Basic alluminum alloys havent really changed too much, and really it's an intake manifold not a connecting rod, and as tooling goes they have gone away from skilled craftsmen machinests to mindless ****on pushers that have never seen a Y-block
Please PM me the link if you see it. I will look too. As for Edelbrock: I am going to pester them too. We are building a nice Y-Block powered '29A RPU in the shop now. 3-Deuces are in order.
after reading this thread I started paying attention to the Y block 3-2's at the decatur swap meet this weekend. I saw at least 6 of them. Some bare manifolds and some complete with carbs. Saw more of them then ones for SBC's.
How about we get a list together? See how many actual buyers we would have... Me. I'll buy one. Who else?
Material in the old speed parts was not the 'same alloy' as we can get now. I have model airplane engines made just after WWll, (same process as cast aluminum heads & manifolds) and the aluminum was anything but pure! The casters were throwing in any and all aluminum items they could muster, and their 'slag-s****ing' usually was done haphazardly with a paddle...just prior to a pour. Believe it, 356 alloy today is quite improved! I took some Edelbrock 'S' heads to my welder (1980) to have him weld up all the oxidized water ports...he quoted me $80.00 to do the job. When I went to pick them up, the welds were spread further out that I thought necessary...he said that with the 'explosions' every time he got a puddle going, the job took twice the rod and much more time than he could have imagined! I paid him twice the $$ he quoted, I could see what he went thru. It was worth it to me, just to use the heads; they were cosmetically perfect. Merv Furtado surfaced & finished them for me, said that was 'typical' of the old aluminum stuff. He said, "Too bad they don't reproduce these with the new aluminum alloys." (Merv was Rod Furtado's Dad)
I am no Y-block expert by any means, but from what I have heard from a few guys that are, is that the Edelbrock 573 out-performs the other tri-power y-block intakes by a considerable margin, especially the offy.
This shows a real lack of knowledge on your part. Aluminum casting alloys are much better today than they were back in the 50s. As well improvements have been made in casting techniques and machining has improved despite your comment to the negative. A CNC machine still needs to be operated by someone with machining knowledge.
If they already have the molds it shouldn't take much to make the manifolds. It isn't like the old days when large runs had to be made. I seem to recall one of the car shows visiting the Edelbrock manufacturing plant and Vic Edelbrock saying that, with their new manufacturing processes, they can make any item they have ever produced. If they destroyed the molds the engineering costs might be too high.
It seems like Edelbrock has answered your question fairly. I would take his advise & look for an original one. It took me about 2 years to find an old Edelbrock 065 Olds 455 dual quad. They've been out of production for over 30 years.
They also recently shot down the aluminium single four Nailhead intake that they told us to expect this spring.
I scooped one on epay tonight Edelbrock 573 . So I finally have the right manifold for my big port 312 and I can sell the Offenhauser manifold I have. Finally ! After Edelbrock cancelled their plans to repop that manifold I wasn't sure I would find one, they are getting hard to come by. <!-- / message -->
It's not the "molds" that were destroyed; it's the patterns and core boxes (core molds) that no longer exist. The molds and cores for sand cast items like manifolds are destroyed each time the part is poured.
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