I never blew one either, even before I started installing the check balls around 1980. Maybe it has to do with how you install the distributor the first time....
I work with old stuff. Holley 4000 4 bbls on a single plane manifold. I'd like to know what type of testing is done (by magazines, in particular) that always maintains that the dual plane is better on the street? IS it? My engine does just fine with the single. Just wondering? Jim
I know a very smart cam grinder who will say that dual planes are more forgiving of incorrect valve timing, so say if you are constantly dynoing, oh lets say 350 chevies for instance, and you are building them all with 110 lsa cams like a certian well-known cam company likes to grind for instance, when they really want a 108 lsa, the dual plane, like say the performer rpm as compared to the victor Jr will come off better because the single plane is more sensitive to intake closing point. He will also say that if you put a 108 lsa cam in the motor like it actually wants, instead of the 110 lsa cams that that certain cam grinder that buys a lot of ad space sells, the victor Jr will typically bury the dual plane from 3500 rpm up. This isn't to say that any single plane is always better on all engines, the runner csa and length has to be reasonably matched to the rest of the combination and so on, but it IS to say that things are not always as simple as the mainstream magazines like to portray them, and the guys that do the dyno testing for the magazines know what the magazines want to see, and how to give them that. Take a look on Speedtalk, and you will see a lot of professional engine builders running single planes on SBC combos that make peak power in the 5800-6200 range and making VERY solid numbers in the 3500-4000 range, and some of those guys are the same guys that are doing the tests for the magazines with those 110 lsa/dual plane combos. Single planes are more sensitive to resonance tuning in the balance of the intake tract, and less forgiving of mistakes or sloppiness elsewhere in the overall combo.
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