Hi,

I have brought a freshened up Big block 454 +30thou ( 460ci ), at the moment it has no carb and a tunnel ram, which i will need to replace to get under my hood.
I have a 2.5inch Cowl hood. ( will be using a manuel choke )
Please can you advice me which intake manifold and carb would be best for this engine, will mainly be used for street and the odd fun run down the strip.

at the moment i was thinking off the Edelbrock performer 2.0 intake, with a 800cfm carb either performer or thunder series.
Also i guess that with a aftermarket carb, you cant use ab EGR intake.

below is what i know about the engine

It's a 2 bolt block fitted with a new chrome sump, oil pump, pete jackson gear drive, chrome timing cover, mallory leads, mallory dual point distributor, new water pump,, new mechanical fuel pump, chrome alt bracket, new starter motor, felpro gaskets and bolts, keith black pistons, roller rockers, 280 comp cam and lifters, new 168 tooth sfi flexplate, large oval port heads, chrome valve covers and t bolts, new chrome coil.

thanks from Luke

 

crikey. you probably won't hear gear drive and longevity in the same sentence, other than right here.

looks like you've got .520 lift and 230 duration, mild compression, i would go with the performer RPM

your combination @ 90% Volumetric Efficiency only demands a 718CFM so i wouldn't go bigger than a 750 and holley's have always been good to me,

you could most likely get away with a 700CFM and that is with a 6000rpm redline which is what the cam is good for (provided the cam timing hasn't been adjusted)



both the edelbrock performer RPM and holley carb combination has been tried and true by many many people,

i myself run that combo on my sand rail

 

I would really check height on ANY intake you use with a BBC in a 2nd gen Camaro! I'm running a cowl hood also with my 427, and a drop base air cleaner that's a 2.5" thick element. My air cleaner clears the hood by 1/4" with my Edelbrock Torker intake. The old style Torker isn't extremely tall, and it's not an air gap intake.
See if you can find a fairly low profile intake, or at least find out how tall it is ffrom the carb base to the block surface before making the purchase. I'm not familiar with the intake you've mentioned, but if it's an air gap it might not clear a 2.5" hood. My hood is a 3", and things are tight.

 

Have you had bad experiences with gear drives? They're noisy, but I've never heard anyone questioning longevity with gear drives. Most people use them because they don't have the issues of chain stretching, and tooth wear of the factory type chain drives.

 

The performer RPM manifold is a high rise type and will not fit under a standard Camaro hood, according to there website. The Performer 2.0 manifold is a low rise and according to the website, it will fit ok under a standard hood. So this one should be ok with my 2.5 inch hood rise.
Has anyone tryed the thunder series carbs?

 

i have heard both sides of the gear drive story.

i think some of it has to do with intended use but the lack of "dampening" effect that the chain offers has yielded premature part failure due to excessive vibration.

other people love them

 

I've had gear drives, double rollers, regualr chains. Only ones I ever had trouble with in any way was regular timing chains. I ran a gear drive setup in my 427 for years of street/drag racing duty, and never had any problems. I changed it back to a double roller when I rebuilt it in 199, simply because I didn't want the noise for a cruiser.
I went back to a gear drive in my 327 for the gasser, also for the same reason; I wanted the positive timing, and noise of the gear drive.
Beyond noise, and minor hp loss (maybe 2-3hp) I've not heard any reliability issues with gear driven timing.

 

I personally have no use for any Edelbrock carbs, but others have had good luck.

 

the only edelbrock carb i would by would be a Q-Jet


i really dislike the afb-carter style, some like them because they are so easy to "mess with" changing springs and what not, performance wise i would only go holley


holley's really aren't that hard to tune either and if you look at ANY serious racer's car, if they aren't running EFI, it'll be topped with a holley, most likely a dominator series.

that alone should be enough of a sell

 

Yes I second the Holley!! But the edelbrock is shorter and will accept a lower air cleaner.