock 1970 350 25 years ago. First had the engine in a 70 chevelle with a turbo 350. Then in a 67 GMC with a three speed. And It now resides I a 70 1/2 ton with a factory granny 4 speed. And it has worked quite well. Idles just fine. And Ive pulled some big loads behind that 1970 PK . On that stock 350 engine that came with a large base Rochester 2 bbl I cant tell any difference between it and a dual plane intake. I q uit driving the 70 because the engine was getting tired. more blow by than the PCV can handle. Since you already have it. Why not try it? If its unacceptable you can change it. intake gaskets are not that expensive.

 

I ran one I too got for free in my OT 67 Chevy 4500lb truck in high school. The engine was an LT1 and a 4spd. Lots of fun. Could just barely pull the one front wheel off the ground so yes we had spent some time tunning the engine. It added a couple of hundred rpms at the top. We'd shift at about 7200rpms and it was fun. Ran it for more than a few races. After a few months even I was tired of the lack of bottom end and switched out for a old Weiand stealth intake and never looked back. I gave the intake to the next guy who wanted to try a "free" intake. . So my advice, try it and get it out of your system.

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Nice roadster!!! Just remember though, what works in a roadster might not totally work the same way for a 4000 plus pick up. Just saying.

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Ran one from 1983 to 2005 in a (off topic) 1968 Camaro street / strip car (355 ci., 12.5 to one compression, Duntov 30/30 cam, 3310 750 cfm vacuum secondary Holley carb, M-21 4 Speed, and a 12 bolt with 4:11 gears). Ran 11.87 on slicks at the track, and was very streetable. Even taught my girlfriend at the time to drive a standard in it. I have a polished Torker II on my Chevy II, it almost the exact same setup, but only 10:1 compression, also runs pretty well. Apparently the trick here (as other's have stated) is to keep the rpm up.

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I replaced my Edelbrock performer manifold with the Edelbrock air-gap, machined a notch in the plenum divider, and couldn't be happier with the extra torque.

 

You Guys are great! I really appreciate and enjoy all of the responses! I really like all the answers of “try it, if you don’t like it, change it”. As dumb as this sounds, I really never thought of it that way. And I make my living fixing diesel trucks, changing a Chevy intake is a walk in the park!


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I even got one on that nifty 307 that came with my 57 p/u project...lol

 

Don't sell the SP2P short. I ran one with good results years ago on a 355-cid fitted with a set of AFR Stage 3 441 heads, and it's still one of my favorite manifolds. This was with a not over-ambitious cam grind, correctly re-curved single-point Delco, and Hooker Super-Comp big-tube headers. Lots of work was done in the interest of breathing, including port matching of the SP2P to the heads, cleaning up the surfaces in the manifold and notching the plenum divider, 1 inch wide and 1/2 inch deep. I launched the motor at 3200 and shifted at 6200, which is substantially up the scale from a 4000 rpm turd. It launched and pulled hard every foot of every pass the car ran.

For some perspective, the motor was in a 1972 Nova spec'd for NHRA's long-forgotten SUPER X class -- running with a 12.80-sec. index on whatever you had. The class ran in Division 7 for about a year before being dropped. [There's a long story to follow this!]

I built my car in the spirit of the class -- affordable and competitive. Through careful shopping, mostly at the monthly Long Beach high-performance swap meet and with the SoCal weekly Recycler newspaper (and some good ideas), I put together a handsome and very competitive racer for a shade over $5K. Right from the beginning, it ran under its class index -- and in short time ran a full second quicker, down in the 11s. Not too bad for a 3600-lb all-up ride with a 10-point cage.

I sold the car when the class was abandoned, for more money than it cost me, and have been kept aware of it by pals as it is still raced, with more cubes and dollars, over the years. I'd still love to get my hands on that sweet little SP2P manifold I whittled way back then. Don't sell 'em short, even for kickin' ass.

 

I'm currently running a torker on my 58 jeep pickup with 350 block, double hump heads, mildly aggressive cam, m20 trans, and 4.88 gear. Pulls strongly all through the range, plus it looks good!


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We put a torquer on a 289 in a 65 comet. Mild cam and headers with duals and 3.25 gears.

Did it work, NOPE. Ran it for a year and swapped it for an F4B dual plane, worked mint.

The guy we swapped it to had a 289 HP, bigger cam and a 4 speed and 3.89 gears in a 63 falcon.

Worked great for him so it was a win/win.

The intake was not the be all that it was said to be in the late 70’s when it came out but live and learn.

Free intake, put it on and give her a try. Don’t like it, swap on another.

Cliff Ramsdell

 

When you notch the pendulum divider you are converting a dual plane intake to a single plane. You could place a divider in the torker and separate the two halves? It wouldn't be dual plane but It might do sumthin? I don't like that there isn't a oil fill tube in the manifold. But I do have a early torker with a fill tube.

 

Note the number of free Torkers mentioned. Maybe that's a clue.

And yes, also note those who had light cars and/or used gears and tires and kept the RPMs high were the happiest with it. Those who have heavy rigs, want street manners, not as much.

Good 21st century SBC intakes are thick on the ground for cheap. Waste time and gaskets if you want the full Torker experience. BTDTNA

jack vines

 

I've got that style manifold (Holley's version IIRC) on a small incher. It's a bear at it's intended use. Real slug on the street. But turn the dogs loose around 3500 or so, and Katey bar the door!