60's-early 70's single plane sbc intakes!? What was around then.

Im curious on what single plane intakes were around back in those time periods, and what performed the best? My dad use to tell me about the edelbrock taratula and sorpion intakes he ran on his 55 chevy, when were they produced? also he would talk about my uncles 57 with a 283 that ran a holley strip dominator when was that intake produced?

 

I've got an Edelbrock Tarantula on my 327 in my 55. I'm guessing I got it around 74. I'm not sure how long it was in production.

 

Phone Edelbrock,they will give you the complete history.

 

sixties? none. Tarantula '70-'71? Strip Dominator around '76.

Sorry, correction. Sixties, stock cast iron 273 mopar 2bbl, but I'd bet thats not what you had in mind...

 

Well what else was around?

 

fellas,

I had a 350 with an Edelbrock TM-1 aluminum intake, whatever that is ?

 

tm-1 is a tarantula

 

Does this one fit that category? It's a single plane Edelbrock Streetmaster...a little hard to see in this pic. It has the oil fill tube hole, so I'm guessing early 70's?

 

tarantula was a great intake. haven't seen one in years. had one on my supermod in 1972. street dominator's are around. i thought most of them were dual plane. when i first started racing in 1968, we, used a cast 4bbl intake and cut out the divider. only a couple of racers around here [michigan] could do it and make a difference. steve pastorino

 

Thinking Streetmaster was around '74-'75? If you guys are really interested, and you can wait around till next weekend, I will dig through my old mags, and try to nail down a timeline for all these intakes.

 

Yeah, the Streetmaster hit the scene shortly after the first "oil crisis".

 

(laughing to myself). Most of the people working at any of these speed manufacturers are on average 20-30 years old and don't know diddly squat on the vintage parts unless it's in the catalog or in the computer. Any question out of the norm is "I Dunno" . I'm not getting on young people, just these ones. Most have zero interest in vintage speed stuff and treat you like a loon of you want to run an old vintage speed part. This is typical: "Our new xyz part is so much better than that old dyx part" .

I gave up years ago with getting any help from any of these companies.

 

Im thinking of trying to get a tarantula, but which one was had a lower rpm range? I herd the tarantula was rated at 3500-7500, what was the range on the scorpion?

 

SBC Tarantula was introduced late '70, Streetmaster in '74 as FalconGeorge said. Scorpion was 75/76 era.

I think you will like a early Torker better.('71 introduced) Torkers were absolutely great on the street.

 

I have a strip dominator dated 75, but i wanted to know how far back they went.

 

Shoot i have 3 or 4 torkers, now i just have to run the dates on them lol.

 

I believe the earliest street single plane (lower rpm) was the Torker.

When you think about it, the same basic design is still working 40 years later with Team G, Victor Jr. and Strip Dominators still being great sellers.
Larry T

 

How about a race single plane like the taratulas 3500-7500 is fine for me, im looking for something a hair bit calmer then the strip dominator, because if im right the strip dominator i have is rated at 4000-8000 or something way up there like that, i have a victor jr i could use, its a pretty new design too, but i rather play with old nostagic stuff

 

Earlier ones had the open oil fill hole pointing to the p***enger side when installed. Later ones pointed to the drivers side and the latest ones had no oil fill hole. Torkers are better because they have the inlet and outlet holes for the heater hoses. Tarantula only had one hole and most people like to use that for the gauge sending unit.

 

Please correct me if I am wrong, but wasn't the TM-1 relabled as the first Torker, or are they two different manifolds? And wasn't the street master a designed to help the smog restricted v8's of the mid 70's get better gas milage, not really for performance?

 

The Tarantula and Torker were sold as 2 different manifolds. One was more race while the other was more street orientated.

The Streetmaster came in 2 versions. A more performance orientated X type(looked like a Torker) and the street dual plane type-Looks like todays Edelbrock Performer but both were the result of high gas prices and emissions as you suggested.

 

Hmmm well im going to have to look into that, and no need to worry about a heater, the car is not going to have a heater nor a/c.

 

Yep, the 3 newer one's I mentioned are all 7500+ intakes. I was just pointing out that they were still using the same basic design 40 years later.

Torker is probably the closest to what you're looking for and I think it's rated as a 6000+ manifold. Those are kinda basic guidelines anyhow. The same manifold is gonna work in a different rpm range on a 302 than it does on ,say, a 406.

If you're looking for a low rpm "race" manifold take a Torker and grind all of the markings off of it and tell everyone it's a Tarantula/Scorpion. Not many folks are gonna know the difference by looking at it.
Larry T

 

So on a 350 with a decent compression lets say 11:2:1 in that area, camel hump heads with 2.02 valves, and a small solid roller with the rpm range of 3500-6500 i would be better off with the torker?

 

For the most part, that's true. One notable exception is the time I called Iskenderian in an attempt to I.D. an old roller cam I pulled out of a 322 Buick that didn't show up in any of my old Isky catalogs, and Ron Iskenderian got on the phone, took my information, and found the specs for me.

 

The Torker would probably work better on the street because of the time you spend below the power range. But in the actual power range up through 6500, you would probably be hard pressed to feel any "seat of the pants" difference in the two. Maybe a little bit of difference in time slips, but that would also depend on a lot of other factors besides rpm's (weight/trans type/ gears/etc)
Larry T

BTW, on the companies and old parts deal, I called Edelbrock and asked them if they could tell me what modifications to make to my Holley carbs to run on their STR1 crossram. When they were selling the manifold, they also sold a kit to do the modifications. No one there could tell me anything and they didn't have any type of specs or instructions on the kits to modify the carbs. I'd still like to know what they did to them. The closest I've come to finding anything is the specs on the carbs for the factory Z-28 crossram. They aren't much different than a standard Holley.
Larry T

 

What happened to the Ram log you had?? As far as the strip dominator, which one do you have? The 300-2 or the 300-25?

 

Chubbs1955. Listen to Larry.