which intake and carb?

[mattgood]

Hey so my 83c10 has a older 350 with vortech heads, edelbrock performer intake and holley 750 carb. I bought it this way, don't plan on keeping it forever but need to change the carb for the meantime (too much cfm, and no electric choke). I noticed my intake is damaged aka missing metal around a few of the middle bolt holes so I need to replace it. My question is do I buy a vortech intake or just a pre-86 intake? Is there a clearance issue with the heads? Thanks in advance.

[Jason S]

Get an intake made for the Vortec heads. The intake side of the Vortec head is different than the '86 back head. 

For the carb, my opinion is a Rochester Quadrajet... 

You said: "I noticed my intake is damaged aka missing metal around a few of the middle bolt holes so I need to replace it". 

Do you mean the center bolts that bolt the intake manifold to the head? If so, it sounds like someone "modified" the intake to fit your heads.  Have you confirmed the heads are Vortec and not the '87 up TBI swirl port heads?

[mattgood]

Yeah I was thinking also that they just ground out some aluminum to make the intake fit. Hard to tell though just because it is right where the bolts are and could of possibly broke due to over torque or something. Nevertheless i am getting a new intake and carb. Was thinking just a new edelbrock performer intake and edelbrock matched carb, prob 600 cfm. As for the heads it looks like I will have to do some research. I was told they were vortec but they might just be tbi center bolt heads. thanks for the reply.

[Donut]

Do your research first, a regular performer intake won't fit if they're Vortecs.  Pull the valve covers and get the casting numbers off of the heads.

[Jason S]

X2 what Donut said.

GM Performance Parts also offered some heads with the center bolt valve covers, but they weren't the swirl port TBI heads and weren't Vortec. 

They could be had with the 55-86 intake bolt angle or the 87 up bolt angle...  They were used on some of the 90's crate motors, as well as being in some boats with 350's.