I have an early Yapp Riley 2 port and I am having an issue with intake manifold fit. I have tried a number of my intakes and none of them fit the mounting stud locations properly. Before I start grinding on my manifolds to make them fit, has anyone else had this issue, and could it possibly be that the Yapp repro Riley manifold would have different stud location dimensions?
I just measured this one, the outboard holes are 12 1/4 c-c and the others are 6 7/8 c-c. Marked Riley but it could be a later repro, at some point Dan Iandola acquired Riley’s patterns and cast manifolds. BTW, when I showed this manifold to Charlie Yapp he mentioned that Model A intakes are close, but the bolt spacing is just a little different.
I concur. I have a Winfield intake that came with an original 2-port Riley. It's had new flanges welded on to make it fit. The dimensions are exactly the same as what @Fordors describes above.
Most of the early accessory overheads were pretty sloppy when it came to hole locations. No doubt these were made using drill presses and scribe lines. Even the Gemsa heads made in the 60’s had match drilled manifolds. Do what you have to do…
I have a mani that was made by riley, it has the same port spacing as the A/B block, but the studs are smaller and spaced closer, it has no name cast into it, just like the one in the Riely advertisement photos from the 30's My intake also has the Winfield square base for a "C" carb. Ed did not make a C carb size intake for the A flathead, they were all A or B size carbs if he made them. I am going to mill slots in my intake so I can run my C updraft on my flathead. get a 1 piece A intake gasket and compare it to yours I can take photos when I get home.
I’ll say. My Alexander has a similar problem. All the threaded holes for the rocker arm stand attaching bolts/studs are at a slight angle, not perpendicular to the head surface. I had milled up some new aluminum stands with tight tolerance holes and without additional wall clearance, and bolts would not thread in. Someone, years ago, and now lost to memory, suggested screwing in studs and “adjusting” them with a brass drift. Originally the rocker shaft stands were some cut down cast iron o.e. pieces (GM?). They lack any type of locating pin to keep them from shifting, not that they would need it. The rocker shaft would automatically align them and a set screw in the top of each stand would lock in the shaft. Maybe with the light spring pressures the stands wouldn’t move around. Don’t know what Colonel Alexander’s original thinking was.
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