Guest gbvol54 Posted January 7, 2002 Share Posted January 7, 2002 Can someone explain the advantage of the Air Gap over the regular Performer RPM intake? Case in point would be a 355 with 10 to 1 compression, stock Vortec heads, and 'mild' cam (to accomidate the stock Vortec springs). Am I correct that the Air Gap allows/supports more aggresssive cams and higher RPM's? If I'm aiming at 350 HP at/below 5500 am I just as well of with the base Performer RPM? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest HIGHRPM Posted January 7, 2002 Share Posted January 7, 2002 Originally posted by gbvol54:Can someone explain the advantage of the Air Gap over the regular Performer RPM intake? Case in point would be a 355 with 10 to 1 compression, stock Vortec heads, and 'mild' cam (to accomidate the stock Vortec springs). Am I correct that the Air Gap allows/supports more aggresssive cams and higher RPM's? If I'm aiming at 350 HP at/below 5500 am I just as well of with the base Performer RPM?[/quote In all my years of drag racing, I was told that an air gap, primarily found on some tunnel ram and handmade custom designs was for the sole purpose of keeping the hot oil from being splashed against the intake , which in turn heated up the fuel mixture causing a loss of power. Over many years of testing in several different classes, I have found this to be very true. But, it doesn't alter the characteristics built into the manifold. I believe the Performer RPM will produce strong power to the 6500 RPM area, regardless of air gap or not. The main concern is matching your components to produce the power you want within the RPM range that the manifold gives you. I would buy a copy of DYNO 2000 and play with it, to produce tons of different engines of which you can see what the engines produce and exactly what the engine will do within certain RPM ranges. It's a great time and money saver.If you have the extra funds for an air gap, grab it, because on a street car anything you can do to produce the best power you can is well worth it. Hope this helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pparaska Posted January 8, 2002 Share Posted January 8, 2002 I read somewhere recently that a magazine had a test done of the Air gap versus non Air gap Performer RPM for the same engine and the effects were negligible. I agree that in theory a cooler denser mix should be better though. I have DD2000 and it's fun for playing gross performance level games. But once you start getting into the intricacies of cam profile differences (fast ramps like the Comp Cams Extreme series versus standard ramps) it's all too fuzzy. Unfortunately, the program uses an estimate of the lobe profile depending one the "cam type" (hyd flat, solid flat, roller) that you pick, and there's no way to tell it the true lobe action. Engine analyzer pro can do this, but it's $470! Of course, you have to have alot of data (like do a bunch of measurements of lift versus crank angle) to get benefit from it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted January 8, 2002 Share Posted January 8, 2002 I can believe the differences wouldn't be that great. Its not like the valve lifter valley is filled with hot oil to the top or anything. Any oil thats slung up there will be minor. Also consider its not like the fuel charge hangs out in the manifold very long, its moving pretty darn fast. I'd wager to guess that isolating the carb with a plastic or even wood (yep I said wood, coated of course so it doesn't soak up fuel) spacer (provided its not like really tall and effects your overall tuning) and taking measures to reduce underhood temps would in effect do the same thing or better. Just a opinion and theory of course not having a Dynojet in my garage (or even a garage for that matter). Regards, Lone Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Bayley Posted January 8, 2002 Share Posted January 8, 2002 Everything sounds good with the Air Gap, but I can't believe that the air/fuel charge at WOT 6000rpm would be hanging around long enough to soak up the excess heat from the intake manifold. I used to have problems with cooking the carb on my motor before I put in the heat separtating carb gasket. Even then, the only time I had any trouble was when the car sat in traffic for long periods of time. The heat would eventually "boil" the fuel in the bowls. Once I got up to speed, the new (cooler) fuel would replace the hot gas. Also, the newer fuel would never be in the bowls long enough at speed to absorb all the heat. Hot gas mixture sucks, I'll agree with that. But I'm still a little skeptical that this Air Gap is all it's hyped up to be. I can't imagine that big of a different. Just my $0.02 -Andy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.