edlebrock intake manifold Q's

[DarkKnight]

i just bought a 2bbl edlebrock manifold w/ egr spacer. (cool stuff but pricey) im slowly trying to upgrade for my cfi 85 cv to a cfi ho. i know i need e7 heads, harness, and cams ect.. i wanted to know how much hp does my cfi lopo motor aready have? how much hp could the edlebrock intake bring in a lopo w/out ho upgrades.
sorry for the dumb q's but im addicted to this cfi stuff for now. untill atleast i can afford a 6 grand 302/375hp efi cobra motor.

thanks guys in advance

Why not a 4bbl intake and a 4bbl carb with emmision stuff?

[gadget73]

He lives in California. Removing the EFI would be a big no-no for inspection out there. Going to a later style multiport EFI would be fine though, as long as all the newer smog junk was carried over.

[Leo]

yep, california standards are tough... i recently talked to a mechanic on tuesday at the junk yards, cool guy, he used to live in NJ hoboken where i grew up. he says he used to work at a smog shop in san diego. he says the only way to beat the system is to pay a smog guy off so he could trick the smog machine. he goes on to say that most small time smog shops will over look inspection and trick the machine at the right price. he tells me to beware b/c some smog guys fuckup on accident and forget to trick the machine and if the car fails i'll have to make the necessary corrections in order to properly pass the test.
The guy finally asks me about the cylinder heads i was trying to pull out. i tell him e7s. he laughs and says those are the wrong ones.
shit....

[gadget73]

They're not the original ones, but they will work. What you should have currently is an E5SE casting, which to be honest is very little different than the E7TE casting the later HO motors got. I probably wouldn't bother changing them myself.

[1987cp]

He lives in California. Removing the EFI would be a big no-no for inspection out there. Going to a later style multiport EFI would be fine though, as long as all the newer smog junk was carried over.

They're supposedly that anal even with CFI cars, huh? Even though everyone knows CFI sucks? :p

yep, california standards are tough... i recently talked to a mechanic on tuesday at the junk yards, cool guy, he used to live in NJ hoboken where i grew up. he says he used to work at a smog shop in san diego. he says the only way to beat the system is to pay a smog guy off so he could trick the smog machine. he goes on to say that most small time smog shops will over look inspection and trick the machine at the right price. he tells me to beware b/c some smog guys fuckup on accident and forget to trick the machine and if the car fails i'll have to make the necessary corrections in order to properly pass the test.
The guy finally asks me about the cylinder heads i was trying to pull out. i tell him e7s. he laughs and says those are the wrong ones.
shit....

I guess that would be why the critical question is what is legal and not what someone tells you you might be able to get away with.

I do wonder what your mechanic friend could have possibly meant by "wrong" ... all standard SBF heads interchange ... +1 on the E5 versus E7 thing, though. Jason Fletcher's site has been down for months, and it's one of the best sources for SBF info, but most gearheads will agree that the only thing really special about E7s is that they're better than the E6SE casting the '86-up "lowpo" guys received as a special favor from Ford Motor Company, and were common enough they can often be had for a song (don't pay more than $50 for a set of rebuildable cores).

You'll probably want to give this guy a call before bothering to pull your own E7 heads. http://www.thumperoforangepark.com/ I think Scott said his heads ran him around $700 shipped. Supposedly some people manage to spend frighteningly close to that on a pair of bone-stock heads!

[Leo]

i sorta knew that mechanic guy was bullshittin... good thing i took that fellas advice with a grain of salt and a half ass smile...
- nah, no plans on cheating the system, i plan on doing things right, cutting corners might cost me an arm or two and maybe a leg
- the thumper site! +1 on that mang, i was trying to figure that name for weeks.
those look awsome!!
my question is- if i were to buy those heads or have ported heads, wouldn't the bottom end eventually bust or give out?? my cv has 150,000 miles on it. would it be wise to purchase a short block instead of patching up a 24 year old engine?

[Southern_Pride]

With 150k on the shortblock I think you'll be fine. Ive run the hell out my lopo bottom end with no issues under extremely heavy use. You should get atleast another 100k out of the engine.

[1987cp]

my question is- if i were to buy those heads or have ported heads

Same thing, Thumper specializes in ported E7TEs. Scott said he can also work wonders with GT40 heads (F1ZE/F3ZE).

[Leo]

oh, i see.
thanks for clearing that up

[gadget73]

If your motor has good oil pressure, good compression, and a leakdown test doesn't tell you anything scary you should be OK with a head swap. If you're burning oil, have no oil pressure, and/or have the knock of death, don't mess with it.