345 Desoto Hemi how can I make it look good??

Rusty, I see that you are new on several forums with an interest in Mopars.
You might want to sit back with your favorite adult beverage and read through the HemiTech postings to see what has already been covered and what you may have missed.

...and the shiverlay is like the Poly, only a few years late...

...and don't forget the FireFlite...
.

 

Here is a link to a guy making both the hi deck and lo deck intakes. Nice thing about his intakes is they are a dual plane design unlike the Australian intake. He occasionally runs intakes for sale on Ebay. He prices them at $495 on the website. I think he is out of Bradenton Fl.
http://vintagev8s.com/
I bought precut intake plates from Ufab along with 4 mandrel U bends and built my own 3 duece intake before this guy started making the hi deck intake. My engine is a "57 341 ......Mechanical secondary Rochesters are a pain in the ass.

As for lo deck cams vs hi deck cams they ARE NOT interchangable. Not taking into account the earlierer long snout cams they will bolt in but with the raised deck, the lobe spacing is slightly different. It would probably run but wouldn't quite be right. I'm not sure why Desoto did this. Not even sure if Firepowers are this way or the Red Rams either.

 

Hi & lo don't interchange on any of them.

 

How close are the dodge intakes to fitting the desoto? Could I get a dodge manifold and do a little machining along with some manifold spacers to get it to fit a 345 Desoto??

 

Looks like Strombergs97 already has a version of what I was thinking of. Saw a really nice dual 4 custom sheetmetal intake on a Desoto hemi at a show a few years ago. It was in a cool, ratty, 30's stude coupe. The guy said he paid a fab man around $500 to build it to his specs. Same guy built his zoomie exaust.

 

To give you an Idea of the difference between 330, 341 or 345 Desoto intakes and Dodges, there was at least one aftermarket manufacturer that made an intake to fit Hi-deck Dodges(315 325) or Lo-deck Desotos(276 291). Some bolt hole bosses were wider so either intake bolt pattern could be used. Other minor machining was done too. I have personally seen one of these intakes. Here is what Vintage Speed offers. You can see the wide bolt hle bosses

New Desoto 276"-291"<BIG><BIG> 4x2 intakes</BIG></BIG> --<BIG><BIG> Available now</BIG></BIG> <BIG><BIG><BIG>Desoto Hemi 4x2 intake manifold</BIG></BIG> --Our New custom Vintage Speed </BIG>intake for the early Desoto Hemi engine--276"--291" --1952 thru '55. Like the Weiand and cragar made in the 50's. Four two barrel Stromberg "97s" in a row. This is for the short deck early hemi engines. Cast alum like the originals this is a beautiful part. Intake design allows you to run on progressive linkage (run on center two and bring in the outer two) After years on the high cost patterns, we are finished with the new 4x2 intakes. Get your order in now. Call us now for this long awaited part. Each intake is CNC machined for a perfect fit and has a serial #. call us at 772 778 0809 in fl.
<BIG><BIG>Note- We can also machine this intake to fit the <BIG>Dodge </BIG>315"-325" motors.</BIG></BIG> The early weiand design (like ours) was designed to fit both the short deck Desoto and the 315-325 dodge. We are working on a cnc program now to machine for the dodge.

 

I just did some miner mods to a small block chev manifold and it bolted right on my desoto

 

Am I missing something here? The intake port configuration for the Desoto hemi and a sbc is completely different. Intake ports are spaced evenly for the Desoto and they are siamesed for the sbc. No way that is a minor mod bolt on. Maybe for a big block chevy???

 

Please share the magic of this "minor mod"

 

first I cut the front of the manifold off, then I cut the entire bottom of the manifold open and ground of a bunch of excess aluminum, you will notice it still says edlebrock on top, then I cut a pair of plates to bolt up to the heads,then I took 8 round tubes and made one end of each rectangular,then I made a lrge open plenum box and welded all this crap together with my tig, then I built 6 old 94s, then I grabbed some aluminum and a hacksaw and made the linkage and I was gonna sand and polish it but one of my friends told me it would never work so I thought I would bolt it on and try it, you should never do that always finish some thing before you start driving with it , I drove it for 10 years and then traded the model T for a 50 merc. We have long winters here you see and the merc had a heater which really appealed to my wife.

 

Me thinks you kinda played down the amount of work it took to do this. I won't dispute what you did but to mod a manifold or build one from scratch ain't no Saturday afternoon worth of work. I know, I built this 3 duece intake from scratch. I bought the intake plates from U-fab and 4 mandrel U bends. Built the main box from 11 guage and the top of the box from 1/4" plate. Migged the box together, cut and hammered runners into shape then spotted it all together. I had a friend Tig the runners since I don't own a Tig and he is a damn good welder. I bolted a 1/2" thick copper plate to the top of the box to prevent warpage during the final welding. I got the idea for this intake from an old magazine article from the '60s I downloaded from the Hamb.

 

If a tall deck dodge intake can be made to fit a low deck desoto then maybe (depending on how much room there is) I can make some aluminum plates (spacers) that bolt to the desoto heads and have the bolt pattern for the dodge manifold tapped in to the adapter plates. So maybe you could get it to where a dodge intake could bolt right on without any grinding and also keeping the dodge manifold original. Any manifold alinement differences can be matched with the plate. Anyone have a measurement of how wide a tall deck dodge intake is?

 

My undestanding is the high deck Dodge & the low deck DeSoto are close enough for raw castings, if they have really big intake bolt platforms & thick runners, to be made from the same molds. The finished ports are not in the same places & niether are the bolt holes. You might, or might not, have enough thickness on an adaptor to angle the ports to where they would work decently & probaly have to use some really thin head bolts in the adaptor plates(if there are any that thin).

 

I have posted these pictures before. The laws of physics says a low deck Desoto intake is too narrow for a tall deck Dodge. A tall deck Dodge is too wide for a low deck Desoto. This isnt rocket science.
From what I understand, only one or two of the Vintage Speed intakes seem to exist. If you look at the advertising picture as posted in this thread, its claimed to be for a low deck Desoto. How is this going to be machined wider to fit a tall deck Dodge?????
Using a low deck intake on a tall deck requires spacers of at least 1.125 inches thick. I doubt this intake is rough cast with flanges 2 inches thick before machining. My $.02

 

So am I looking at a 291 intake on a 315 dodge?

Do you have the stuff to take the same pics with a 330-345 desoto motor with a 315 dodge manifold sitting on it?