I am restifying a '76 Sprint and I'm building a 454 using mid-70's speed equipment to give it the look of a typical ride from that era under the hood. I have a nice set of polished aluminum M/T valve covers that I bought back in the 70's and I picked up a very clean Holley Street Dominator single plane for oval port BBC's. Does anyone have any old magazine articles or catalogs with any info on this intake? As I recall it was for Idle-5000 or 5500 RPM but a good part of my memory from the late 70's is kind of "hazy". ;) Thanks.

Hazy? Hippie? Let me guess.... Wildwood Weed?

Let me look around. Maybe I still have some specs on the old '70s manifolds.

Tsk tsk! You're not bypassing the catalytic converter are you?

I ran one on a sbc in 1977. The Z28 mani walked all over it, as I suspect a stock GM Winters bbc would. I'd look for an old Edelbrock C396. or other dual plane.

Should be good over 6500. You may want to look at some dual planes.

Hippie,

From an '84 Holley catalog, idle to 5500 RPM. From personal use I used one on my mild 454, (464 cu. in.). During my last engine freshening I replaced it with an Edelbrock RPM and tested both on the flow bench and dyno. The flow bench says the Holley looses 9% average and 8% peak flow over the bare intake port. The RPM looses 3.5% average and 1.5% peak. This is based on my '781 ovals that flow 223 cfm average and peak at 280 cfm @ .700".

On the dyno the Holley nosed over @ 5000-5100 making 494 HP peak and 465 HP @ 5700. The RPM made 519 HP @ 5100 and 540 HP at the cam's peak of 5700-5800. So the RPM was 25 HP better at the Holley's peak and 75 HP better at the cam's peak.

As a side note I also tested a Holley Strip at the same time. It showed 5-7 more peak HP than the RPM but suprisingly at 200-300 less RPM. It also showed 10 lb. ft. more torque and 5 HP more than the RPM @ 3000 RPM. That's not supposed to happen I thought?

Also based on EGT's the RPM was hands down the best for mixture distribution. But then again it is also 15 years newer technology than either of the Holley's. Hope this helps.

Regards,
Gary Anderson

Originally posted by Cam:
Hazy? Hippie? Let me guess.... Wildwood Weed?Actually in those days it was mostly Mlller High Life and Boone's Farm....... that's my story anway and I'm stickin' to it. :D Now it's just an occasional Budweiser graemlins/beers.gif

The cat con, AIR and EGR are all just a faded memory. As far as being better off with a dual plane, yes I'm all too aware of that BUT the selection of manifolds that fit my requirements is a VERY short list. It has to have been available in 1976, it has to accept a Q-Jet without an adapter, it has to be for oval port heads and be an aluminum street manifold and last but not least I have to be able to actually find one now almost 30 years later. Of those available back in '76 only the Edlebrock C396-QJ ( my 1st choice but haven't been able to find one) an Edelbrock Streetmaster ( basically the same as the Holley), Edelbrock SP2P (Not even an option ! :eek: ), a couple of Offy's or my current Holley come to mind and I was never real crazy about Offenhauser manifolds. There were only 2 factory aluminum intakes for oval port big blocks and both were '69 Vette pieces and low rise designs. One was a Q-Jet intake from the 427/390HP and the other was the 427/400HP Tri-Power which is $$$$$$$ if you can find one.

The Holley is very clean and I got it for pocket change. As I recall the Street Dominator was designed as a "stock" replacement manifold and was not for use above 5500 and that is what I'm trying to confirm, the Strip Dominator was the high RPM intake. As with any single plane they give up some on the low end but I can get some of that back with a plenum divider if I need to and with a 454CID plus Rat and 3.73 gears I don't see low end really being that nuch of an issue, traction maybe..... I'm not going to race it and I'm not going to tow with it, I'm just going to cruise in it every chance I get. But if anybody has a C396-QJ they'd care to part with I'm all ears.

Thanks for the replies.

Originally posted by Gary Anderson:
Hippie,

From an '84 Holley catalog, idle to 5500 RPM. From personal use I used one on my mild 454, (464 cu. in.).
Regards,
Gary Anderson Hey thanks Gary, just what I was looking for. What compression and cam were you running ? I will be shooting for right around 9 to 1. I am looking at a Lunati 302A6LUN cam with 221/230 Deg @ .050" and .515"/.515" Lift, 112* Lobe seperation and ground on a 106* C/L. I wanted something that would pull well to 5500 and have a noticable lope. Lunati says this works well in 454-502 CI motors with 9 to 1 comp. and stock torque converters. I had also considered a Comp Cams XE274H but have seen a lot of bad press lately about Comp Cams having reliability issues. BBC's can be valvetrain eaters anyway so that scared me off.

Like I said in my other reply this is a "cruiser" not a race car or tow vehicle. I don't have to be the fastest "kid" on the block I just want to have a little fun.

You aren't going to believe this ! I was BSing with one of the supervisor's at work about his BB Camaro project and jokingly asked him if he had an Edelbrock C396QJ intake laying around. He said "That's the one for spreadbore carbs right ? Yeah, want to buy it?" I asked him if it was a Performer and he said "No, it's older than that but looks a lot like one" :eek: 50 bucks AND I get the Edelbrock valve covers with it, the old finned aluminum ones. Somebody pinch me. :D :D :D

Ah, livin' in a state of grace now are 'ye Mr. Hippie! Blighmye, not even St. Patty's Day yet! :D

Made to order dude! Now you'll give up very little vs the rpm. And be 'correct'! graemlins/thumbsup.gif

Originally posted by 427L88:
Ah, livin' in a state of grace now are 'ye Mr. Hippie! Blighmye, not even St. Patty's Day yet! :D

Made to order dude! Now you'll give up very little vs the rpm. And be 'correct'! graemlins/thumbsup.gif That's " Mc Dude" if you please.. ;) Erin Go Bragh! graemlins/beers.gif

pics for us that werent around than... !

Originally posted by Chirp08:
pics for us that werent around than... ! As soon as I get them home, hopefully by this weekend.

Holley single planes, kinda like the difference between E-brock's torquer and the early Victor series up to a Victor Jr. type(??), (SB's), imho...

Didn't Holley make a Street Avenger and a Strip Avenger which was like a Performer and the other is their great old 300-36, true high-rise dual plane for SB's?

pdq67

Well, if it sounds too good to be true.......... I guess "Old" is in the eye of the beholder, the intake is a Performer 2-O not the C396QJ and the valve covers are the tall Elite series. But hey, no problem, I can camouflage the intake and I still have my M/T valve covers. I may grind the "Performer" script off the intake and some of it will be hidden by the GM heat shield. Still a good deal even if it wasn't what I was looking for.