Edelbrock Performer system for 94 K1500

[Eagle0800]

I have a '94 K1500 with a 350 with around 140k on the truck and engine, im thinking of getting the Edelbrock Performer system for it. I use my truck as an everyday driver and for camping. is it worth the money? what would I expect to gain from it, gas milage/ hp?

[Elbert]

Originally Posted by Eagle0800

I have a '94 K1500 with a 350 with around 140k on the truck and engine, im thinking of getting the Edelbrock Performer system for it. I use my truck as an everyday driver and for camping. is it worth the money? what would I expect to gain from it, gas milage/ hp?

on a TBI motor I don't think there are any real gains to be made. I have a 92 with a performer intake and the only reason I have that is because the OEM intake needed to be replaced when i bought the truck. ON TBI motors the limitation is the throttle body itself.. WHile it cranks and runs every time...its limited by the fuel / air flow through the TBI setup. You might consider somthing like that when its time to rebuild the engine, but realistically I don't think you'll see much real gain in HP or torque.

[Eagle0800]

Thanks for the reply. Is there anything else that I could do to the intake to improve my HP/torque and gas milage? Im already going to go with a cat back system for the exhaust. I’ve looked at the some throttle bodies, would that be a better and cheaper way to go? Any feed back is welcome

[67malibu]

I've put performance single and dual plane intakes on several small blocks and regardless of the fuel delivery method, you won't notice anything in the seat-of-the-pants-ometer from the 5 to 10 horses you might gain. Now if by system you mean the complete one with heads, intake and cam set then you would definitely get a boost but you would need a bigger TBI to take advantage of the ability to burn more mixture. As far as putting another TBI on it, anything larger on a fairly stock engine (internally speaking) will just drop the mileage. I've put the Holley 670 cfm TBI on a '88 350 (needed a new one and it was cheaper than the new stock unit) and only noticed a tiny gain in the upper RPMs. The mileage suffered a little bit and the computer ran rich on cold mornings to the tune of thumping the exhaust for about a month until it adjusted. Just go with the cat back system for some torque and mileage as well as a better sound. Save the bucks for a good rebuild kit but be wary of the stock tranny if you start to really add ponies.

[sub006]

When I put a 383 in my '90 Suburban, I used a Crane RV cam, Edelbrock headers, World heads, etc. Engine was built for torque, mileage and longevity, not hp. The truck already had a 3" exhaust with Gibson straight-through muffler.

Many performance/mileage kits for TBI include a 1/4" spacer to raise the injectors in the throttle body. I noticed in the Edelbrock specs that their TBI intake manifold is 1/4" taller than stock.

I called Edelbrock tech and they confirmed that the injectors are 1/4" higher than stock. So I put their TBI manifold on.

After computer and dyno tuning to recalibrate the factory systems to the additional cubic inches, the truck pulled 150 hp and 250 lbs/ft of torque at the rear wheels on 87 octane gas. You can approximately double those figures for comparison to manufacturers' advertised numbers.

Best highway mileage the 350 could manage when fresh was 16, the 383 can do between 17 1/2 and 18 mpg, while climbing the steepest hills in overdrive without downshifting the 700R4.

Can't say how much the Performer TBI manifold contributed, but it sure didn't hurt.

[Elbert]

Originally Posted by Eagle0800

Thanks for the reply. Is there anything else that I could do to the intake to improve my HP/torque and gas milage? Im already going to go with a cat back system for the exhaust. I’ve looked at the some throttle bodies, would that be a better and cheaper way to go? Any feed back is welcome

With these TPI engines I don't think there's much to be gained in HP or gas milage...other than the normal tune-up type of things and changing your filters.

While these trucks are dependable and start most every time, they don't lend themselves to modificaitons that really make a difference.

There are two schools of thought on modifications...both of which will be limited by the Throttle Body.

1) convert over to vortec 350 heads and matching "special" TBI intake. One of the on-line performance chevy dealers makes a kit for this (Pace ?).

2) convert over to some old school type heads like the dart iron eagle heads, and run a eldebrock performer TBI intake.

I've looked at both and I think you'll tie about about as much money with both.

Then you would have to consider a "Custom" computer chip to even approach taking advantage of both of the above.

I think I would lean toward running the iron eagle heads or something similar if you wanted to gain some power.

But all said above....I think the cash outlay is pretty steep to gain anything really worthwile.