I want to avoid putting the iron intake back on my 390, because it is heavy and I am old. I'd appreciate advice on which aluminum intake manifold is good (and relatively affordable) to go under the Carter 600 cfm 4 bbl. I'm not going to race this truck, so a low price is more important to me than performance. Used is good too. Thanks in advance.

 

Even the aluminum ones are pretty heavy. I have an Edelbrock Performer on mine and it does pretty well. For either aluminum or iron, a good way to avoid heavy lifting is to use the cherry picker with a carb lift plate. Overkill? Yes. But it makes it easier to place it correctly too.

 

Make sure you get a dual plane manifold, as I think the single planes are only good in a light vehicle which does most of its work above 5000 RPM.

Dual plane manifolds will let you have some torque for taking off and low RPM cruise, and the resultant not-as-low MPGs...

 

Isn't the Edelbrock performer like 25 lbs? That's a featherweiht compared to stock...

 

​​​​​​
An Eddy Performer 2105 is 22 lbs.. the OEM monster is 80 lbs.
​​​​

 

 

It sure felt like more than 22 lbs when I was leaning over the grille trying to reinstall. It was at that exact moment I realized I should have sprung for the lifting plate...

 

thanks for these replies. First thing, I will probably assemble my engine hoist and give that a try. If that proves too awkward then I will abuse my credit card again.

 

The OE cast iron intake is 80 lbs.

An FE Edelbrock Performer is 22 lbs.

 

Truck runs good, with new water pump, timing kit, valve job (including one junkyard head), and rebuilt carb (by me). Thank you everyone who replied. specially WYRM73 who mentioned a "carb lift plate". I had never heard of one, and it helped a lot. The 80 pound manifold went on like putting a lid on a jar. That cherry picker held it just so, and very steady. Next, maybe a distributor, as mine is the original I think. And there is some unevenness in the idle. A little. But mostly---all good.

 

I have the 390 Eddy Performer on mine, heres a pic, its way easy to work with. The texture on the exposed side is difficult to clean, but you would prolly painted it years down the road.....

 

Jake-

My manifold is apparently from a 60's 390. The parts guy told me that, based on the thermostat I needed.

Meanwhile I had already installed heads and manifold using a 73 390 gasket set.

The manifold gaskets stick up 1/16 to 1/8 inch at the top. So I filed them down to let the valve cover gaskets lay flat.

They also stick out 1/4 inch on one end of the D2 heads.

Maybe the early intake gaskets would have fit better, I don't know.

No leaks though, so far. At least while running. I got some drops of oil out the front when glugging in oil for an oil change.

 

I can tell ya, the gaskets are supposed to protrude out of the front and rear of the heads like 1/4 " then you cut off the excess, I have a pic of that somewheres... I dont remember them being exposed from the top tho....., but if all your holes lined up nicely, you should be fine. Alot of fellas do put some RTV around the water passages, but if your surfaces were still in good shape with little or no pitting that's not always necessary.... Most importantely is the direction of those gaskets, the front water jacket holes should be covered with the rears open, so you end up with a gasket upside down but still facing "Front". ...

 

Jake- right, I think I got the gaskets about right. And I used some "right stuff" rtv after reading about it on here. The pitting was pretty severe. The temperature stays right at 195 like the thermostat says.

I have one small oil drip from the passenger side rear of the valve cover. I may pull that one day and see what is up. Just guessing, but maybe the manifold stands up shorter or taller than the head surface right there...or maybe the manifold gasket still sticks up and needs more filing.

I put my foot in it on the freeway yesterday and there was strong pull with some light stumble. Felt like timing. You wouldn't hear pinging over the exhaust. I had the timing at 14 and this morning I set it back to 10 with the vacuum disconnected. I haven't had a chance to test it yet.

 

Awesome, your chasing things down correctly, and as far as the valve covers go, dont let that keep you up at night, sealing FE valve covers is damn near impossible.... Im choosing not to look at mine right now.... Most the oil you see on a tired FE came from the valve covers, maybe it was a master design plan to protect the surface of the engine also I recently brought back my timing as well, funny it can sound so perfect at idle, but over advancement causes problems at higher RPM and in my case hot starts.... And good work on using a 195 stat, these motors love condensation, and the 195 mark allows it to burn out quickly after startup, yes they smell and feel HOT, but that's how they run....