My 235 Harper intake showed up today!

I was fortunate enough to pick up a Harper 3x2 set up for my 53 Bel Air, I hope HEATHEN pipes in on this thread, seeing as he is running one,I am curious as far as cam selection,jetting,timing,and any other mods that will take full advantage of this set up. The pic I posted was from the auction site I bought it from,Looks WAY cooler in person!

 

I am running a harper 3x2 intake on my 235. Cam is a clifford 270h.stromberg 81's with jets drilled .037, power valves are 74s. Magneto has 20 deg. advance plus 9 deg initial.Only internal mods are flattop pistons, 2.02 intake valves, moly pushrods, full flow oiling. I had trouble tuning it at first using traditional methods. Idle screws, vacuum gauge,carb sinker all helped but it still wasn't running great. I finally bought a wideband 02 gauge and adjusted by air/fuel ratio. That along with a carb sink did the trick. On a side note. I have heard that originally Harpers ran a split linkage that opened each butterfly seperatly and progressively.One side of all 3 carbs opened first then the other side came in like a secondary. So you had to cut your throttle shafts in half. I also heard some would split the throttle shafts and only run half the carb. When I got my Harper it came with no carbs or linkage, so I run mine with uncut throttle shafts. I think the Harper and the Mc Gurk 3x2 log are the best looking intakes for chevy 6's.
Good luck with your new set up!!

 

That is very nice

 

Thank you very much for the input Pat, I know HEATHEN mentioned the split linkage,I will be building a 54 full pressure 235 this fall,Believe me any information will be appreciated,I am kind of "giddy" to have this intake set-up.I have been searching a lot and have seen the Offys,Nicsons,Edmunds,McGurks and several others.I had a chance to get the Harper and took it.I hope I can get the input I need to make this set up run as good as it looks.

BTW, It came with 4 Ford 94's,Was thinking of sending them to Charlie at Vintage Speed once I figure out the rest of the engine.

Any thoughts?

 

Damn that's a nice piece!

 

I will be curious to see how this all workouts for you. I also picked up a Harper intake this summer and plan on running it on a 261 Chevy I am planning to build. I am not sure how the the motor is going to go until i tear it down this winter. Please keep me posted. Cheers, Joe

 

Thanks Copper Bandit,I feel kinda lucky to get it.I guess the sun shines on every dog's ass once in a while!

Now the mission is to build an engine that will run well, I imagine the goal is to build something that might give the boys with a wing and a fart pipe on the Neon a run for thier money.

I do have access to an old friend who can make me a set of aluminum rods,I would like to hear thoughts on that as well.

 

I will keep you posted oldwagonlover! I built my first 235 back in 1980 in High School,Loved them ever since.

 

Got to agree there.

Here's my McGurk, and I just bought a log to modify for the different head I'm fitting to my mill. Also I've included a picture or two of a Harper Intake

 

I'm glad this went to a HAMBer. I think it was a steal!
I was very tempted to bid, but decided it would be just too much for my 216.

As it is, I will be running 2 94's on an Edmunds intake.
Even at that, I am having the throttle shafts split, for progressive linkage. I got the idea from the Harper set-up.

Please keep us posted.

 

I was lucky enough to find my Harper setup pretty much the way it was run, complete with the split throttle shafts and progressive linkage. The jets in the 97s are 43 on the primary side (throttle plate nearest to the cylinder head) and 45 on the secondary side. I don't believe that they came from Harper with 94s; all of the setups I've seen used 97s. I never have been able to find out who made that one piece header in the picture, other than seeing it in an early '60s Sears&Roebuck Automotive catalog.

 

Wow, that really was a steal! I heard recently that the Harper set up was developed by an aircraft engineer, thus the sophisticated split progressive linkage. Apparently it was a little too complicated for most folks, but as others have said, sweet looking set-up!

 

Wow! Very nice, I hate you now!

 

Awesome score, I had another chance recently to buy another Harper for my other woodie wagon (48 Chevy) and decided to go all in. I now own 2 sets of Harper in takes both gonna go on Chevy woody wagon with 261 chevy's in them. I am also going to look for advice once I figure out how I want to build my 261's. I really love the llok of tripple's on a chevy six banger - really gets the blood flowing. Let me know how you build is coming along.
Cheers,

Joe

 

Hey........This Harper Set-up is all NEW to me !
Very , Very Interesting.......Thanks fer Tha' Post, and
good luck w/ UR SET-UP.......Keep Us Posted .

I Think Sex Is Overrated !
Maybe I'm just gettin Old.......Smoke'

 

Ive been running what I thought was a Harper on my 261 for a while now but the intake itself has no markings on it does anybody know if some of them were bare without the name on them?

 

Got a better picture of the intake?

 

Does anyone have detailed pictures of the linkage when the harper intake uses split throttle shafts on the carburetors? Is it possible to recreate or does it use special linkage parts?

I have looked at the pictures on the various threads that mention he harper but I don't think any of them show the split throttle setup.

Thanks,

 

Gee. I thopught they were kinda scarce when I got one, now it looks like the world is lousey with them. Stupid things must just about fall outta the trees !

I really like the split throttle plate thing, never heard of that. mine has one crusty 94 on it and the one brass linkage in the center. Thought i had a pic but can't find it. It looks just like the one you got.

 

These are from when I was building the motor

 

Definitely not Harper. In fact, since the carbs face backwards when the manifolds are installed on a 235, I'd wager that they were originally intended for an engine with the intake ports on the passenger side. Never seen that one, not in 30 plus years of dealing with speed equipment.

 

I have some pics of the progressive, not the greatest, but better than nothing. Engine/setup stored and difficult to get to. Also, I just sold a non-progressive intake on, well you know where, item #130601736441 for pics of that linkage which is a good starting place. Since I'm too stupid to post pics here, send me your e-mail address and I'll get um to you. Post them if you like.

 

Holy Harper Batman! I had one of these back in 69. It was on a 216 (yes? no?) I never saw one like it until now. Thought it was hand fabricated. Of course, when I got married - 1974 and thought I was maturing, I threw it away with carbs, linkage, 6V Sun sending unit, dual point dist., etc. 10 years later, I regressed and went even further into immaturity and have had project after project after project. Still going strong and very immature.

You should have seen the guys at the dumps when I threw it off the truck.

 

Thanks for the info heathen I wonder if that has anything to do with the way it runs i have never been able to get this setup to work right it runs really rich no matter what I do I'm getting to the point where I'm thinking about changing to an offy with 3 rochesters but I have alot of time invested in that intake setup I'd hate to change it now it doesn't run any kind of progressive linkage and the last time I tried tuning it I think I might have had 45 jets in it but it's been a while

 

Eddie,

I sent you my email and my money.

 

I saw a manifold matching this description on the counter at Tognotti's in Sacramento in about 1977. It was a special order item for a Chevy 216 customer.
Normbc9

 

I noticed you're running 94s. The vacuum operated power valves in 94s don't lend themselves to multiple setups as easily as the mechanical power enrichment setup in the 97/81/48 carbs do. Also, are the mixture screws in the end carb snapped off? It looks that way in the picture.

 

Could be for a backward facing boat engine.......

 

Possible, I guess. The modular design of intakes like this made them adaptable to almost any engine with round intake ports. I remember one of the few Harper ads I found in the back pages of a '55 HRM listing them "for Chevy, Buick, and other inline engines".

 

When I bought the carburetors they were supposedly setup for progressive linkage so the two outer carbs idle screws were set by whoever set them up and then cut them off so they would stay at that adjustment after I got the motor running I was having problems with it so I drilled them out and installed new idle screws