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That was the Edelbrock name for the old Torker intake. They had a TM2R and a TM2O style. The R is for rectangle port heads and the O was for the oval ports. I used to have the TM2O on my big block, but it got lost in a machine shop move years ago. The carb mounting flange was twisted on the manifold I assume in an effort to equalize the length of the runners giving it a unique appearance vs. all the other designs out there.
actually I remember the original Torker as a spin off of the Tarantula. They were both single plane intakes and the Tarantula was intended for more top end power versus the Torker being intended for more mid range torque. They are both outdated designs.
Edelbrock just names each manifold design. The 70's era originals like the Edelbrocks Tarantulas and Scorpion were not very well designed. Like the above post the torker model had much better performance.
Remember one had a weird twisted carb mount,
I had the tokker2 on my 454 and it really hurt low end dig, boy the performer really woke it up,
But outdated designs?
Hum, so what is the best dual plane intake today? Too off topic?
540 hit it on the head. Looked like spider legs. I used one for a long time, worked good in the upper rpm range. Today look at the Victor jr, descendant of the Tarantula.
Remember one had a weird twisted carb mount,
I had the tokker2 on my 454 and it really hurt low end dig, boy the performer really woke it up,
But outdated designs?
Hum, so what is the best dual plane intake today? Too off topic?
In my opinion and from some reading, the Edelbrock RPM Air Gap. I had the original Torker SB and switch to the RPM Air Gap, definite seat of the pants difference.
Once had the R version of the old Tarantula on a rectangle port 427 BB back in the day. Looked pretty cool, but IMOE very peaky in terms of any sort of performance RPM bandwidth. Sold mine off ages ago before everyone else figured out that other than being an interesting addition to one's intake collection they're not worth much else.
I had a Tarantula on my 67 Camaro SBC. With reworked heads, 12-1 cr, 750cfm holley double pumper, reworked distributor with mechanical advance, a 300deg duration, .550 lift solid lifter cam, headers....it was a screamer in its day (1968-70). Rough idle but a lot of top end.
The manifold was the hot ticket then.....of course its old technology today.
But with a cast iron aftermarket Super T-10 and 4.11 gears made for some low 12s at the track.
But outdated designs?
Hum, so what is the best dual plane intake today? Too off topic?
The Vizard book has cross section diagrams showing modern runner design that's much more efficient than older designs including the old Z28 and LT1 intakes.
The Tarantula was Edelbrock's latest and greatest in late 1970. If you wanted to run a high RPM smallblock, single carb under a "stock" hood at that time it was the best available. Only cost $125 too. About the only other option was a single carb tunnel ram or cross-ram.
I ran one on a 327 with a solid roller, Mondello heads and a "large" Holley. It pulled like a scalded ape from about 3,000 until you ran out of nerve. For me that was about 7,200.
Small Block Tarantula.
The Big Block Tarantula had quite a twist to the carb...
I had a Tarantula on my 67 Camaro SBC. With reworked heads, 12-1 cr, 750cfm holley double pumper, reworked distributor with mechanical advance, a 300deg duration, .550 lift solid lifter cam, headers....it was a screamer in its day (1968-70). Rough idle but a lot of top end.
The manifold was the hot ticket then.....of course its old technology today.
But with a cast iron aftermarket Super T-10 and 4.11 gears made for some low 12s at the track.
Bman
I had the Tarantula (with the canted carb) on my 66 chevelle SS 396. The previous owner blew up two 396 motors, bought a wrecked Corvette and installed the 425hp 427 (and Muncie M21 close ratio tranny) and sold it to me. I installed the Tarantula, 800 double pumper, Crane cam, Hooker headers and 4.11 gears. It ran 12.22 on street tires (12.5" Pro Tracks). Rough idle as you say, but boy did that car make some power. Always wondered what it would have done on drag radials or slicks, but didn't want to break anything.
I had the Tarantula (with the canted carb) on my 66 chevelle SS 396. The previous owner blew up two 396 motors, bought a wrecked Corvette and installed the 425hp 427 (and Muncie M21 close ratio tranny) and sold it to me. I installed the Tarantula, 800 double pumper, Crane cam, Hooker headers and 4.11 gears. It ran 12.22 on street tires (12.5" Pro Tracks). Rough idle as you say, but boy did that car make some power. Always wondered what it would have done on drag radials or slicks, but didn't want to break anything.
I had the early SBC 'Streetmaster'; it may have preceeded the SBC Torker. It was a single-plane manifold and in a Camaro 'LT-1' with a 350/4-speed (1974 luxury version of the Camaro... not the LT1 engine) this car really scooted. It was stock with a choking 2-barrel and when I swapped the Streetmaster and a 600cfm dual feed/dual pump Holley on it, it came ALIVE!!!
The idea of the twist was to make the Tarantula have more equal length runners. Not a bad idea really. The rub was it made linkages a PITA.
What I was told by United Speed World when I bought it, was that it put the carbs ports more in a direct line with the intake ports (I expect that would also make them more equal length as well). I never had any issue with the linkage which was stock.
The Tarantula and Torker have a serious design flaw......and that is that the ports do not curve to line up into the ports at the head.......the runners on these actually slam into the port wall at the entrance of the port.......A LOT of old single plane intakes were like this. They were not awful......I ran a Torker on a 355 in 1991 with 175 of NOS and the engine loved it.......but just about everything nowadays works better.....
It would be great on a retro build if all out horsepower is not a major concern.......they sure look cool
The Tarantula and Torker have a serious design flaw......and that is that the ports do not curve to line up into the ports at the head.......the runners on these actually slam into the port wall at the entrance of the port.......A LOT of old single plane intakes were like this. They were not awful......I ran a Torker on a 355 in 1991 with 175 of NOS and the engine loved it.......but just about everything nowadays works better.....
It would be great on a retro build if all out horsepower is not a major concern.......they sure look cool
Jebby
Wonder if that's a small block version issue as I was going to port match mine to my 427, but it was so close I didn't bother.
04-07-2017, 01:28 PM
