This may be irrelevant, but I saw a reference to it in a post from 2010 and thought some one may be interested. In 1960 with the introduction of the Ford Falcon with the 144ci inline six along with several other compact cars from other makers, there was an interest in hot rodding them. Apparently Holman Moody, Edelbrock and Bill Stroppe introduced various multiple carb kits for the Falcon. Which is a good trick because the falcon six has an intake that is actually part of the head casting. The Holman Moody was an entire kit that consisted of head, cam, lifters, etc. The others were rather ingenious pieces that bolted to a modified head. The March 1960 issue of HOT ROD has an article about these three conversions. I would love to get my hands on any of them, but especially the H-M. I am always interested in any performance items for the Ford 144-200 ci sixes. But cheap, very limited budget. Thanks
Wow! I have a 200 with offenhauser tripower in my bird, but I have never heard of the H/M kit until now! I know what I'll be googling on my Interweb machine!
The Holman stuff was way cool, but other companies made those parts too. Offenhauser still makes the three carb manifold kit, and Summit sells it. Strope did quite a few prototype parts for Ford back then too, and his method was to make the two end carb mounts from 3/8" steel and exhaust tubing, then braze the adaptors to the head. Mallory built dual point distributors for these, and they are fairly common swap meet finds. Isky, Engle and Comp cams still offer cams for these motors today, but with better grinds and metal technology. The larger exhaust manifolds from late sixties or pre smog seventies cars help allot with getting the bad air out. Oh, do a 2" exaust too. Classic inlines here in AZ can help with most of these. It's not hard to build these and keep the early looks if you really look at what's out there.
A few years back, I picked up an aluminum intake manifold to convert a stock Falcon head to 3 two-barrel side draft carbs. It was made by Lynx in Australia. The head is modified by cutting off the cast intake, and finished by milling a flat, angled surface across the intake ports, then drilled and tapped for holes to bolt the intake on. I've never used it, but it was so oddball that I just wanted to get it. I'm certain that no one else here has ever spent money on oddball speed equipment just to gawk at it for a bit. P.S., beardog, go post an intro, O.K.? Later, Kinky6
Back in 1994, I was fortunate enough to find an "Edelbrock Kit" that included the 6-3-1 tri-power adapter with the progressive linkage, an Edelbrock Finned valve cover and the three NOS glass bowled Holley 1904s pictured in my avatar. Cal Custom air cleaners, an Edelbrock tri-power fuel block and Mooneyes gauges under the hood completed the look I hoped to emulate when I first saw the Edelbrock speed parts in the previously mentioned March 1960 Hot Rod article, "Making the Falcon Fly."
My buddy and I put one of those 3x1 kits on his brand new '60 Falcon ,built a mickey mouse set of headers and put in a different distributor WOW , It ripped pretty well but started breaking gear boxes . Should have left it alone !
i remember those multi carb setups--you needed a good machinist to rework the intake for the extra carbs. and the 144/170 were still crappy mills (4 mains).
The one that has always killed me has been the cover of the May 1960 Hot Rod. It features three differant modified Falcon sixes... The yellow one with the three carbs and paxton supercharger haunts my dreams!
Had a 200 that I bought with the intake cut off and the head milled. came with a 4 bbl. Had some other stuff done. Ran hard!
There was a '61 Falcon Ranchero that used to frequent Goodguise shows in Cali...(Pleasanton) I walked up to look at the engine one morning, and looked again! It was stuffed full of '53Merc ECM flathead, dual carbs, finned Edelbrock heads, Fenton headers, Mallory ign. The owner was a rodder, building a '32 highboy, selling a '32 5 window (also a highboy) Cool head, beautiful little Ranchero. (sounded better than the six!) Ran, too. 16 secs. at Fremont.
Well, I had intended to scan all six pages of this issue devoted to the Falcon stuff. It mentions Holman Moody, but also Bill Stroppe's adventures in making Falcons fly, and his version is on the page that DID scan and resize! Look very closely at that three carb six. It doesn't use the aluminum cast manifold. It uses two fabbed and brazed "manifolds" plus the center, of course. My first three carb manifold for my '62 was done this way 30 years ago by a friend, and I will be doing the same for my Ranchero's 170 as soon as I have some time.
In 1960 when the compacts came out, NASCAR started a 'compact' junior race car series featuring the compacts - Falcon, Valiant and Corvair. The Valiant won virtually all the races, and the series was abandoned I believe early in the '61 season.
I read the March 1960 Hot Rod Magazine nearly 20 years ago which prompted me to look for and purchase the Edelbrock speed parts pictured in the article, “Making the Falcon Fly.” In 1994, I had just finished restoring a 1963 1/2 "F" Code Ranchero with a factory 260 V8 and T-10 4 speed and had a relatively solid ‘63 Ranchero parts truck originally equipped with a 170 and Dagenham 4 speed left over. Although I had no intention of building another ’63 Ranchero, the “Edelbrock Kit” showed up for sale for $200 and the parts truck became a second build. In 1996, air bag suspensions were relatively new but my truck quickly sported a modified mini-truck unit that shocked Falcon aficionados when my Ranchero dropped from nose bleed to slammed at the touch of a switch. I drove the Ranchero regularly in 1996-97 and while visiting a work site, someone with deep pockets witnessed the air bag suspension navigate his steep Los Angeles driveway and offered a nice sum to purchase the truck. As the new owner intended to replace the inline six with vintage Edelbrock speed parts for a V8/ T-5 combo, I retained the engine which I have stored in my garage. These are pictures of my Ranchero from 1996.
a hopped up 6 was always my plan for mine, until a scored a deal on an original v8 one. great thread!
eric, Your pictured white Ranchero on Supremes is what prompted me to build another '63 Ranchero. Given the challenges with your lowered Ranchero on 14 inch Supremes, my Ranchero has a 4 inch static drop but runs 13 inch Cragar S/S five spokes with three bar spinners. Although it’s far from finished, my Ranchero must look pretty good in its incredibly rough state as someone offered to buy it on its first outing when I drove it six blocks today to get gas.
Hi all, Since the Holman Moody Falcon was mentioned I figured I would post these pictures: I suspect this Falcon may have been a recreation but still cool.
My wagon isn't quite as nice as your Ranchero and I have the same reaction everytime it backs out of the driveway! I've been driving it 2 months as of this week and it's already covered 2000 miles. These damn little things are soooooo much fun. Just wish I could do a five speed in this one instead of the auto - but I DID build it for the girlfriend to drive, and being both cute and Asian a manual aint gonna happen. Soon my Ranch will be up with it's three carb 170 and T-50 five gear.
Its interesting that they tried hot rodding these Thrift-Six's even though the head and intake were cast one piece. I read about a dual carb kit that had you cut a hole in the log with a hole saw then it came with a gasket that you put around the new carb flange and hose clamped it to the log! LOL Crude. The motor in this article has a blower...
I modify falcon 6 heads. Furnace braze different carb adapters on either progressive weber or Holley. Not as cool as 3x1's but work great.
My buddy claims that he's got a early Falcon six, with 3-1bbl bosses, cast into the intake log, NOT ADAPTERS. I have yet to see it. I am pushing him to let me see it, or even buy it. It ain't real until I see it.
I've been dicking with these cars off and on for the beter part of 30 years and I have yet to hear that one! Although, if you read through the '60 Hot Rod mags with all the hop up stuff on Falcons, it does state that Ford had intentions of producing a high performance version of these cars based on Stroppe's mods. He did his three carb deal by brazing the two extra pads onto the stock head. Could they have tooled and produced a head or two before thinking - nahhhh!
I am calling B.S. on this one too. I suppose that it could be a cleanly furnace brazed and smoothed setup, but I ain't buyin' it till I see it, and if I see it, I'm buyin' it!
I owned a CO Falcon head that someone had fusion welded 3 carb bosses on. I bought it from a guy who ran a machine shop his father built it back in the early 60's. It looked perfect there was no difference in the color of the metal. Ebay'ed it 7 or 8 years ago. Don't remember where I sold it to.
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