Technical MOTOR, Manifold splitting for inliners

This one is gonna take about 8 posts, I took several pictures.The manifold I used was for a Falcon/Comet/Mustang 170-200. I did one for my car, and it worked well, so this one was done at the request of a friend. Some of the techniques used are not the accepted method, but before you blast me for it, the first one I did this way has been on my daily driver for about 6000 miles now, with no problems. With the disclaimer out of the way.....Here's what I started with

 

Put the manifold in my chop saw, split it into three pieces. the falcon manifold has bolt hole in locaions that make it convenient to make two seperate manifolds from one...

 

The ends of the two pieces are plated with 1/4" steel...

 

An outlet hole is cut in the short manifold, and the small section that wsa cut out of the center is contoured to fit...

 

Welded together...

 

Make a flange out of 1/4" steel..... a 60-61 falcon flange gasket is used for a template.....

 

Here's what the manifolds look like when put together...

 

And here's what this setup looks like installed...

 

It may be a little on the crude side, but it seems to work well. I know youre not supposed to mig cast iron, but this was all done with my millermatic 130. I think the key is to go slow. I tacked it all, and welded short sections that I preheated with a torch. Another thing that helps is proper placement of exhaust pipe hangers, to make sure the welded joints never see much stress.

 

You will never know 'till you try it yourself!......that looks great, bet it sounds good too, especially the front two cylinders!
CT.

 

tech post = bottom of page 2

 

WOW!!!!

 

pretty sweet! looks good enough for me! nate

 

Nate, I was hoping you would see this..... your comet screams for dual exhaust.....

 

Great post flyin' eye! My friend recently picked up a '60 Falcon and we were just talking about split manifolds for it today. I'll show this to him. I'm sure it will make his day. Nothing sounds better than a six with duals! Layta.............E

 

Hey ive been wanting to get a split for my 170 falcon, with no luck.this is just in time. thanks

 

Hey Scott, this is awesome! I really want to hear your ride now! I vote this tech post the Winner!! Very cool!

(Are you gonna go to the "test and tune" drags tomorrow (3/14) at PIR?)

 

It sounds sweeeeeeet split 4-2. makes it sound less like a lawnmower........

 

my old 250 6 sounded just like a riding lawnmower! how about a pipe for all 6 and have 6 pipes out the back firing in order from left to right? haha!

 

Flyin' eye,

This is a DANG cool tech post.

I have a few questions though.

When welding with the mig, what sort of setting do you have it on? Since we all have different migs, can you just relate it in terms of Low, Med. , or High.

I welded a bolt stud onto a broken exhaust manifold with my mig (Lincoln 100 weld pak) and it seemed to weld best on a Med. to Low setting. I tried the highest setting and it really did not work that well for me....
Also I was using flux core...probably makes a difference.....What are your experiences?

Also, how much do you heat the manifold? What sort of thing are you looking for when heating it?

Again, this is a real cool TECH post. I want to split my 235 Chevy manifold now!!!!

VT.

 

VT, I had my welder turned all the way up, its a 130 amp miller, with .030 wire and gas. If you don't get the cast hot enough, it won't "flow", and the bead will just lay on top of it. I don't know how to describe the amount of heat, It's just something you're gonna have to experiment with. When I did the first maniold, the one I'm running on my car, I welded it, ground the weld almost totally away, to check for penetration. I looked for a sharp parting line. If I found one, I welded that seam again. A good welder with the proper equipment for cast will tell you its a bitch to weld, so don't feel bad if it looks shitty.Like I said in the original post, one important thing is to keep stress off the welds by putting exhaust hangers in the right places.

Rob, I like your six pipes idea....VERY Munsters....

 

i just might have to whip out the old mig and take a shot at this. Im in the process of doing over the 170 right now so i might take a shot at it. It must saound good with dual, with the single exhaust and no muffler on my car sounds bitchin as is. Good tech for the inliners guys on the board not wanting to spend money on a header. How hard was it to weld the steel to the cast iron? Thanks Nate

 

Do it, Nate. You'll love the sound. If you think your car sounds good with a single, you'll be sportin' a permanent woody when you hear it split 4-2.......

 

now THAT is timely...im about to do the 223 in the fairlane and was going to post about it

had thought about going with a header but now im def just splittin it

thanks for the info man

 

looks like i have a project to do now for my inline

 

If the mig doesn't work out...you can braze 'em up.

 

Has anyone split a straight eight manifold before?

 

a straight eight needs zoomies!

 

There's another way you can do manifolds that have an open heater area that bolts to the bottom of the intake manifold , like Chevy's.
On them instead of actually cutting the manifold in two you can just weld a block off plug inside the manifld thru that open heat riser area either to the front or the rear, effictively spliting the manifold inside, then cut a hole in the end you blocked and weld or braze in the extra outlet.

 

Brazing might be a good idea. I think using a mig proves that there's more than one way to deal with cast iron...as for the chev manifolds, I have heard of that method, I think Rocky was talking about that a while back...A guy just needs to look at the manifold he's got, and get creative. The idea behind this post was kinda to prove that cast can be dealt with fairly simply.......don't be afraid, just do it.