Edelbrock performer rant

[stykthyn]

I picked this steaming pile of up from a swapmeet two years ago. It went on while I was rebuilding the engine so alot of the issues I was chasing I blamed on tuning and going over build mistakes. Turns out 90% of them went straight back to the intake. I took it off because I broke a mounting ear off the upper intake for the 2nd time and replaced it with a ported explorer I picked up. Car runs better than ever now. Problems directly caused by intake were excessive pooling of oil in plenum, plenum cover bolts backing out despite using the ones recommended by edelbrock, cracking of bolt holes and tabs despite using the tq values recommended by edelbrock. I have never seen such brittle aluminum. This stuff was just aching to come apart. Anyone else have this issue?

 

[Jason 302]

I have oil puddle problems with mine as well....but I'm not sure that most 5.0 intake don't. I've had mine for about 6 years and the only problem I've had is one of the studs going from the upper to the lower decided to turn on me while installing the upper...stripping the threads in the lower. I just simply drilled and re-tapped it and it was probably my fault that the stud turned. Other than that I haven't had any of the other problems you mentioned. Glad the Explorer intake is working well though.

 

[NIKwoaC]

Weird, I don't know that I've ever heard quality complaints about an Eddie product. Pics? Sucks that all happened to you. Maybe it was an early production run that they eventually corrected...?

 

[Boosted92LX]

Granted, never ran an EFI eddy, but on the old carbed motors I never ever had any problems. Hard to imagine.

 

[wythors]

Weird, I don't know that I've ever heard quality complaints about an Eddie product.

This.

 

[stykthyn]

It was the early style intake. Hopefully the problems I had were fixed in later productions.

 

[Bullitt347]

It was the early style intake..

Which is probably why you found it at a swap meet.

 

[Boydster]

I'm still running the earliest style Edelbrock Performer 5.0 intake, bought when they first came out with that and the heads. Haven't had any of those problems. I changed from the dual fitting, dual hose PCV to a single and haven't had any oil puddling in the big chamber.

Maybe the probs you ended up with came from some abuse of the original owner.

 

[Dino Dino Bambino]

Maybe the probs you ended up with came from some abuse of the original owner.

That's quite likely. I haven't had any problems with my old style intake.

 

[bentley429isBAC]

Had the same one no problems. No problems with the super victor either.

 

[2vNotch]

Edelbroke is what id call any of their product ive used...

 

[larrym1961]

I am not sure about their intakes, but there is a guy here that had an Edelbrock Water Pump come apart and cause over $5000 in damage to the motor of his 331 Vortec supercharged '96 F150 PU.

 

[LarsD]

I had an Eddy intake for one of my sb Mopars years ago that the water pump bypass hose was threaded incorrectly. I sent it back and used a factory one instead.

Since then though I put a Performer on my truck, an Air Gap on my Dart, and one of their billet water pumps on the 347 in my hatch. The intakes are fine and that water pump with my 3 core Mishimoto rad keeps my 347 ice cold.

 

[VibrantRedGT]

Man, I haven't heard of issues of this product other than ears breaking due to over tightening. I bought my Edelbrock Performer intake in early 1995 when it first came out. I used it all the way until 2002 when I changed the upper to an RPM (still ran the 1995 lower). The plenum cover on the first Performer's used 6 torx bolts which wasn't the best design, I over tightened one and stripped the inside. Had to weld in new aluminum and retap. They changed that later. I remember that Eddy intake, 70MM TB and 77MM MAF getting me my heavy 94 finally into the 13's.

Scanned this pic from 1995. Was messing with cold air kits, straight shot vs. bends. Straight won on the dyno vs. rerouted bendy air.

Back in 2002 changed to the RPM upper still using the 1995 lower.