High balance tube manifold

[Grumblebuns]

Two years ago I spoke to a local machine shop about making copies of a high balance manifold I picked up many years ago offered on a group buy from a Europa owner and machinist from the Yahoo mail list. Due to numerous health issues suffered by the machinist and equipment breakdowns, it took this long to get the manifolds almost finished. I stopped by the shop this morning to look at the progress he made. The current delay is waiting on a $1600 circuit board for his vintage milling machine to arrive. He told me that he should be done by the first week of January on both manifolds.

I'm wondering just how much interest there is from the group on getting more manifolds made up. He's an old school machinist, no CNC machines. everything is hand measured so he will need an example on hand to measure and copy. If there is enough interest. I will hold one manifold example for the machinist to take measurements on to make customer manifolds.

I do not have the cost for a set or any pictures at this time. In January when I pick up the manifolds (fingers crossed), I'll have both. You will be dealing directly with the machine shop, I will not be involved in any way except to answer questions.

For those wondering of any advantage of the high balance manifold as compared to stock, probably, none to minimal. perhaps just better drivability. What it does is to clean up the intake manifold. It eliminates the secondary butterfly and the ports for the crossover tubes making for a cleaner appearance of the engine. I believe that the non federal Stromberg equipped cars had a similar setup.

Joji Tokumoto
Fallbrook, Ca   

[Roger]

Joji, I don't think there were any non-Federal Stromberg-equipped Europas.
There were, however, a lot of Stromberg-equipped non-Federal Elans, from one of which I got my high-level manifolds, an S4 to be precise.
There were some low-level manifolds too, they were changed because of fears of fuel pooling in the balance pipe.

[Grumblebuns]

Roger, I forgot about the Elans, do you have any pictures of your high balance manifold. I'd like to see if the one off the Elan was the original source for the one I have.

[Roger]

Here you are Joji.

[Grumblebuns]

Thanks for the Roger. Never seen a stock HBT manifold before was curious to see what it looked like. I like your solution to the elimination of the attachment point of the throttle cable with the HBT manifold using the angle aluminum on the valve cover. 

[Bainford]

I have an interest in one of the high level manifolds, pending price. I have been keeping an eye out for an affordable factory unit for awhile, but this might be the way to go.

[Grumblebuns]

Trevor, I'll update the thread when I pick up the manifolds next month.

[Grumblebuns]

After pestering the machinist with weekly status phone calls since the beginning of the year, the manifolds are finally finished. To help reduce his labor costs for the job with my machinist, at the beginning of the project, we both agreed to forgo some of the steps involving detail work affecting aesthetics. The result may look a bit rough to some of perfectionists out there but it kept the cost down to a reasonable level. The machinist estimated that he put in about 40 hours on the job but will charge me only for the actual machine time and cost of the material. It's obvious that he's giving me a huge cost break on this project.

I had two manifold pairs made. I plan on keeping one pair and offer the second pair for sale. I make no money on this, what my machinist charged me is what I'm asking for the second set, $400. What you get are (1)left/(1)right manfiold, (1)balanced tube, (2) block off plugs, O rings. If someone wants the second manifold for immediate installation, I may sell the second pair. I prefer not to sell it if it's going to sit on someone's shelf for future use.

If there is enough demand, my machinist said he's willing to make additional sets. He won't take orders directly (prefers not to deal with irate customers wondering why it's taking so long to get their parts) so I volunteered to act as a middleman. He will make a run with a minimum order of two sets of manifolds, $400/set. So if anyone wants a manifold set, contact me for details.

Joji Tokumoto
Fallbrook, Ca

[Bodzer]

Hi Joji,

They look very nicely made. You will have a lot of interest (if you want it!) if it was known about on the Elan forums as well. I advertised a high tube set and had a lot of offers. I think I have a low tube set somewhere too.

Good luck!

Pete

[BDA]

Those look really nice, Joji! And you're right, he did you a huge favor! I'm not sure what aesthetics you did away with because they look great to me.

I'm not interested in them, but I'm a little confused. I assume yours are the unanodized ones. What is the significance of the red pair? I notice that one (both) of the red ones don't have an extra hole while the aluminum one(s) do. What is the significance of that hole?

[Grumblebuns]

The red anodized set was the original ones I bought back in 2003 and had anodized. The original sets were made by Peter Baxter from the Yahoo mail list and are true works of art. My machinists commented the same to me when he first examined the manifolds when I first approached him with the project.

You have sharp eyes, BDA. The extra hole in the bottom of non anodized body is how my machinist drilled the passage for the balance tube. He did not have a right angle attachment to drill the hole directly from the bore of the body so he had to drill an extra hole from the flat bottom of the manifold. There is a hollow plug supplied to cover the hole.

The picture posted by Roger of the Elan HBT manifold shows how the factory approached the issue. They drilled the hole from the top and capped off the hole and the manifold looks to be cast.       

[tedtaylor]

reading with interest this thread, but i'm somewhat confused.   What's wrong with just "gutting" the butterflies and plugging the unused orfaces on the stock "criss-cross" emissions plenum?   Just about every twin cam Lotus i've had (all federal) have the original emissions plenum on there, but not equipped with their innards and disconnected from the original links to carb.    What am i missing here?

[jbcollier]

Plugging the un-used orifices makes it look like you did exactly that.  This a much cleaner look.  Also, the original manifolds have a low balance tube which can collect un-atomized fuel.  The fuel can ignite if there is a backfire causing an engine fire.

If I had a Srtromberg TC, I definitely would get set of these.

Very nicely done!

[Grumblebuns]

I can only answer for myself. For me I want to do this to clean up the engine bay by getting rid of the last vestiges of the stock emissions equipment. Like most TCS owners, I did all of the emissions equipment deletion that you describe. I wanted to go further and I think with headers and the HBT manifold, the engine bay will look so much cleaner and less cluttered.

I doubt there is any performance gains to be had with the HBT manifold/