SOHC Intake Manifolds

[Barry_R]

Barry, were those adapter risers welded into place?

No I don't believe so.
They were customer supplied - I think they bolted on with socket head fasteners.  The whole engine was "that way" with a bunch of really rare factory parts that we re-used at his request including aluminum heads with OEM valves and cams.

[Nightmist66]

A few more pictures I found searching tonight. Maybe someone here knows something about the first setup.

[Autoholic]

That high riser has to be pretty darn rare. I wonder how many were made? Something tells me it was one of those speed parts made during a secret evening between some engineers and foundry guys.

[Nightmist66]

Here's another custom tunnel ram from Dyno Don's Maverick.

[Barry_R]

Barry, were those adapter risers welded into place?

No I don't believe so.
They were customer supplied - I think they bolted on with socket head fasteners.  The whole engine was "that way" with a bunch of really rare factory parts that we re-used at his request including aluminum heads with OEM valves and cams.

My customer supplied a lot of images for the Weber adapters he made.  Just need the time to load them for display.  Pretty slick deal and left the original manifold unscathed.

[machoneman]

FYI, I think all the (gasoline) SOHC racers of the era made or used essentially home-made intakes. Some used the upper plenum from Edelbrock's dual 4-bbl intake while the bottom was almost always tubular aluminum welded to a simple plate covering the intake ports. Lots of experimentation back then in the early Pro Stock era.

We had seen Nicholson's Maverick and to a lesser extent Schartman's car at the old U.S. 30 strip in NW Indiana and Union Grove, WI numerous times. Never recall seeing a cast lower plenum; always a tubular lower as shown in the pictures. It seems too that the upper plenum size changed frequently and in some cases the upper was also a fabricated piece, no doubt due to the limitations of the cast aluminum plenum. There is a good shot of the cast upper/tubular bottom here:   

https://img.mecum.com/auctions/FL0112/FL0112-121252/images/FL0112-121252_5.jpg

[57 lima bean]

"A few more pictures I found searching tonight. Maybe someone here knows something about the first setup".

This appears to be Jay's prelude to the SP2P Cammer manifold.

[e philpott]

ahhhhh , that "belt drive" just seems like it's the answer to me , no leaking covers , quick to disassemble and reassemble , looks like the way to go if you run a cammer hard to me

[machoneman]

Think that was Washington state's Jim Greene, a former fuel drag racer, who did the Gilmer drive.

[Autoholic]

Belts are the weakest of the timing options though and require preventative maintenance. They don't always handle high rpm well and they do flex and stretch the most out of all the options. If you were to go the gilmer drive route, I'd put a dynamic tensioner in the system. There is no way a static tensioner can take up all the slack that will happen as you increase rpms. It's amazing just how much a belt can stretch.

I favor the gear drive route, rock solid timing and the most reliable option. Sealing the engine properly can be done and while I don't personally have a FE right now, isn't the main oil leakage problem the rear main cap?

[jayb]

"A few more pictures I found searching tonight. Maybe someone here knows something about the first setup".

This appears to be Jay's prelude to the SP2P Cammer manifold.

Steve, that manifold is actually Rowdy's; he brought it over for me to test.  Unfortunately, that year I ran out of time to do dyno testing on the engine, so I ended up giving it back to him.  It is a fabricated sheet metal type intake, straight round runners with no taper, but otherwise pretty conventional.

[jayb]

ahhhhh , that "belt drive" just seems like it's the answer to me , no leaking covers , quick to disassemble and reassemble , looks like the way to go if you run a cammer hard to me

Actually, I think that setup may be prone to leaks.  You have to modify the factory SOHC valve covers to make it work, and somehow get the camshafts extended through the cover and seal them as they comes through.  That's a lot of fabrication around two major seal areas.  It's a cool setup, though, and I wish I knew how well it worked...

[e philpott]

if someone would have dedicated a design and had parts to convert over easily , it would cut tear down time by 4 hours , no harmonics from chain or gears ..... it's fugly for sure and not pretty for street , but if you was racing one hard core it would be the way to go just from simplicity and ease of maintenance

[TomP]

I thought that black intake on Dyno's Maverick was supposed to be a prototype Edelbrock made?

[Autoholic]

Weber Intake Update...

I recently found an accurate diagram of the footprint for the IDA carbs, giving me the precise measurements in mm! This has enabled me to move forward with this intake design. I've managed to get a rough port path for half of the intake. If I was to complete this design, is there anyone who would actually want the intake? You'd have to use Berg 58 mm IDA's and those aren't cheap. This would be roughly an $8000 intake and carb combo. Jay, are you wanting webers???