History Did Ford make a factory 3x2 flathead intake? - See Photos

Hey Guys,

I posted this over at the Ford Barn but I thought I would ask here as well. I ran into a fellow recently who said he has a factory Ford 3x2 intake. He said they were used the '49 to '53 engines and went into police cars in California.

I am not aware that Ford ever made a multi-carb intake for the flathead. 42Merc on the Ford Barn said that Ford did make some in the 30's for Indy but that that was it.

Maybe Bruce Lancaster or some of the other flathead gurus could shed some light on this.

I look forward to hearing them weigh in on this.

Thor

 

Those extra risers are welded on. Old kits for the broke-ass hot rodders. Available from Gotha I think.

 

He's hoping for a sucker... def NOT factory. You can see the weld/brazing beads!

 

You can almost make out the Gotha logo on the back view there...

 

factory would be WAY cleaner looking than that. Looks homemade.

 

Gotha or closely similar, and this one was presumably built to serve as a dual by whoever welded it...not just the blockoff, but the heights. If he had wanted a triple he would have tried a closer approach to getting all the links in the same plane...

 

I've got some of the same style kits; mine were sold by Speed Gems. Actually, they'd come in handy for someone with welding skills and a vintage engine that speed equipment isn't dropping out of trees for (Pontiac or Olds straight 8, etc.).

 

Thanks for the response guys! I have only seen the pictures not the actual unit.

I didn't realize that there were kits to convert a single carb intake into a dual or triple carb intake. The HAMB does it again!

 

"Police" parts..."California"...just two of many important buzz-words.

All designed to help the low-life "car-guy" bullshitters prey on unsuspecting buyers.

 

Pretty neat huh! I wonder how they flowed?

 

I've got a Hot Rod magazine around here somewheres that shows the kits for sale... $14.95 I think they were?? I'll try to find it and make a scan...

But if guys were REAL broke, there's another way to make them...

Take 3 stock cast iron manifolds, and cut the carb "flanges" off of 2 of these intakes. Then, get yourself some black iron pipe and mark out where you want everything. Torch some holes in the intake, and weld the pipes/flanges to the intake...

Here was my kinda primitive attempt... It was just for looks though:

 

Shaun,

As they say...necessity is the mother of invention. I think it would be okay to add poverty to that saying as well.

Thor

 

shaun, page 32 of the May '54 Speed Mechanics magazine has a adv for the Gotha conversion for $6.75 plus 50 cents postage. Definetly the way to go back in the day for those of us who were cash poor but speed addicted. I had bought a converted manifold with one of these kits from a guy in NJ on the Hamb, came off an old circle track car, probably pretty popular with the Saturday night racers.

 

I have a 3x2 built by Rossini brothers speed shop on Toronto.back then speed parts were rare in Canada.

 

They also had single carb kits, I had 3 aces on a plymouth flathead.

 

Those kits were readily available from Almquist, Speedway, and most of the mail order houses in the 50's. I believe they sold a lot of them!

4TTRUK

 

It's kinda funny that you don't see more of them still kicking around... I know the value isn't the same as a production aluminum intake, but still, don't see many come up for sale..

 

I ofter wonder what happened to all the old stuff that used to be for sale in JC Whitney, Warshasky, and other places. Anybody know?

Thanks, Dave.

 

It's all packed in a warehouse out in the desert, secret location. It is being stored there so that after the bomb drops and burns out all the printed circuits the gov't will sell it to the guy with the most gold and water.

 

There's going to still be a gov't after "the bomb" drops?
Damn....

 

Probably the same thing that happened to the mountain of Fenton headers that were piled behind Fenton Mfg. in the early '70s.....scrapped.

 

Bought one a Hersey last year. Remember when they sold the kits.

 

He might have been thinking there was racing on the dry lakes in the 1920s-30s.
Probably read the propoganda sheets dropped from the hot air balloon.

"We've got to change history, and the way we speak..."

 

1935 Miller-Ford race cars ( and, as I remember they made 5 of them) had
factory 4 carb intake manifolds. Here is a link to one site commenting on the
cars and their design.

http://www.conceptcarz.com/z22653/Miller-Ford-Indy-Car.aspx

 

Ford Indy cars also ran Bohnalite dual intakes, Factory prepped by Henry Miller.
These were considered Ford parts?!?? (heads and manifolds?)

 

Damn right. Those b*st*rds are like cockroaches...

As far as why you dont see more converted intakes around, I'll bet the vast majority of those that were sold were never actually used, the risers probably eventually went into the same trash can as the hacked up intake...

 

They were ordered by kids with no money, who then discovered that the blasted welder downtown wanted...money!

 

The Ford Indy team was run by Miller...he put on 4 Miller carbs on several of the cars, one got Bohnalite manifold with 2 Strombergs, presumably Model 40 or 48's. I think that car was the fastest...
Now, Bohn was a big supplier of manifolds and heads to Ford, and participate in Ford's development of the 180 degree manifold, a HUGE engineering breakthrough for all V8's all they way up til the age of port injection.
One of my old posts contains the patent stuff on that manifold...which anticipated the use of 4 barrel carb a couple of decades early. Ford dropped that part of the scheme.

 

Years ago I bought one from my Cousin for an Olds engine, where they had added runners like that in shop class. I didn't realize it at the time I bought it, but they welded the front one on crooked. I never did use it and think it got scrapped, but since I only paid $10 for it there was no big loss.

Don

 

I saw an intake just about the same as this one in the swap meet in Kalamazoo.