Choosing A Manifold For Your High Performance Engine. Which Intake Is Right For You?
The dual plane, 180° designs feature a multilevel plenum design that essentially separates adjacent intake pulses by alternating planes, while the single plane, 360° models feed all cylinders through a single plenum. The plenum is the large chamber underneath the carburetor mounting pad, while the runners, or ports, direct the intake charge to each individual cylinder. Dual plane manifolds are preferred for street applications (especially vehicles equipped with automatic transmissions) because of a stronger individual carburetor “signal” that provides improved bottom-end performance. By virtue of a less restrictive, more direct design the single plane is superior for top-end performance. So, for the street, and especially if your running an automatic tranny, use a dual-plane manifold. A dual-plane manifold provides lots of low-end torque. You'll just need larger runners like you'll find on the Edelbrock Performer RPM, or Weiand Stealth. Dual-plane intake manifolds have long intake runners, which help low and mid-range torque. Long runners contribute to increased air velocity at lower rpm, which gives you low-end torque. Making those runners larger helps velocity and volume at higher rpm. For all out drag racing, use the single-plane. Single-plane manifolds have shorter runners and a straight shot into the intake ports. This works best at high rpm because that's where you get velocity through these shorter runners. Proper manifold selection is also a matter of choosing the right single or dual-plane manifold because not all of them yield the same performance. Runner and plenum design directly affect performance on the street and on the strip. When buying an intake manifold, shop port sizing compared to your cylinder head port sizing. Even though two manifolds from Edelbrock and Weiand may look the same, there are subtle differences. Get port sizing close on both. Performance Intake Manifolds
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