Hot Rods Man a Fre manifold

Hi guys
I recently came across and purchased 2 of the small block chevy man a fre intake manifold for small block chevy. I have done a little research and know that they are both early ones with Atlanta GA. Cast into them.
What I can't find though is one has the rochester 2 g carbs while the other has 97 strombergs. It has all of the linkage, fuel lines etc and was drilled for the 3 bolt carbs from original. I can't find any info on a stromberg equipped man a fre. Any info would be appreciated. I want to properly restore both of these units. Thanks for any help. Rick

 

@Moriarity

 

I understand that they were not intended to run 3 bolt carbs. I guess my question is how did this intake end up with them? The intake does not appear to be redrilled. Was it something that was offered early on? I have a 283 and run 3 strombergs on progressive and it runs great. Was this for smaller displacement engines? Just curious if anyone has any history info on this setup. Thx

 

I will send pics. I am removing carbs today and I did notice this morning a slight mark on one pad that looks like a stud or filled hole for rochester bolt pattern. Someone took time to do the stromberg setup. It is complete with linkage etc. That is what baffled me. I will most likely put back to rochester if it was once that way.

 

Older friend of mine was running a AMX drag car in some cl*** and was a time every one was trying to set new records running 2 barrel carburetors. He said he was out at the west coast racing and talked to Man A Fre about a carburetor to try and mentioned that every one was running Brazwell carburetors. He said Man A Fre said those guys don't know anything about a carburetor, come back tomorrow and I'll have one for you. He said his AMX ran only a few tenths of a second slower with the 2 barrel compared to the 2 four setup he was running. The fun part of this story is we were just talking (he was trying to get me to come to work for him) and he asked what I had been up to. I told him I had been help with a hobby stock dry pond runner. He asked how it ran and I said it ran pretty good but was limited because of the 2 barrel carb. He said come back tomorrow. I did and he handed me this Man A Fre carburet and said try this. It was an awful looking thing with epoxy on the outside and what looked like chrome tailpipe tips sticking out of it and a third larger tip that looked like it was crushed in a vice to slide over the other two tubes to hold them in place. So we put this on the race car and no one could touch are car it was flying. Did a lot of work hiding this cheater carburetor.

 

I wish I did. this was back in the last 70s. We tried to duplicate it but never could. One of the guys in the shop put it in some chem dip and it ate all the epoxy out and it fell apart. I was pissed to say the least. I think are fail was not using the ram tubes like he did. I want to remember that this carburetor flowed 630 CFM.

 

I think there were early (Atlanta GA. cast into them) Man-A-Fre intakes, that were were set-up
with Stromberg carbs. See the flyer below. These were built up by Robert E. Patrick (the inventor of
the Man-A-Fre intake). This was before Bud Lang got involved, and the move to Calif.

 

Moriarty…. You asked for it. 3 Brazwell “Cheater” 2 barrels. From the photo you can see no boosters and annular discharge. Advertised to flow over 600 to 650 cfm. Have heard 700 on very high vacuum of a big block.

The story on these….. I bought them from a renoun 6 cylinder racer in SoCal Gene Stennitt at Long Beach Swap meet 40 years ago. Gene loaned 2 of them to a fellow drag racer who installed them on a BB Camaro with tunnel and it lost 3 mph but lower his et by .25 sec.

The one with the shorter cut stack was run on my GMC 311” 6 at el mirage and Bonneville setting records that time at both places; this was in the late 1980’s. No one at either impounds could believe a 2 barrel, smog pump, (actually a vacuum pump) and an alternator could attain the record speeds….They all could “see” it but none knew what they were looking at.

I loaned 2 of them to Jimmy Steven’s to run on his flat head street roadster. I believe set and still holds the records at El Mirage and Bonneville using them. He did try and buy them but was unsuccessful.

The rear photo show the aluminum tubes pressed in and the one on the left was painted crinkle black as it was used on a dirt Circle Track stocker to hide the modification. Gene told me he never tookoff the air cleaner. Yes the stacks are a different length on each and I did cut the shortest one to clear my hood. I cannot remember why on the other middle length one but Jimmy may have needed to do that on his car.

Yes I know what I have and they are not for sale. 10 years-ago I called Brazwell about them and they had one old timer who talked to me.. he could not believe I had 3.

 

I always like this Man-a-Fre with afterburner

 

This is awesome!!! I am so glad that you shared this promo ad. As stated earlier, I bought 2 of the intakes / carb setups and when I couldn't find anything regarding the strombergs, I was puzzled. I am guessing that mine may have come with the stromberg setup originally. If not, someone went to extremes with the linkage. I considered putting 2Gs on it, but now I feel the 97s may be the way to go.
So glad that I asked this question. The HAMB rocks.

 

Did you download this ad? I did a screenshot, but would love to have a better copy of this. Thanks again. Rick

 

Rick, I found the info. here on the Hamb. Here's the link: https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/whole-pile-of-man-a-fre-memorabilia.587922/

You could also message member Tim Bowman (timbow33) here on the Hamb for more info.
Tim used to work at Man-a-Fre out in Calif with Bud Lang, and may have more info. on the
early setups?

 

Listen up Louvers, you've been ordered by Gunny Moriarity to show us pics! Let's see em or you will be facing a court-martial





But no, seriously, we love pics. We do...

 

Thank you