Homemade intake manifold. Aybody done it?

OOOOOOLD Thread brought back again eh? Least it's got useful info in it tho!

 

See if I can breathe some life into this post. Here are some I made for a 270 poly build I'm working on.

 

Crower U-Fab manifolds were used by hot rodders in the sixties. My 51 uses one of that type.

 

what cubic inch is that

 

392 1958 imperial

 

how's it like the 8 carbs

 

Strange I never saw this thread. Here is the 4bbl, dual phase, equal length manifold I designed and cast for the 230/260 series Chevy 6 engines. I put it in my '36 Pontiac in front of a Powerglide. Thing would climb a rope!

Drawings for the wood pattern. A couple percent bigger than the final prototype to allow for casting shrinkage.


Carved mahogany pattern.


Next step was to make a plaster of Paris casting of the pattern then form 1/4" thick modeling clay 'runners'.

Inside those clay channels I cast plaster runners. The two sets of 3 runners were glued together in this jig before installing in the cope and drag.


I made split fiberglass patterns to form the sand casting cores for the runners in the final manifold casting.


Next step was to make a fiberglass 1/2 manifold base so I could tamp a sand cope and drag of my wood pattern. Into the cope and drag sand forms were set the sand runners. Ready to cast. I don't have casting ability so had a little one-man foundry who used to have a shop in Bakersfield cast it for me.


Here is the final casting. I used a parts store carb adaptor to mount my Holley 390.


Final result! Worked like a champ!

 

It took a few years to,get things sorted out, but it’s actually the old Moon-jection product, updated a few times. I don’t thrash it, but with 6.70 15 bias plies, it is easy to break tires loose.

Getting idle air flow evened out with 8-16 throttle bodies was a bear with all the linkage.

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^
impressive!

 

Wow Willys36 that is an impressive way to open one of the longest dead threads on the HAMB. I'd have to think that is a long way from your first casting attempt.
With the 226 ford flathead I have I have been thinking about making a pattern for the flange for intake and exhaust and if I can get him away from his gal friend long enough have a buddy of mine cut it out with his trace torch . Then use the extra block I have as the fixture to weld it all up. More of a log manifold on the intake though,

 

I made a sheet metal intake manifold for a SBF about 25 years ago, I could only weld steel at the time but I leaned more about hammer forming in the process.

 

I built these two for my nailhead.

 

absolute beauties!!-perform as good as they look ?(i hope)

 

Flat plate, not as nice looking as cast BUT when it comes to baby hemi blower manifolds you can't be choosy! Plan on sand blasting it with "pebbles" to ruffin it up a bit.

 

made this water heated one for my Riley banger.

 

Thanks patsurf. The one with the round plenum performed better at speed than driving around town. The other one performs good in all situations, although it took quit a bit of fiddling with the carbs and timing to get it to that point.