I have been building this 8 two-barrel manifold in my head for 6 years now. Three years ago, I started collecting a few parts and building a cardboard template. Last year I had an aluminum welder weld up my idea. Then I built the linkage and fuel lines. I did it mostly for the novelty, but the 409 engine really liked the extra air and it has run faster than it has ever gone before. Here are a few pictures of the 409 in the Thrifty Auto Dragster at Toutle Washington, now called Toutle Motorsports Park (formally called Riverdale Raceway), that is put on by the Estranged car club.
An octet of frog mouths gulping air is pretty darn cool! Another ''more info on the car'' request here, too. Looks like you have a cooling system. How fast is it?
That is a great race track at Toutle Washington ( TMP ). I was there last summer for the Estranged drags, looking forward to more this summer. By all means do post some pictures of your Dragster!
Gals love a man who does it the hard way! Old school fer sure. Back when, the original Swamp Rat, Big Daddy said the happiest day of his career was when he changed from the eight 97s to the 6-71 and Hilborn; something about sitting behind carbs leaking nitro into a 170 MPH airstream. jack vines
I heard that when they ran Nitro they took the jets out completely and over-bored the dump tubes. I have no idea as to how they tuned the damn things!
JD, are referring to the March Meet 1959 ? I do know Art Chrisman won it, and Don drove straight to Iky's to get a blower of his own. The following weekend he won at Kingdon, in Lodi !
This was written last year on the," 348/409 Forum" I have been building this 8-carb manifold in my head for the past 5 years. I have a 6 carb manifold, but I don't like the way it is set up. Two years ago I started making a cardboard template. I bought a piece of 3/8th" of aluminum, as a base plate. This year I took my cardboard template to a local boat shop that does aluminum welding, and they created my plenum. I made the plenum small, to maintain air velocity. The plenum is cool to touch when the engine is running, I believe that is due to high air/gas velocity through the plenum. The engine ran the best it has ever ran, 113 PH with a 6.6 sec ET. The previous duel four barrels flowed total of 1200 CFM. The eight Stromberg 97s flow 1240 CFM, I don't believe that extra 40 made a big difference. I do believe 8 accelerator pumps did help. I believe the air /fuel mixing in plenum and cooling the incoming charge did help.
Just think, all the major car companies and aftermarket companies such as Edelbrock, Offenhauser, Weiand, etc. spend thousands of dollars on manifold air flow research and you basically weld up an aluminum box, stick it on your 409 and out perform them all! Great job, if you were around in the '40s you could have started "hlhpa" manifolds and become the next Vic Edelbrock!
That’s really cool! Looks like you’re living the life. In the words of the late @gary terhaar “in drag racing, more is better”
Marty; That would be great fun. I will be looking forward for that day. I have raced Rocky in his Evil Twin dragster,. He tows up from Eagle Field in California. And Scotty Cochran in his "Scotty Muffler Special", made in 1957, has a blown CSB and runs 35% Nitro. And we were started with a "flag drop". A lot of cool stuff happens at the Toutle drags.
Is this the evil twin dragster that you mentioned? I assume that it is, because when you zoom into the picture, the words "Eagle Field" are visible on the cover over the carburetors ! Very cool dragster indeed!
That is freaking awesome! I wanted to put a 409 in my 34 as it is so over the top. I had to settle for a dual quad 394. I have a 6x2 intake for a w block that I was going to use.
Curious to know if you did in research on the Crower U-Fab intake kits that were designed back in the fifties.
This funny you should ask. When I was buying a 1/2 dozen 97 Stromberg's for my 8 carb manifold, this U Fab manifold came off a Buick powered dragster built in the 50's
50John: Greg Fury a Deer Park Raceway, Historian pointed out to me while I was at the Arlington race track reunion, this dragster was the thrifty Auto dragster out of Spokane Washington. Driven by Don Strortreon. Also while at Arlington Jerry Ruth ( King of the Northwest), walked up to me and said." I raced Don several times here and at Deer Park, in this dragster. This dragster beat Don Garlits March 5th 1961 at Famosa raceway and also set new track record of 8.23.
Great History with that car, it would be nice to se a Chrysler back in it, with a couple of Nitrous bottles under the driver's legs, like it had in '61 !
Been a helluva long time since I heard anyone mention Thrifty Auto and racing. That was our Mecca in the early 70s. Damn that was a bit ago.
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