Technical Flathead long ram intake manifold

Although I have been a flathead guy since 1962 when I bought my first driver car, a 59 AB powered 39 ford. Over the years I have gone astray and fooled around with other modes of propulsion, but I have always managed to come back to my beloved flatheads. One of my affairs was with a 54 olds super 88 that was given to my buddy and myself because it wouldn't pass NY state inspection. We stripped everything we could out of it and made it a drag car . I don't remember exactly what class we ran, but it was pretty far down the alphabet! Out closest track was Islip Speedway which was an oval track and a 1/8th mile drag strip. Lot of fun! There was one particular car that has stuck in my mind for all these years. It was a Flathead powered T bucked modified roadster, or altered?. This was not someone's weekend warrior street car, it was an all business race car. The best most memorable part was the intake manifold on top of the flathead. It looked just like an early sixties Chrysler long ram, cross ram, manifold. If my memory serves me well, the carbs were about three feet apart. This thing ran like the proverbial 'hammers of H--L". The sound was like nothing else at the track. Now getting to my reason for writing this long winded post. Does anyone remember this car? or better yet have any pictures? Someone told me it was owned and built by Billy Krauss from Sayville NY. I have looked over a lot of flatheads over the years, but have never seen this type of induction on one. What do you guys think? Have we been missing something? Thanks Rich

 

I think you were drunk or stoned..

 

"Anybody who remembers the Sixties wasn't there." Seriously, I hope it was real and someone comes up with some more information. Sounds interesting.

 

ive seen pictures of a flathead with an intake like you describe.. it was made from welded tubing.

 

About 15 +/- years ago at the Turlock Swap(CA) there was a similar setup ,only with side draft carbs(maybe SU's or other Euro/Asian carb?) Wasn't attracting much attention, other than getting noticed by a couple of us 'Flathead Junkies'' as it was just thrown in with a bunch of other 'rusty junk' from an obvious "garage clean-out".

 

Now we're getting someplace! Rich

 

revkev6 I have fabed a lot of parts and there,s a lot of work there.

 

Revkev,Thanks for the pictures, see guys I wasn't in an LSD induced dream! there were really some guys who tried to use the Chrysler long ram concept on their flatheads. The one I saw was hand fabricated and I am thinking it was aluminum. I also remember the runners being a little bit longer Might be worth trying today. You definitely wont see too many more like that running around! Rich.

 

That's pretty wild.

 

Someone wanting to do this might want to read Stu Hilborn's story of his development of fuel injection, especially that he used different size carbs to feed different port-pairs when he was experimenting on a flathead. Side note: One of his early units resembled a much later "Man-A-Fre" manifold for a SBC.

 

Not to be a nattering nabob of negativity, but with one carb feeding two cylinders, aren't you asking for issues? All four of those 2 bbls are going to have to be perfectly sync'd, starve one you got trouble coming. Multi carbs on a blower, tunnel ram, open plenum intake or some cross rams balance the mixture. I think this set up would increase my alcohol intake (my personal consumption, not the engines to be clear). Or do you think that I am concerned over nothing? To be perfectly clear it does looks ridiculously cool!

 

Probably would work better if it paired cylinders that were 360° apart in the firing order.
1-6, 2-8, 3-5, 4-7. It would look more like a bundle of snakes though.
As-is, #1 and #2 cylinders have overlapping intake strokes. #1 intake valve opens when #2 is in the middle of it's intake stroke. With a hot cam, it could pull a lot of exhaust into the intake manifold. The other pairings shouldn't be bad.

 

Pretty sure that is what drtrcrv8 was getting at above. Hilborn had a 3 I barrel intake that fed 3,4 5,6 and 7,8 with one barrel carbs and 1,2 ran a bigger two barrel

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Could you please clarify for me how this could happen? The intake and exhaust passages are separated from each other (except in the actual cylinder itself) for each cylinder and certainly between cylinders. I am having a hard time visualizing this; could you explain a little further?

 

If it was an LSD induced dream, maybe your suffering a relapse, and only imaging seeing that picture.

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Thanks revkev6; At least YOU knew exactly where I was going! LOL! My fuzzy memory says he was running 3 Stromberg 81's or 97's(maybe?), & one much bigger 2bbl Stromberg, (possibly aircraft?), but, like I said :I read it a long time ago....

 

Here is stu's intake. 3 one barrels and a single two barrel.



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I warned you my memory was....what were we talking about??

 

Valve overlap. The intake valve opens before the exhaust closes. Cams with more duration have more overlap. If intake manifold pressure is lower than cylinder pressure, exhaust is pulled back into the cylinder and possibly up into the intake runner. This exhaust dilutes the mixture drawn in as the intake stroke continues. This is what causes the lopey idle with a long duration cam.

With the #1 and #2 cylinders connected on one carb, #2 is mid intake stroke while #1 is in overlap. Mid stroke is where the draw is strongest. If the carb has any restriction, or inadequate flow, there will be vacuum through the #1 cylinder to the exhaust system. A standard dual plane intake splits up the cylinders so there is very little overlap of intake strokes. A single plane intake will have the overlap, but the volume is much larger than the 2 cylinder long ram pictured, so the effect is reduced. Individual runner systems with throttle plates close to the ports have the least issue with exhaust reversion.