I want to put a split manifold on the Ranchito. I always thought you had to do it yourself, or have a machine shop do it. A local guy said there is a company that still sells them, but he didn't have any info on it. anybody know?
Kansas Kustoms I think is the name of one outfit that will split your manifold for reasonable. VAPHEAD might also be able to fix you up. He did good by me with the Fentons for my truck.
It's not that hard to split one yourself. I split mine with no experience at all. I had never really even welded anything together before...so I just went at it. It didn't crack and it doesn't leak. Works great! I found that Dutra Dual website and he has the first half of the procedure. I just guessed my way through the second half with help from Rocky and C9. I cut about a 1 inch chunk from the center...cut some plates from 1/8 inch steel (truck bed pocket brackets from a farm center!) and angle ground the edges of the manifold and just welded it together with my small mig (with .030 flux core and no experience) Call it beginners luck or whatever....I'm happy with it! Cost me $4 for the two brackets, $4 for the flange and small piece of exhaust tubing (for the new front dump), some mig wire, a hand grinder wheel, and a little bit of time. I figured either pay somewhere around $200 to have one made, or do it myself and gain experience whether I screw it up or not. You gotta either pay with money or pay with time!
I'd like to do it myself, I try to do most things that way. I have all the tools required, and I have welded cast before, but here's the hangup- The small Ford sixes have a siamesed center exhaust port. I think someone had a way of seperating the center port, but I'm not sure how to do it. I would have to split it 4-2, I wonder how that would sound?
the most common splits (other than homeade) are made by fenton. Ebay usually has at least one set running, just search for fenton headers. As far as the 4/2 split, it sounds very sweet, and is VERY loud with straight pipes. Id recommend it.............Briggs
Check these guys out for straight six goodies... http://www.cliffordperformance.com/home.htm I've dealt with them in the past, and they can offer pretty good technical advice in addition to parts. Good to keep 'em in mind if you plan on hoppin' up a six shooter!
I bought a split manifold from Crestliner for a 235. It's a stocker that was split 4/2 and does sound sweet!!! I'm not sure if he has ford splits..pm him.. he may. Rat...
If you want to have your manifold split by an experienced shop, try: Mike Yoder at Kansas Kustoms 113 E. Sherman St. Hutchinson, KS, 67501 1-888-762-0040, after 5:00pm, Central. He works on the early Chevy and GMC manifolds, also Mopar, Studebaker, Buick, etc. If you have a special problem, call him and see what he can do for you. Nightprowlers Customs in Missouri also carry his split manifolds. He has stopped working on the later 250"-292" Chevies, because of metal quality problems. New cast dual headers can be bought from the Stovebolt Engine Co. 586-739-9601 Later, Kinky6
If you're talking about a Ranchero, '60 and later, you can't split the factory manifold because they share an exhaust port. There is a guy on fordsix.com that sells a lot of 170-250 hop-up parts and carries his own header. I am running a Clifford brand dual outlet and it's okay but I think I spent too much. www.fordsixparts.com
My Dad split the manifold on his Ford six, he ran one of the front ports with a seperate flange to the rear to get a 3x3 split. Sounds like a V8 at an idle and worked well, he has split manifolds for quite a few yrs and the Fords are more work than the rest but worth the effort if ou plan on keepin the six in service. Its not as clean lookin as the chevs and mopars but is not an impossable task and with the right mufflers can be tons of fun on cruze night. Send me a PM if you wanna pic of his setup.
I know about the two center exhaust ports being siamesed. That's why I asked about a 4-2 split. I see no reason why that wouldn't work. I'm not so sure about using headers. Clifford tends to be kinda high dollar on those. Also, the car sits LOW, and headers usually cause ground clearance problems on lowered cars.
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