Wedge Motor 4500 Intake porting Q: New Best

So I have a 400/512....The 4500 intake has a clover leaf machined into it......Should I knock all that material out of there so the edges are straight from corner to corner or leave it and look for more power elsewhere?

My gut says to knock all that out of there....

Wilsons suggested I knock all that out of there, so I did.

I’m not sure why guys thin the carb gasket sealing area down to almost nothing like in that picture.

So it sounds like at a minimum take it all out to the gasket and blend from there......I was thinking that...Motor seems like it wants more plenum, but I do not have any more room for taller spacers. So I have to ask, did you run it down the track yet, and did that work?

I don't have a before and after run to know if it's a good idea or not. The indy intake that Andy sent to Wilson's had the cloverleaf removed when he got it back. I would think Wilson's knows what works and what don't. Andy said it was worth 15 or 18hp. PM Andy and see what his opinion is on this. I don't believe I hurt anything by removing it.

Not sure why either, but its the way it ended up and if I remember its just like the one Wilsons ported for Andy. Check his old posts as he had some picks in there.

To save some time I used my angle grinder with a cutting wheel and knocked off those 2 big knobs front and rear in the plenum to save some time. I just blended from there.

Wish I had a Bridgeport....

Ok....So I only have a little more to go on the top flange plenum area.......Any tricks for the runners?

My carb guy thinks the remaining HP is in the intake, so I figured I would give it some attention....If anything, it will be lighter. I would really like to see the car get down in the 6.0's....

Here is my personal experience with the Indy cloverleaf.
When I still had it. Car ET’d and MPH’d better with carb right on the manifold.
I removed it but never actually got a chance to test that way other than the dyno.
On the dyno the fuel numbers were all over the map with it removed.
Now was this because of the manifold or the other heads and cam I had on the motor?
That I am not sure of.
Before I did any actual track time I sent the manifold to Wilson for a full competition port.
Never dyno’d the motor again but here are this years results.
Before cutting cloverleaf out, running carb direct to manifold with a heavily ported EZ-1 that had
2.25 intake valves, the car ran 10.12 @ 133 and change with a 1.42 60. That was a 4.30 gear.
This year the combo is the same except I have 4.10 gears and mild ported EZ-1 with a 2.19 intake valve.
The Ported Wilson Manifold has a 1” taper spacer and the same carb as before.
Car ran a best of 10.10 @ 132 and change with a 1.38 60.
Now is the manifold Work offsetting the smaller head? Is the 4.10 a better combo for my low gear set in the 727?
Is it a little of everything? Probably.
With the wild fuel numbers I got on the dyno, I am not sure I would remove it without doing other work to it?
Simply squaring it off I think is a step backwards. A proper blend is needed too.
Talk to Wilson. It is expensive but so far I find it was money well spent.

I cut and blended the roof back on all runners. I just did what I thought would make the air flow easy as possible without too many disruptions. Wilsons first suggestion was a 4 hole tapered spacer. According to them it fixes most issues, but they still wanted the cloverleaf removed with my combo.

When I switched from a 4.10 to a 4.30 I did not see anything on the slip.(5400 stall) I think gear changes with stick cars or tight verts make the most improvements or deteriorations. To me it just seems like the convertor in an auto adjusts or compensates with the gear change when using loose verts..

So my new open 1" spacer showed up today.....The intake is all done and back on the car, so now the spacer debate begins....Going to start with a 1" big open one.....I still have the clover leaf one, and a tapered 1" aluminum one.....What's the hot ticket?

Ummmm... the one that works best with your combination.

You guys are too smart for me....lol

I could have just said: "It depends..."

Here....... let me help you out with that.......

“It depends”

Well, the verdict is in......New bests with my 400/512 combo

I picked up almost .05 this week in the heat.......So back to back testing from last week to this week with the only change the porting....

So last week the car went 6.24 on the 1st pass.....Today in the heat, it went 6.18 on opening pass. After that, the tires got better and so did my next two passes....Went a new best 6.13 at 111.89mph with a 1.341 60ft......So it begs the question, how much more can I port the intake?

I made no jetting changes and in the 93 degree heat I did not check the plugs....It was just too hot.

What was the corrected altitude and humidity on those weeks.

Glad to hear that you went faster in higher heat and humidity with the intake mod. Curious to see what it does in cooler conditions with low humidity. I think Wilsons knows a thing or 2 about porting intakes, just ask Andy.

My fancy digital temp/humidity gauge has no such readings. I think it was $10 at Radio Shack....