Hot Rods Rare Hi-Ball ford flathead intake manifold information needed Vernco Engineering

So I got this rare? Odd ?interesting? flatty intake manifold Vernco Engineering Hi Ball 2x2 . It’s looks like a Custom AA or a D&S but with a bit different crossover on the heat exchange with screw on caps it appears. Does anyone have info on the Vernco company and was it a Hutton Sullivan type of company.. thanks

 

Those heat port caps are weird. I've never seen anything like that before.

I agree that it looks like a D&S. Maybe that foundry owned the pattern and would sell a part with your name on it.

 

I have never seen a Vernco Engineering intake before. There is a very strong possibility that this intake was cast by Al Sharp. Just after the war Al Sharp teamed up with Gord Pilkington and started SP Patterns. They cast many different intakes for many different companies and individuals and if you wanted your name on an intake manifold; they would do it for you. I know that Al Sharp purchased what turned out to be the D&S pattern from Aaron Fenton at the Fenton bankruptcy auction and many different names were cast using this very same pattern or the very similar Fenton pattern. Al Sharp didn't want to put his name on this particular pattern as he felt the design didn't meet his quality standards.This pattern ended up with everyone else's name embossed on it.In addition to D&S a few other names come to mind. Douglas, Ralph's Muffler Shop, AA Custom. Tom Cherry, Von Esser and Jet; just to name some of them. You have a very interesting intake and the heat screw caps are a very different idea.

 

Hmmmm ….. adjustable exhaust rap ?

 

That's some outstanding knowledge there.

The reason I open threads that I know nothing about and learn.

Thanks for sharing.

 

Whats also interesting is that I put it next to a Von Esser and its a bit different in a few places. The Von esser and Fenton look to be in the same mold style . While the Vernco Hi Ball is different in the generator mount and thicker in the embossing around the carbs. Also the caps and they have a knurled edge cool...

 

Neat piece! Do those caps provide a way of blocking off the heat riser or what?

 

Hey yeah?! Are those adjustable stoppers that could block off the port by screwing them down?

 

Or just turning them 1/4 turn, like a 2 cylinder JD tractor manifold heater.

 

amen!!

 

It looks to be a cast in post the cap is threaded on . So it may be like the John Deere tractor but not sure what the benefits to that would be

 

The JD tractor has a cast iron spool with a hole in it, To either let the exhaust heat the manifold going through the crossover, or block the crossover when turned.

 

Thanks BJR so This Hi Ball intake must have the same idea as the JD intake then that’s cool.

 

Here is a picture of the John Deere manifold and spool with hole in it to get a better idea of what I was talking about.

 

Just to add a little bit to this. Sharp had started producing 2x2 flathead intakes shortly after the war ended. His designs abandoned the talls that everyone was using at the lakes just before the war. If anything, Edelbrock copied them as they worked better than a Slingshot, Thickstun PM 7, Weiand tall, or Tattersfield. The story that I got was that Al Sharp had purchased the pattern at an auction and made a test batch of castings from it. When they produced less than than his own design, he pretty much abandoned it. Arron Fenton at one point, contacted Sharp to produce manifolds for him. Sharp was reluctant to complete with himself at that point and offered to use the auction pattern for him. When it turned out profitably for Sharp, he leased the use of the pattern to others, including the names mentioned by quickchangeV8.

As the only appearance of the Vernco is the one in this thread, and trust me, I've done a bit of research on it, I kind of suspect that this is cast from the original pattern before Sharp bought it. It would have been just a couple of minutes work for an experienced pattern maker like Sharp to remove the Vernco. Sharp also rented his pattern for Chevy 6's, Ply/Dodge 6's to Fenton. If you look at a Sharp 3x2 and 4x4 side by side with a Fenton, you'll discover they're the same with only a branding difference. Fasten your seatbelts boys and girls, this ride is about to get really bumpy.

After Fenton bought the Edmunds patterns at Edmunds bankruptcy sale, he in turn leased patterns for the Edmunds flathead Ford (8BA) and the Edmunds Chevy 6 to a company called Multi Power. Fenton also produced castings of the Edmunds flathead pattern rebranded with the Fenton name on what my collector friend in Utah, Nick Kotok, likes to call "stick of gum" labeling. Just a raised section covering up the name on the original pattern. Unlike Edmunds, none of the Fentons were polished (But they could be special order polished through Almquist). Things get even stickier when you get into Ford Y-Block and early Olds V8 intakes. If Edmunds ever made an actual pattern 2x4 for a Ford Y-Block, I've never seen one or a listing in any of his catalogs, yet they exist. They are identical to the Fenton Y-block patterns except for the Edmunds branding on a "stick of gum." The Fenton Olds intakes are actually Edmunds with, you guessed it, stick of gum Fenton branding.

Edmunds was a neat/clean guy and the only actual Edmunds with stick of gum branding that I know of was the 2x2 for the baby Dodge Hemi. I had what was probably one of the casting prototypes for the Dodge. Instead of the Edmunds logo, the pattern had a number cast in it. I can't remember the name of the process, but a Police friend of mine used imaging equipment to verify that the number was cast in it, rather than engraved. There's a picture of that manifold somewhere on the HAMB along with an identical one that was owned by another HAMB member. The production castings of this manifold were identical, other than a "stick of gum" with the Edmunds logo covering where the number was. I would guess the number was put on it by the foundry that cast it to keep track of the job or work order number.

Sorry I've strayed so far from the point of the thread, but at 78, I want to pass along what I have.

 

By all means, continue veering in all directions

 

Times @ to the above!!!
Thanks for sharing this great5 info !
Thanks for sharing pics of this unique intake, I have a laaaaarrrrge collection of "Sharp" flathead speed equipment.
Cheers
Tony

 

Not saying there is one,but I'd contact Speedy Bills museum in Nebraska and ask them if they have one on the their wall of Ford/Merc flathead intakes.
As for the referance to Y-block dual quads. Ted Eaton of Lleona Texas has a dyno test of a available ones made and there is a bunch whether cast by the same guy or not.

 

Hi Tony,
I just read this post (Apparently I'm a real slow reader) And noticed you have a large collection of Sharp parts. I have one I've never seen before or since and I'm curious if you've ever seen one. It's a 3x2 for a 59A with a really strange nose on it. There's no Gen/fan mount on it similar to Weiand's ski slope nose but with Sharp on it. What's really strange is that Al Sharp was a professional pattern maker and the logo looks like something I would do and I have zero skill in pattern making. It slopes slightly downhill and the block lettering, all caps, uses different fonts for almost every letter. A friend of mine in Utah is a flathead intake collector said he saw one exactly the same at a swap meet at least 20 years ago, but the one he saw had fins between the carbs, and mine doesn't. The one my friend saw was not for sale. Ever seen one like it? From the shape of the base, it's obviously a real Sharp pattern. I've attached a picture of it.
Art