intake port screens?

[J.C.]

some years ago i remember seeing intake gaskets being sold with a mesh screen in the ports made into the gaskets. i am sure some here remember this fad. i am not sure if you can still purchase them?
anyway, for the ones in the know, in what application could this mod help? i am thinking maybe a larger cube engine with too small of ports? too high fps, that may go into fuel separation? or other reasons?

i personally saw at the track a car pick up mph and et with just this mod done on back to back runs. it was a 455 pontiac with the old dport factory cast heads, which are not optimal for 455 cubes. it was 6000 rpm engine with solid flat tappet.

[OBSESSED]

I remember those but can't remember who made them. I bought a set about 15yrs ago for my pick-up had a chev 350. Went and put them in. About 1 yr later i pick up a new intake for it. Time to switch them out. There was NO screen left. It got sucked into the motor. This was on a daily driver. I would'nt recommend that unless there is something differant now days.

[Troy Patterson]

I remember those. The problem with the screens on a performance application is the tremendous reduction in flow capacity due to turbulence and reduced cross sectional area (at the screen).

A 1/4" screen reduces flow by some 30% - if memory serves me.

Not for performance applications. I would be suspicious of the "apparant" results of the 455 Pontiac you speak of. I would suspect the gain was due to some other factor not considered.

TMPCarbs.net

[ClassKing]

You GOT to be kidding. Go suck on a screen door and see if you feel a difference from simply inhaling. Yes, I flowed one just to show a friend who brought me a set. (Fifteen years ago.)

No, frigging no, no, no, no.....

[Ed-vancedEngines]

I agree with Class King and others about this joke of a gasket.

Besides the obvious restrictions, Carb Companies and Carb Modifiers go to great lengths to try for better fuel atomiziing and mixture handling capabilites, AND SOME IDJUIT wants to send it all through a screen. Let's all put a Toranado in there before the carb too while we are at it and get some inertia supercharging, to further help our power and our fuel economy.

Ed

[nhrata]

they do still make them... there called torque plus intake gasket jegs sells them but i have never talked to any one who has or would try them

[J.C.]

i no way am i advocating the screen deal. i am just asking a legit question on what might be happening in the port if one of the things is installed.

ed and class king, until dyno or track testing is done on some thing i would not be so eager to jump on a bandwagon......
i have seen nascar ports with a epoxy mountain peaks installed at the apex of the short turns.......

Troy, this was a idle to 6000 rpm shift. As a matter of fact the guy still uses them today in a low 9 sec e head 455 pontiac!

[Darin Morgan]

The Tornado swirl inducing crap, Screens, vortex generators, reed valves, ramps and wings are 99.99% gimmicks. Some wings work and in some very rare cases ramps work as well but the rest is just crap that is invented to do one thing and one thing only. lighten your wallet! I see gimmicks all the time in the Hot Rod and other Magazines. The magazines themselves are not responsible for the advertisers claims, they just sell advertising space to these modern day snake oil salesmen. I have seen new and improved spark plugs that make me want to puke and these import guys with there swirl inducing tubes prior to the intake manifold make me roll my eyes in disgust. The screen deal was pretty funny. I dont know what people saw in that but every engine I took them out of picked up about 20-25 hp and increased fuel flow so much I had to take a jet or two out of the carburetor.


If the engine wont pull fuel on its own or needs a lot of jet to run, something is wrong! On another note, if you need to resort to screens in order to atomize the air fuel mixture to produce adequate power, you have something REALLY wrong!

[beth]

The Tornado swirl inducing crap, Screens, vortex generators, reed valves, ramps and wings are 99.99% gimmicks. Some wings work and in some very rare cases ramps work as well but the rest is just crap that is invented to do one thing and one thing only. lighten your wallet! I see gimmicks all the time in the Hot Rod and other Magazines. The magazines themselves are not responsible for the advertisers claims, they just sell advertising space to these modern day snake oil salesmen. I have seen new and improved spark plugs that make me want to puke and these import guys with there swirl inducing tubes prior to the intake manifold make me roll my eyes in disgust. The screen deal was pretty funny. I dont know what people saw in that but every engine I took them out of picked up about 20-25 hp and increased fuel flow so much I had to take a jet or two out of the carburetor.


If the engine wont pull fuel on its own or needs a lot of jet to run, something is wrong! On another note, if you need to resort to screens in order to atomize the air fuel mixture to produce adequate power, you have something REALLY wrong!

I agree but think there is one additional element in this. After 6 months or a year of developing an idea, the human brain wants the idea to work so much that it many times convinces the designer that it works, even with evidence it does not. You see the same thing in lots of the customers, after spending $100 plus they convince themselves it works rather than to realize it was a mistake. This is why you see so many positive testimonials and people convinced it works.

[Darin Morgan]

The Tornado swirl inducing crap, Screens, vortex generators, reed valves, ramps and wings are 99.99% gimmicks. Some wings work and in some very rare cases ramps work as well but the rest is just crap that is invented to do one thing and one thing only. lighten your wallet! I see gimmicks all the time in the Hot Rod and other Magazines. The magazines themselves are not responsible for the advertisers claims, they just sell advertising space to these modern day snake oil salesmen. I have seen new and improved spark plugs that make me want to puke and these import guys with there swirl inducing tubes prior to the intake manifold make me roll my eyes in disgust. The screen deal was pretty funny. I dont know what people saw in that but every engine I took them out of picked up about 20-25 hp and increased fuel flow so much I had to take a jet or two out of the carburetor.


If the engine wont pull fuel on its own or needs a lot of jet to run, something is wrong! On another note, if you need to resort to screens in order to atomize the air fuel mixture to produce adequate power, you have something REALLY wrong!

I agree but think there is one additional element in this. After 6 months or a year of developing an idea, the human brain wants the idea to work so much that it many times convinces the designer that it works, even with evidence it does not. You see the same thing in lots of the customers, after spending $100 plus they convince themselves it works rather than to realize it was a mistake. This is why you see so many positive testimonials and people convinced it works.

that is SOOOOOOOO true! We are all guilty of it at one time or anouther. I know I am.

[shawn]

I knew one guy who was going to beat the system and make his own. Right under the carb. He carefully crafted a nice screen and sandwiched it between two gaskets. He put it on his car and went out to the local "test road" and stood on it. He negelected to figure that the butterfly's all the way open would hang up on the nice screen he had bellow them. So with throttle stuck at wide open, and in panic mode, he puts it into neutral, which of course runs it at wide open with no load, and bends allmost all of the valves and pushrods in it. Nice.
shawn

[putztastics]

The Tornado swirl inducing crap, Screens, vortex generators, reed valves, ramps and wings are 99.99% gimmicks. Some wings work and in some very rare cases ramps work as well but the rest is just crap that is invented to do one thing and one thing only. lighten your wallet! I see gimmicks all the time in the Hot Rod and other Magazines. The magazines themselves are not responsible for the advertisers claims, they just sell advertising space to these modern day snake oil salesmen. I have seen new and improved spark plugs that make me want to puke and these import guys with there swirl inducing tubes prior to the intake manifold make me roll my eyes in disgust. The screen deal was pretty funny. I dont know what people saw in that but every engine I took them out of picked up about 20-25 hp and increased fuel flow so much I had to take a jet or two out of the carburetor.


If the engine wont pull fuel on its own or needs a lot of jet to run, something is wrong! On another note, if you need to resort to screens in order to atomize the air fuel mixture to produce adequate power, you have something REALLY wrong!

I agree but think there is one additional element in this. After 6 months or a year of developing an idea, the human brain wants the idea to work so much that it many times convinces the designer that it works, even with evidence it does not. You see the same thing in lots of the customers, after spending $100 plus they convince themselves it works rather than to realize it was a mistake. This is why you see so many positive testimonials and people convinced it works.

that is SOOOOOOOO true! We are all guilty of it at one time or anouther. I know I am.

Great example of honesty, you have to be honest to know when you are being dishonest. Honesty is a cornerstone human virtue. Honesty breeds honesty.

When honesty is lost - it's over.

[beth]

I knew one guy who was going to beat the system and make his own. Right under the carb. He carefully crafted a nice screen and sandwiched it between two gaskets. He put it on his car and went out to the local "test road" and stood on it. He negelected to figure that the butterfly's all the way open would hang up on the nice screen he had bellow them. So with throttle stuck at wide open, and in panic mode, he puts it into neutral, which of course runs it at wide open with no load, and bends allmost all of the valves and pushrods in it. Nice.
shawn

So his invention made incredible increases in idle speed That is proof that it works!

[Robert Kane]

The Tornado swirl inducing crap, Screens, vortex generators, reed valves, ramps and wings are 99.99% gimmicks. Some wings work and in some very rare cases ramps work as well but the rest is just crap that is invented to do one thing and one thing only. lighten your wallet! I see gimmicks all the time in the Hot Rod and other Magazines. The magazines themselves are not responsible for the advertisers claims, they just sell advertising space to these modern day snake oil salesmen. I have seen new and improved spark plugs that make me want to puke and these import guys with there swirl inducing tubes prior to the intake manifold make me roll my eyes in disgust. The screen deal was pretty funny. I dont know what people saw in that but every engine I took them out of picked up about 20-25 hp and increased fuel flow so much I had to take a jet or two out of the carburetor.


If the engine wont pull fuel on its own or needs a lot of jet to run, something is wrong! On another note, if you need to resort to screens in order to atomize the air fuel mixture to produce adequate power, you have something REALLY wrong!

Darin, thank God you didn't mention the Omni-valves in your list of wacky performance enhancers! I am sure they have become the "best kept secret" in prostock and cup engines.

Seriously, anybody considering buying gaskets with screens in them should first ride down the highway standing in the back of a pickup truck holding a window screen, and see if it has any resistance to flow.

I hate seeing people spend money and then psych themselves into believing they have made a gain because they spent the money.
Robert

[Big Dave]

Forgive me if this has been mentioned earlier, as I have not read every word in every response. This is just a Horshack Oow, Oow Mr. Cotter, Mr. Cotter pick me kinda thing.

A screen in an intake could be useful as a flame arrester in a back fire condition; if the screen were metal, and was a sufficient heat sink to prevent a back fire. Other wise it is just a strainer for 4500 Holley linkage parts.

Big Dave