[496fe]

Once again, (for the five thousandth time) it is proven that changing one part of an engine proves nothing. He said that his Victor added 30 Hp. to a 600 HP motor but yet, lowered the Hp. on a 400HP motor. The bottleneck on an FE engine is in the HEADS, not the manifold. He probably would have gotten the same results (or lack of) by changing the cam only, or the carburetor only, or the air cleaner only.

He did a LOT of work, but bolting anything more than a Performer or a medium-riser on a 390 is a waste of time. Just ask KC, Gessford, or Southern whar their opinions are. Now if he had done all this work on a Chevy big block that comes with heads that breathe, the tests might mean something.

A Victor 427 manifold with ported heads is worth 83 HP over a Performer manifold with stock Edelbrock RPM heads on a 608HP engine - dyno sheets in my gallery.

I hate to sound negative after all his work, but I also hope that people don't rush out and buy one manifold or the other based on these tests. Try doing a CC search on "disappointed". The venerable FE, along with virtually every engine ever made needs power improvements as packages, not piecemeal bolt-ons.

Just my ever-so-humble opinion after going through all this myself.

Brian