Hello, I am new to site and was wondering what would be the best intake for my truck
here is some information on the truck engine(this is the set up it has as I bought it)

Engine is a 390 FE with a mild cam, custom made headers, dual exhaust and holley 750 double pumper

I am wanting to put on an edelbrock intake on it and was wondering what would give me the best results, the performer intake or the performer RPM FE intake with my stock heads. what kind of horsepower and torque increases might I see? any information at all would be much appreciated, thank you.

 

the carb, intake, heads,and exhaust are a complete system that should be designed to do a specific thing. Unless you're just making pretty, you need to decide what you want to accomplish and then put a system together to do it.

 

Well Eric I am looking mainly for increase in Horse power and Torque, I thought adding an aftermarket intake would only be beneficial to the truck

 

Grab a Performer RPM, and I think your 750 may be a bit big, but if it works well now then it will work better with a different manifold. You probably won't feel a huge difference because you have most of the other bolt ons already. I would do it, look on CL.

 

With his pretty much stock engine a Perf RPM is wasting time & $$
A Performer 390 would be much better.

My guess is you will rarely go over 4500-5000 rpm and mostly well under that.

 

Concur with Boss9.

 

mild engine = performer you can find them used for a good price on Ebay and Craigs list

 

Great place to get FE parts is DSC Motorsports (DSC Motorsport Ford Racing Parts). He has lots of pieces and parts at reasonable prices. Performer Intake (390 Performer $160.00 / +).

 

3X on the Performer 390.
2X on the smaller carb. A low to mid RPM 390 won't pull the air through and around the carb's venturies enough on that big of a carb to atomize the fuel with the air as well as it would on a smaller carb. Much like flushing a toilet.
We are all assuming this is a street truck. If it's a 1/4 mile barn burner than things are different.

 

The Performer 390 as close to a stock manifold as you can get, but with slight flow improvements and the added weight savings. The Performer RPM for a FE 390 is as close to a CJ cast iron manifold that you can get, with slight flow improvement and added weight savings.

I think my last bone stock 428 CJ ran a 780 holley, that is why I think the 750 may be overkill on a worn stock 390, or it might run great.

Lets face it. If you found a 428 Police Interceptor or CJ manifold in a wrecking yard you would pull it and install it on your engine. So would everyone else.

You will run 60 -80 more CFM through the coveted low RPM torque band with a dual plane PI/CJ or RPM manifold over a cast stock or Performer 390.

It all depends what you are going to do with the truck. If you plan on a rebuild with a stepped up cam, head improvement, or even a CJ crank then get a RPM, The Per390 will choke you down.

Real tangible HP increase on a stock engine usually resides in a proper tune up with high quality parts, and an ignition system that will actually burn the fuel.

Having your distributor recurved is a must for todays crappy gas.

 

I humbly disagree with ya Buddy. If we were talking about a Mustang or other light car...maybe. But in a heavy Ol' Bump I'd still think the Performer 390. The engine just won';t Rev as fast with your foot in it as in a lighter vehicle. Too big of a carb usually nets bigger droplets of fuel that aren't atomized as well with the air entering the engine. End result usually, poor fuel economy and low RPM drivability. The same basic principal can happen if you bolt on an intake with too big of ports meant for higher RPM. As in a Police chase. The carb will still get the engine's vacuum signal so it will put out it's air/fuel. But the velocity of that air/fuel is slower in the too big of ports. Sometimes netting the fuel actually starting to "fall out" of the air. Especially under the carb where the air/fuel has to go down then turn towards a port. Same net result I mentioned above. This done to the extreme can cause the fuel to puddle under the carb at the bottom of the intake while running.

 

I understand the dynamics of fuel atomization, and I already said I think the 750 is too big, but I have never had a 428 or 390 puddle fuel due to a intake manifold, only over carb. I know guys that used to use dual quad tunnel rams on the street had a horrible problem with that.

there is nothing wrong with using a cast stock CJ/PI or Edelbrock RPM on a 390 for street use, it all comes down to what carb you poke on top. It also sets you up for a HP build later down the road without having to rebuy an intake manifold.

 

His question was simple. USING his stock HEADS with a MILD cam which intake was better on his engine. The proper answer has already been given a Performer 390 NOT a Performer RPM.

On a 410 HP 428CJ the Performer Intake will make more average TORQUE from 2500-5300 RPM than the Performer RPM will make. Just think how much better it will be on a mild~stock 390!

The Performer 390 Intake is very comparable to the 428CJ intake In torque on the 428CJ. It spanks the PI by a fair margin.

On the Same 428CJ and of a BUNCH of different manifolds tried there were two intakes at top of list for peak torque. I will give you a hint the Performer 390 Made MORE Torque than a PORT MATCHED Performer RPM. and about 2 lb ft less PEAK TQ than the stock Perf RPM. Try that on a basic 250hp 390 and YOWZA, Sell the RPM to someone else.

Been there done that on a pickup truck with mild ported heads and cam with good headers & 416 cubes. Performer 390 Was much better as a daily driver.

It gave me 250hp and 355 tq at the wheels using c-6 and single exhaust.

So to twist his basic question if he ADDED bunches more cubic inch or major head change, larger cam then maybe on the pickup depending on what he was doing go with the RPM. But I have found in a big heavy pickup I would still stick with the Performer 390 maybe do a tad porting.

I am building a 416 Cube now for a TRUCK and will be using a Performer 390 for the simple reason its a TRUCK and likely will not see over 4500 RPM