Thread: retro log style intake

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Years ago ('50's and '60's) I think it was Crowler who offered kits called "U-Fab" that allowed you to build your own log manifold. They consisted of the flanges for the two intake banks on each head, two long tubes that had holes punched in them for each runner to go to, and some short pieces of tubing to go from the flange plates to the long tubes, and some more flanges to mount each carb on.

The idea was that you would bolt the flanges to each head, then tack weld a short runner stub onto each port opening, then run the long tubes across the top of those runners. To the top of the long tubes you would weld on the number of flanges you needed to run 4-6 or 8 carbs. The two long tubes were joined together with another one or two tubes that ran between the two to act as a balancer. When you had it all tacked up, you finished welding it all up, and hopefully you had no leaks. The potential for warpage and leaks is tremendous.

These kits sold for like $ 19.95 back then, and I saw some on cars in magazines, but I wonder how many of them never got built, or got 1/2 way done and then given up on. I also can't imagine they were really effective at flowing properly, all they accomplished was to add more carbs to an engine.
I understand what you are trying to do, and to that end, you could make up your own log out of simple round tubing and some flat stock. I've seen some wild intakes done this way, usually on rat rods.

For carbs, you could go with early stromberg 48's or 97's, but these are getting costly, and are known to be fuel leakers, unless prepped well. I prefer the Rochester 2 GC carbs that were used on mid-60's cars like 283 chevies that came with a single 2 barrel. I started buying up these a couple years ago, to use on my next few tripower projects, and you can still get these for well under $ 100 each on Ebay. I like the ones with the fuel inlet out to the side, rather than out the front, as they fit better on multi carb setups.

I would use a bandsaw to cut the tubes and flanges, as a plasma cutter could warp the flat flanges and create leaks.
Hope this helps.


Don

PS: before my Son was able to score the W30 Olds intake he is currently running on his 455, we actually bought a blower intake and were going to make a flat mounting plate for the top of it to mount 3 carbs. And I think Vintage speed sells an adapter to mount two two barrels on a regular 4 barrel intake. I've seen these, and they are pretty nice.