Have you ever noticed that a Thickstun PM-7 is offset?

I'm assembling this roadster today, and while putting the radiator support rods on, I noticed that the air cleaner is off to the driver's side. I thought I goofed up somewhere. I starting looking and found that the intake manifold has the carbs set to the driver's side. Is this a Thickstun thing or are others like this as well? Also why is it offset? Was it to make room for the logo on the right side??

It REALLY buggs me when I look at it from the front... bummer.

 

Is that an ORIGNAL Thickstun air cleaner or one of the many re-pops out there? I have seen some re-pops with really bad castings in the bases, it wouldn't surprise me if the base was cast wrong or cleaned up off-center.

I like your fuel line..... I would like to see a close up pic of the splice you made with the 2 into 1 lines.

 

The air cleaner is original. It's the manifold for sure. The generator mount is center as well as the fuel pump mount. The carbs are off to the left about an inch. I'll get you a pic when the sun is out. My garage isn't well lit...

 

Anyone have thoughts?

...I thought it was interesting. I guess I'm the only one.

 

i have one in the house it appears offset also just like yours. i havent seen it on a car yet though .. idk if its a repop or not i don t think it is

 

I would suggest you write and ask Tony Baron who carries on the business today.......

[email protected]

He'll know.....


Brucie

 

dig your motor any more pics of it? what fuel pump is that? any pics of the car some cool stuff on there. billy

 

I've never noticed that on a PM-7. Wonder why they did it that way?

Post some more pics of the whole car. I'd like to see more.

Thanks, JH

 

The only thing I can think of is there had to be more room for the logo on the right side, so the carbs were moved over. Sounds really strange for that to be the reason... I can't think of any performance reason. It isn't at all reciprocal left to right and it's starting to bother me ...alot.

Someone told me once that the PM-7 is the same as an early Tattersfield. If it is, are they offset as well???

I'll have to get some pics in the morning... the light in the garage sucks for pictures...

 

That's a stock replacment for a 1940 Ford. I got it at Carquest believe it or not... I still need to change the hex head screws for the correct slotted heads...

 

With hindsight, it seems sort of funny that the carbs were offset to the rear on some of the multi-carb manifolds to make room for the generator. I guess back then they hadn't figured everything out.

 

Is it possible it was made off center to clear a support, linkage or some firewall mounted item back in the day? Battery perhaps?

Either way, that's a great looking setup. I like the contrast the copper lends....

 

Did you also take the picture used as the header of this page? It looks just like your's, even offset between the braces.

 

That's funny, I've gone crazy with a tape measure several times trying to figure that out, then walked off muttering.

 

I've seen the header view a few times and the air cleaner is roughly center.

 

I took mine off the shelf and mesured it. The carbs are off center by a half inch towards the drivers side! Just enough to drive ya crazy. I hate to think they did it just to fit the logo on there. I wonder if they did that to line up with the throttle linkage on the firewall. It's probably has to do with getting all the runners to go to the right cylinders.

 

is it possibly to clear the generator?
my tall edelbrock regular has the generator "groove" machined on a slant so that the back of the gen. clears the carb risers.

Zach

 

Guys, just quit looking at them straight on & forget about it.

My lowly Offy Super Dual doesn't have this problem.

JH

 

I think you were just looking for an excuse to show off the engine. DO IT AGAIN! MORE PICS!

 

Loudpedal your killing me. I never noticed that on mine and now it'll drive me crazy forever.
Will you guys quit looking at em and drive em.

 

I have a easy solution for this problem.

Stand in front of car.

Remove left shoe.

Done!

 

I have an even better solution Kris drink some more damn beer till you got that tilt going on and that will be straight as an arrow. well at least till you sober up again. ha,ha,ha looks like your going to drive the other perfectionists like yourself nuts with that one. and yeah its been too long, lets see pics of the project or should I just look at old pics of the blk roadster and imagine the same?

 

This is interesting, as I suspect there is some engineering thought involved. I don't think it's going to be a clearance thing, as the whole manifold was obviously designed around the issue of making it a pure bolt-on, rather than an endless set of issues like a super dual needing offset generator, and carbs are so high they just don't interfere with anything.
Flathead appearance is totally symmetrical, giving it a perfectly balanced Gothic Cathedral look, but it has its secrets. Everything is actually offset, crank, cam, valve angles...maybe something in this will produce a reason. I'm going to ask the PM-7 spiders in the garage to slide over into an Edelbrock I can offer them so I can put it on a bare block and stare at things tonight. That's gotta be better than anything that'll be on TV!

 

Dude, It only looks that way because your only wearing one shoe!!
Jimmy White

 

Isn't the PM-7 considered one of the best performing flatty intakes????
Maybe the reason is because the engine offset was taken into consideration.....at least, maybe that's what they were thinkin' back then....

 

Performance is hard to judge; there seems little REAL back to back dyno flogging, and normal human beings simply can't build enough engines and flog parts enough to build much real data...maybe the upcoming book from super-guru JWL, an ally of Ron Holleran, will have some serious numbers. JWL took over a lot of Ron's work and equipment, and has a dyno, flow bench, and LOTS of experience and engineering know how.
Old magazines don't help...just as with SBC articles nowadays, it was impossible to compare similar products back to back because all of them advertised in the magazines. Proving anyone's superiority would have been a disaster for the magazine.

 

Just grind a litltle off the motor mount biscuit...