By ?early Yates? do you mean C302 high ports or C3L?s? Lots of people
call the C302?s Yates, when they are not. The C302's are the last of
the Motorsport high port family which included the A3, B351, and C302
cylinder heads. Early Yates heads are C3L's or perhaps C3H's.

> He's running an old SVO B-351 that is fully ported.

The B-351 intake was designed to fit C302 cylinder heads. It is not a Yates
intake, though it may have been ported to match Yates heads.

> I've heard the Edelbrock 2961 (351Y) is a good one. Anybody know if this is
> the best or is there a better one out there? He shifts at 8200.

I've got a friend's Edelbrock 2961 here. I don't know how much porting has
been done but, oddly enough, it fits the earliest (and largest port) of the
high port heads, the A3's, quite well.

> There is no such thing as a great "out of the box" yates intake from what
> I have seen. Every intake I have seen required porting to match up to the
> heads. In fact the heads and intakes are designed to be ported in what
> ever form the user wants (with in reason).

The FRPP/Motorsport intakes are as you describe, as are several of the
Edelbrock intakes. However, the 2961 is a little different in this
respect. Edelbrock offers similar intakes with differing port sizes.
The 2961 is the largest of the lot at 1.38"x1.90". Be aware the 2961
requires a valley cover available from by R.D.I.

> He was wanting to know what newer intake had the most airflow potential.
> His ports measure 1.8 X 2.2 and flow 370 @ .750 lift!

The one with the thickest walls is the E-351. It was designed to allow
maximum custom porting. It has much thicker walls than the B-351 or
the 2961. I have a new one here for sale, should your friend be interested.
It came with a Fontana block I bought.