Do the intake spacers help or hurt the performance...?

[Highbredcloud]

Currently I have a 1" spacer with the setup in my sig simply to clear the wrong valve covers Summit has sent me...They look so cool and Summit sent me the spacer for free after I bitched them out...so is the spacer hurting my performance? I made 291RWHP and 322RWTQ untuned but the heads were ported and polshied with bowl work and the intake runners have been opened up to fit a 1262 Fel-pro...also the lower intake has been port-matched to the heads...any ideas as in regards to the intake spacers?

BTW: the valve coves I have are the FORD RACING polshed ones that are made for the carb motors...they look really cool...

 

[TT91]

No its shouldnt be hurting your performance, Im an running the 1 inch as well simply to keep the temperature down on the upper manifold, and it works. Some say it will increase airflow, other say it will slow it down. My opinion, it doesnt matter, your most likely at the same hp you were before u had it on.

 

[Highbredcloud]

Yeah...that's what I was thinking, however, there are people that say the intake spacers actually hurt performance...I don't know...it's just that I am so close to brake the 300RWHP mark it makes me crazy...since the dyno time I have upped the timing to 18* from 16*, added my water pump underdrive pulley in hopes to get the 9RWHP I have been shy...and that intake spacer really got me thinking...I'm sure you don't remember the day you broke 300RWHP but to me it's a big deal...lol...the magical 300RWHP mark...

 

[TT91]

i never broke it...i flew past is at warp speed to to 475 rwhp.... good luck, its an easy installation, removed it on the dyno and see what happens. it would make for some goof FAQ material

 

[jrichker]

The 1 " spacer will do two things:
1.) It will thermally isolate the upper & lower manifolds so that the upper stays cooler.
2.) Lenghten the runners to shift the peak torque down the RPM range. Longer runners = lower RPM for max torque. Depending on your combo, it may increase real torque or decrease it. OR it may just broaden the torque curve, which is a good thing for street cars.

 

[89Notch]

mine hurt my performance