Anyone bought/tried the obvious Chinese copy of the RB Edelbrock RPM intake from Ebay?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/186725178360?_skw=440+ramcharge+intake&itmmeta=01JJR8TG4Z7D6KSRR1PNT7QYSA&hash=item2b79b01bf8:g:mUUAAOSwpUlnCN-u&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA0HoV3kP08IDx%2BKZ9MfhVJKkLye3iQKP1if6zuyT1OwumbLKDBZlaojjGXFjmYIDeYAl64URmopTfWzfed30PksQQHE58Qxyo%2Blzb0Ozkxvm4ZFQWqDKPrBaTvc62VEWkvw0lFcxtWmZ7dIQWGu6I%2FbyUdHaLPUPApbUzV%2FsFtZDMH5FGXyCuAdwW%2FA2nJYVkFLAts2l0j3WSw5EBB9nIvQ1aQkuO%2FT%2Bz9z0%2BaG3%2BAcXddNL%2FjTT%2FqQFGWDGV%2Fd1M9TprhWkmd67udalSWoHnIqA%3D%7Ctkp%3ABlBMUOCD6oiWZQ

They need to make some Chinese TF castings!

Why do you advocate for Chinese production at the expense of U.S.? Only because it might save you a dollar or two?

I am grateful to have been able to buy a TF manifold for my 383 and would hate to see it's design ripped off after they took the initiative to produce a quality product..

I'm not sure the OP is advocating, but asking about it: as in performance, fit, & problems.
I have no experience with that manifold - I've run the Eddy version on a couple 440s - but I've heard the ports are smaller than the Eddy originals.
Whether that's true, one of the real engine builders here will have to say.
I'd instinctively suggest the OP search for a good used Eddy version, but they might be scarce in his area.

Note: My response was NOT to the OP, but to the follow up exclamation.

I personally dont care where the part is made, as along as the parts are priced in accordance to the quality. I work in manufacturing, have been outside the country many times to oversee production processes... I would estimate that 70% of the time our processes here in the US are inferior to the production lines in many other counties. We tend to try to do things as cheaply as possible while many manufacturers who import products have high tech, clean production facilities that follow Lean manufacturing philosophies... especially Asian manufactures.

Really?!?!?!? I am glad you cleared that up.

Is Edelbrock still made in U.S. ??

Research is not hard to do.

www.lsxmag.com/features/full-factory-tour-how-edelbrock-makes-its-cast-aluminum-parts

Has anyone tried 3d printing intake manifolds yet?

Apparently you must not be aware of the innovative machinists and manufactures in Australia... Those guys are are cranking out some serious parts that we cant get here easily. The players in the performance industry should take note of the stuff they are building for their cars, some pretty amazing stuff, Heads, Intakes, Rockers, Headers and suspension that I wish we had in our market here.

So a copy of a copy? Why? I see weiand, Edelbrock, etc BB intakes for sale in good used shape all over the place.

You are making assumptions in a weak effort to distract.

Your strong support of offshore manufacturing and in particular Chinese knock off parts is noted.

Speedmaster / ProComp "clone" of Edelbrock Victor 440 intake

Edelbrock Victor 440 intake

Speedmaster BB Mopar intake

what are you missing that we dont have here? you can pretty much get anything you want if your willing to pay for it?

Those two intakes are completely different. these is nothing similar about the two. Runner size, height, exterior construction, all different. I've ad bot intakes in my hands and even the weight is different (Speed Master seemed heavier).

oh boy, I just went to the Chinese intake and it is a blatant rip-off. Not only are the intakes identical, hey list Edelbrock part number and info in their own ad! Even though the intakes don't have a name, it looks like they just smoothed out the Edelbrock name in the and even the US flag square in the casting!


knock off intake

Hopefully without starting a flame war, a few things to think about. First the people that over the last few decades who decided to move our manufacturing offshore were not elected, they made those decisions following the laws of capitalism. Next, stop and think what political party most of those CEO's belonged too?

Second for those of us in the car hobby, there is no real alternative for companies to get small run parts for older cars, crankshaft forgings, piston blanks etc. When those CEO's decided to screw American workers because they kept asking for those pesky raises and health insurance, not only did they kill the jobs they eventually killed the infrastructure and accumulated technical knowledge of those workers. To restart those manufacturing concerns will involve a lot more than simply not buying a Chinese manifold.

Third almost all the mainstay performance companies have been bought up and are being run as public companies, Holley and all the brands they now hold are a good example, a private equity firm Sentinel Capital Parners now owns and runs Holley.

list of companies under the Holly umbrella https://www.holley.com/brands/?msockid=0c5091f6d49d60a507c49f2bd5356128

so seriously as a good capitalist yes, I will select a product that gets the job done at the best price. These companies don't give a crap about American workers or preserving the American industrial base. They just want to make money. And I just want to get the best bang for what little money I have.

We still have some manufacturing here. But won't if enough buyers take the "I will select a product that gets the job done at the best price" attitude on knock off parts.

There is nothing wrong with imported items in and of itself. But when it is part of the dismantling of American manufacturing for the selfish attitude of saving a few bucks on a hobby, then it is very short sighted and again selfish.

Who here believes that the Chinese are going to do any R&D on Mopar intakes or any other of that kind of item? They leave that expense to Edelbrock and then rip it off.

Still looks like an attempt to clone a Victor to me.... but not a good attempt.

Because a non metal intake keeps the air/fuel mixture cooler and saves some weight. Like a thermo quad carb... call it a thermo quad intake??

Local drift team got 3d printed intake manifold for they nascar engine - look 31:40
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNh_yoxVDZI

A few years back a guy I know got a Chinese knock off intake for his chiivy truck and something was off because it kept burning the tip off a spark plug on the same cylinder many times but he changed back to the stock 4 BBL intake and it stopped

Thanks Hessu, that is what I am talking about.. I don't know what they are saying (my Finnish is rusty lol) but do they say what it weighs? I would make a guess it would be maybe 15 pounds lighter than an aluminum version?

The Chines will imitate anything they can sell in the US and get away with it. It's not limited to just certain markets it's everything! And EBAY is not helping any by offering this crap for sale here. Guaranteed to fit my a$$! Who came up with this marketing campaign? If any of you ever watched the TV show Contraband: Seized at the Border you will see the extent of what they try to get in to the US. Fake I phones to Gucci bags and everything in between. Remember the pandemic, They where flooding the market with sub par fake N95 masks. I guess my question is if you are in the market for a intake look for the Genuine manufacture made one. I have NEVER bought a new intake for any motor i ever built. After a good glass beading can't really tell the difference. Plenty of them at swap meets and even on EBAY. Problem is finding them there with all the Chinese crap. There is search parameter at the left where you can set it for only made products made or for sale in the US that helps. This argument seems to come up a lot about off shore manufacturing. It's not where it's made it's how high the quality control is? I have some non us made tools(not Harbor Freight) and the quality is not bad. I'm sure it's not up to Snap On specs but it woks. I would suspect the same for the China made intakes for sale here. Only way to tell is compare it's fit/finish and operation the genuine Edelbrock and make your dissension. And for the 3D made parts i think someone in the US should step up the plate and start making them. It seems the software is the most difficult part of 3D printing other than the expense of the printer. I would think i few key strokes to change/modify a existing design is easier then the present casting process.

Intake and valley plate about 5kg lighter than alu

As for cheap Chinese goods, we've done that to ourselves: always looking for the cheapest stuff out there.
How many "who's cheapest" inquiries have we seen here ?
(Not saying I don't understand or suffer from a budget, but low price is a major factor for the public for most stuff. Off-shore manufacturing fills that pipeline.)

As for plastic intakes: lighter, less heat transfer, but the one on my 4.6 Mustang isn't all that light.
Granted, it's a big chunk, probably larger than a typical Mopar or SBC intake.
The car at 52,000 miles is on its 3rd intake, due to coolant leaks where the OEM unit included the coolant transfer bank to bank.
Second one (both from Ford) developed a leak where a heater hose connection is swedged/splined into the plastic.

You are absolutely correct that CEOs & shareholders share the blame as to why manufacturing fled North America. But there are plenty others who also share the blame...including consumers who decided that they need to fill their homes & lives with crap....and that the lowest possible prices were the path to that goal. Then the giant American retailers like Wal*Mart & Costco who not only convinced consumers of that, but actively bullied manufacturers to move their facilities overseas so that they could get their goods cheaper. And finally the unions who this day still insist that high school dropouts with no marketable skills are worth the type of salaries that are generally reserved for professionals.

All that said, I still avoid Chinese parts or anything whenever possible. Partly due to the tragedy that has befallen domestic manufacturing, but also because I don't want to support the the vile & reprehensible regime running that country...but I'll stop there to avoid veering this conversation off into politics and getting it killed.

I belong to an AMC forum and one of the members there put it best when this topic came up, "For years we complained that parts prices were too high. So the Chinese entered the game and parts prices dropped. This destroyed domestic manufacturing as everyone thought they were getting great deals. Unfortunately the quality dropped to the point that most parts out of the box now are junk".

And the law of unintended consequences strikes again.

I can remember back in the 1950s people complaining about buying cheap Japanese junk toys and other things for their kids

How many here are running aftermarket cranks and rods? And we aren't talking Crower high end stuff.
Doug

They have a better business plan that's much more profitable,


Step 1. sit around and wait till an American invents something,

Step 2. copy it, pay slave labor to make it

Step 3. sell it so cheap the original inventor can't make money on them and quits making them

One was developed with free markets as a guiding principal and the other with state control. The two had a dramatically different trajectory as a result. People need to stop comparing these two examples as being the same thing.

A friend of mine, and HEMI Joel's does a lot of Ford FE stuff. He has cast his own cylinder heads for FE's, and has done a bunch of intake manifolds. Since he has his own dyno, he could do a lot of testing. He was making a bunch of 3D printed intake manifolds, and testing them on his dyno mule engine. Since the 3D printed intakes are porous, he was painting the outside of the intakes with a heavy plastic type sealer. One day while making a pull, the 3D printed intake manifold blew up, sending plastic every where. Either fuel puddled, or air leaked in somewhere, but he was done testing for a while. LOL.