This should be pinto-nasty... a close cousin to "freak-nasty", the ******* love child of "do-the-nasty" and "nasty-as-I-wanna-be". How much fun will I have tuning those Webers? Who's going to the Scottsdale Goodguys? Pikesan (here are the blogs about what I've done) Intake build part 1 Intake build part 2
How much fun will I have tuning those Webers? About as much fun as me. Actually, they stay in tune pretty well. I have a set a 44 Webers on a VW and I use to drive it everyday. I never had to mess with them.
That must be an early Pinto, very good looking engine. That wooden header flange might be a fire hazard though!
Hey look at that Dad! A hot rod,,,, and,,,,,,,,it's not powered by a small block Chevy!!! Go Man Go!!! I wanna do a Bucket with a 300 Ford 6 cyl! HA HA Dave
Nothing wrong with Pinto engines..... They are actually a blood relative to the race engines of the 30s which used a Ford four cylinder Model T, A or B equipped with aftermarket SOHC heads such as Miller, RAJO, Fronty etc. Purty much what a Pinto engine is.... Here's mine: http://albums.photo.epson.com/j/AlbumIndex?u=4029077&a=30206316&f= mac miller in INDY
Pinto bangers make excellent engines. I had one in a hot rodded Pinto back in the '70's, it was a quick little vehicle, and bullet proof.
I got two projects at home right now, each one gets a Pinto 2.3 Looks great Pikesan, and YES I'm going to Scottsdale this year
I can see everyone likes the wooden header flange! I got a special WIG machine to weld it. Actually, the real flange has oval ports because otherwise the 1 5/8 tubes would run into the flange bolts. So, to mock things up, I made the wood one. I have the 2.3 head drawing (genuine Ford item!) so it wasn't that bad to make. The header is actually for a Ford Small block from Schoenfeld Headers (<- been really cool!). I can't believe how easy it was to adapt to the 2.3. I thought for sure I was doing something wrong! The 1 5/8 stepped to 1 3/4 tubes are with my buddy for TIG'ing now. I'll follow up with some performance info. The car was fast enough before, just not that quick. The next step is a custom stall converter, if needed. Thanks for the comments! I will be having TONS of fun with it... I hope I run into everyone going to the Scottsdale Goodguys. See ya!
Back when the lab was in Signal Hill Bill Stropp's shop was at the top of the street and hill Late at night I'd hear a power pull ....... same shrill sound for a week or so Sometimes the noise stopped with a bang! I asked Bill at morning coffee what the heck was making all that noise... Yup they were running several Pinto engines on Autolite's dyno.....and yes some to the end.......dead end Those were easier days .... Rent on the lab was $75 a month. The donuts were a dime and in the night you could hear the little motors dancing on the Dyno Mert Littlefield was my shop neighbor....... he cleaned carpets as a day job
Awesome work.... definitely love the header. Mind telling me a little more? You ovaled the primary where it will meet the flange, is that correct? Think about an adapter plate and a header for a stahl or reher-morrison pattern? If you are going for broke, start ripping those accessories off the motor! That's more fan than I would make my smallblock spin! Keep at it man, I can't wait to see that header done!
Yea, I had to oval the primary. I used my high tech ovalling bench vise. What's a stahl or reher-morrison pattern? As for the fan, this is a street car that I drive alot and I live in AZ. I had a leaking radiator that cause overheating, then FINALLY spent the money getting it fixed. Best money I've spent cause now it doesn't overheat. I grabbed that fan off another 2.3 stocker at the junk yard. It's only a 4 blade fan. Thanks for the encouragement!
It's a C3. The C4 to 2.3 motor bell housings are hard to come by. I have one, but I think by the time I rebuild the trans, and pay for a good C4 converter, I could have Hughes (local) build a custom C3 converter. They said about $300.
Rab, There was a great article by Inglese here: http://www.inglese.com/tech.htm but IT IS DOWN now... maybe try again in a couple days. Typically with Webers, you have one carb barrel/cylinder or an "individual runner" system. I was gonna try to quote from the article, but I'll wait to get home. Basically, plenum's are bad... the cushion or dampen the intake signal that the carb gets. Without it, the response is supposed to be GREAT!
Regarding Webers on the 2.3 motor. I think there are a couple of places you can get a manifold and run sidedraft 40 DCOE or 45 DCOES'. I have had good luck with sidedraft webers on my Quad4 engine. Take the time to get them jetted right and they are fool proof.
Stahl started making flanges to fit big primary tubes on close pattern heads to clear the bolt holes. They will cut anything you can send a pattern for. Something to keep in mind for the future. You bolt the flange (with recessed allen head bolts) to the heads original location, then bolt the header to the flange with new larger spacing. They'll get jealous about your fancy shmancy ovaling machine, don't tell them! Keep the posts coming!
Hey Jonny O, I talked to Stahl cause another guy who frequents HAMB used their header. I called up to order one and Stahl wasn't very friendly. I put them in the "Well then screw you!" file and moved on. Kenny over at Schoenfeld was my man. He helped every time I called, even with ***embly and I think gave me a pretty good deal. That adapter is a cool idea though. I had 1 3/4 tubes on my original header. I'd rather have a smaller primary though for better torque. The stepped header I ended up with may be the best of both? We'll see!
Webers have gotten a bad rep as being "finicky" and "hard to tune" and I don't really agree with that. If you have a Uni-Syn tool, and good linkage, they should stay in sync for a long time. I would consider getting some mesh screeens for the top of the velocity stacks, though. They're cheap, and they will keep the bigger stuff from being ingested into your engine
I do have access to a uni-syn tool... whatever it's called to flow test the carbs individually. I've heard all kind of "they ****" to "they're the coolest" about the webers. I know one thing for sure, I'm about to find out first hand! Good call on the screens for the stacks... gotta do something...
The Jalopy Journal
