I was looking thru some of my 50s R&C mags and i found an article on building your own multi carb intake using plate steel snd exhaust tubing.. Ok, anybody ever try this, and how well would it work? I understand plenum length, angles, etc play a factor in this, but from a non performance standpoint can it work ok or am i pissing in the wind with this idea? It would be for a 302 ford with 4 2bbls. -LUKEY-
Ok, i might be trying this easier on the poncho due to it already having a valley pan...what type (thickness) of metal should i use to build valley cover? -LUKEY-
I watched a guy that worked for me, make a carb out of a can, tubing and other assorted pieces, it fit an I-6 FORD pump motor and IT WORKED. He was a mechanic in CUBA and killed me wanting to make peices all the time instead of going to the the parts house. He said that they could have never found a replacement, and making & sleeving MC's were common
I have made valley pans outta 1/4 " aluminum....14-10 Ga steel would work as well...Basicly it has to be stiff enough to keep the gasket in place and sealed, if a 1/8 thick bolting flange with 1/16" center section will do it, why make it heaver than it needs to be...it is just keeping in the lube........Shawn
This reminds me of some of the stories I have heard about Mexican mechanics in Baja. They have been known to work miracles with stuff most of us would have thrown away.
The Plymouth boys years ago did a '49 i think with a handmade intake. It used some kind of heavy duty rubber tube for the runners. I cant be the only one that remembers that car, it had those goofy megaphone pipes stickin out the side... gawdawful fast for its time too from what i remember readin..
I can relate, I've been to Cuba several times and each time I go, I spend as much time as possible meeting and hanging out with the local Cuban "car guys"- and I can attest that while most of their modifications - usually done out of dire necessity to keep a car running - and for the most part, usually more than just a bit crude, that most Cubans are absolute masters - geniuses in fact - at adapting things and making parts fit that absolutely shouldn't, making things work that absolutely shouldn't, at making do and just plain making stuff period! To paraphrase an old movie line - "Parts stores? Que? We don't got no parts stores! Hell, we need no stinkin' parts stores!" LOL Mart3406 ============
Just like some people on hamb....build every part, order nothing....and have fun doing something different each time.
I figure I'll have to make a two carb intake for my flathead Ford six simply because the ones that show up for sale are way beyond my budget for the car. If you go to Bonneville or the dry lakes chances are that you will see several home made intakes on different rigs and some that are so highly modified that they may as well be home made.
I have made four different ones for my 250 inline Chevy. They all seem to work about as good as stock intakes. I have also made a couple different ones for Pontiac's. I use 3/8" plate for the flanges and steel tubing for runners. all welded with a mig welder. The 3/8" flanges don't warp when welding like thinner steel does, which means no machining to seal. joe
This is the first shot of high and mighty I ever saw under construction. WOW what a rack!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You see alot of home made intakes on engines that use a valley pan. Dry intakes for lack of a better term. For engines like a small block chev or ford things get quite a bit more complicated. I would start with an existing intake and make a top to hold any number of carbs...think Efi intake lower off of a fox body mustang, then make a plenum to hold your 4 carbs and you'd be done without trying to figure out the water, making the valley seal, keeping the thing straight. A friend of mine made an Intake for his FE so Im not saing it "can't" be done I would just be a little worried about the thing leaking and filling the crankcase with water or something... Just my dos centavos! Race
] Great pic. That's the famed 'Ramchargers' - a group of Chrysler engineers who started racing in their spare time and who used their engineering skills and expertise from 'work' and applied it to their after-hours amateur drag racing activities - and then, in turn, used the information and knowledge gained from their racing activities and applied it to various engineering projects they where working on at work. As goofy as the homebrew intake and bizarre looking exhaust pipes look, that was actually a complete, very effective, with everything mathematically-calculated, "ram-tuned" induction and exhaust system. It was probably one the first times that actual ram-tuning had been applied to drag racing - and much of the knowledge learned with this 'off-hours', homebrew experimental set-up led to and greatly speeded-up the development of Chrysler's 'factory production option' "long" and "short-ram" cross ram manifolds - and also too, the development of the 'factory race engine' "Max-Wedge" and "Race-Hemi' cross rams - and it was also the forerunner and inspiration for the numerous aftermarket "tunnel ram" manifolds too. Mart3406 ===============
If you go with Race@Rockets idea of starting with a Ford EFI intake lower half, I may have a spare. I'll check tomorrow.
funny my uncle mentioned building an intake in the fifties for either the Olds motor he ran in the street roadster or for the hemi they ran in the fuel roadster - he had made the comment - he wished he had saved it and not let it go....not so much because it worked....but that he had made it....
Bruce Crower started out building U-Fab intake manifold kits that were nothing more than some tube bends and flame cut plates in the 1950's. I think that the Cyr & Hopper rail used one.
One for a home made cylinder head on a Model A engine. Works real well uses a Holley 4150 four barrel.
12 gauge-10 gauge will make the valley cover well enough. I have built a few from exhaust pipe and sheet metal. Some have worked better than others. I have learned a trick or two over the years and that helps. It can be done and sometimes you get lucky. A couple of the 2x4 chrysler 300 ran 2x4 intakes made from sheet metal and exhaust tubbing on the sand @ daytona in the mid '50s. I used to have a pic of one of the prototypes, looked like a bunch of snakes.
One on my blue roadster with a 455 olds head. It uses a Rochester 4 barrel. Runs good, won King of the hill with this engine 4 times.
This is mine on my 49 olds. It is made out of a U FAB kit with a lot of crossram and height added. It runs great much better than I would have thought Gary
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