[TCSGTO]

Found this article in a 1978 Popular Hot Rodding mag I bought when I was in HS. It’s probably the reason I got into Pontiacs. An 11 second street car was insane in the 70’s and is still respectable today.

[Tom Vaught]

Maybe one of the web guys can spin the pictures around for you so that it is easy to read them.

Tom V.

[Stan Weiss]

The problem is that these boards will sometime rotate the picture.

Stan

[steve25]

Sorry, but I don’t consider a 4.56 rear geared 455 any where near a street car, and even back in 1978 it was not all that easy to turn up a set of 455 HO round port heads unless you already had such a motor.

[firechicken]

Torker, spread bore Holley and blocked oil filter bypass. Interesting stuff.

[PAUL K]

Very cool article. Back then it wasn't uncommon to see 4" stroke Pontiac engines using a 4.56 gear. My friend ran 4.56's in his 65 GTO. I believe the only aftermarket gear ratios available for the 8.2 were 4.56 & 4.88 or and 3:55 and less. A buddy had A SBC Nova with 4:88's that he would drive eighty miles to the track one way.

[tom s]

Paul,in 1999 I had a 4.56 in my 434 63 Lemans with a Tremic 5 speed.Would not 60ft worth a damn.Im at a 3.90 now and will be going too a 3.64.Tom

[mchell]

Cool!

Love the last pic.....window down with arm hanging out and no helmet.... those were the days!

[llwta76]

I have that same article. As a matter of fact that article set me on a course to building my own version of the same engine. Just better times back in those days.

[TCSGTO]

In the article they mention “Joe” machining the block. Since it was in So Cal I wonder if it was a Joe Sherman build? I didn’t see any mention of a shop in the credits at the end of the article.

[TCSGTO]

Originally Posted by firechicken

Torker, spread bore Holley and blocked oil filter bypass. Interesting stuff.

H-O Racing was big on blocking the bypass back then. They used to say you had to run the Lee 2 stage filter with the bypass blocked because it had the highest Dow rate of anything they tested.
Maybe Ken Crocie will chime in with some insights since it seems H-O had a big hand in this build.

[tom s]

If it was Joe Sherman the shop that did his machine work was Engine Supply in Santa Ana.Joe did not do ANY machine work.Tom

[Cliff R]

I didn't see if they used a spacer or not on the Torker intake? I imagine they used one, but for the record the Torker I intake is horrible without one.

I dyno'd one about 20 years ago on a 455 topped with #48 heads and 246/257 @ .050" cam, about 11.5 compression and it was a TURD. We removed it and bolted on my stock (modified) iron intake and picked up 57HP on the very next pull with no other changes!....

[OCMDGTO]

Nice blast from the past there

[ta man]

I have a torker..it works great always sits on the bench I use it for a carb stand. I tried one years ago didn't work on a milder build. Wasn't the big trick for them was to cut 2 in half and use the back halves together?

[steve25]

I tryed out the T1 way back then and came to the conclusion that only above 5500 did it out perform a stock iron intake on a well built street 400 with 3.55 gears and a 230 @ .050” cam, every where else below 5500 it was a pure Dog!

I often wondered if Edelbrock came up with that intake for the expressed purpose of slow down the average Pontiac because that manifold layout: design was not used on any other spreadbore based manifold out of all the other GM motors that also used the spreadbore type carb .
It’s like we where sold a load of **** about that manifold in the performance related media!

[ta man]

Or they knew the hardcore guys would buy 2 just to cut them up and weld them together.

[PAUL K]

The original Torker has a place in this world, a small place. It usually works well on iron ported heads and functions in a narrow but relatively high RPM range. I remember reading an article about the challenging time Edelbrock had developing the manifold. I believe they used a RAIV engine with headers and compared their Torker manifold to the factory manifold. They came up with a 20 horsepower improvement at peak RPM compared to the factory aluminum unit.

Attached is a dyno test using 250 cfm iron d-ports and a Torker manifold on a basic 455.

[steve25]

Paul, how was that 455 Cammed to be making peak hp at 6k?

[Cliff R]

"Wasn't the big trick for them was to cut 2 in half and use the back halves together?"

Yes, and even then it needs at least a 1" spacer to work well. WAY back in the day some SS racers used them but I've always seen at least a 1" spacer with it. In completely stock form it's horrible even with a spread bore carb which it was really designed for. Something about the "shelf" cast into the front of the plenum to help with fuel impingement, or something along those lines from the HO book.

We tried one on the dyno and at the track without a spacer and it was a dog even at high RPM's, my stock intake killed it everyplace....FWIW....