Author Topic: intake manifold options, makeshift etc for stromberg head  (Read 419 times)

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Offline Lumbes

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intake manifold options, makeshift etc for stromberg head
« on: Monday,October 23, 2023, 04:39:56 PM »
Having the engine rebuilt at Quicksilver Racing Engines and the most recent discussion on the phone is if I am interested in possibly replacing the secondary intake manifold with something nicer. The PO removed the Stromberg carbs, ditched the secondary intake manifold and used downdraft Webers along with different intakes to fit.  No balance pipe.  Example below.  Car ran rough and I ended up removing the Webers roughly 6 months after acquiring and driving the car.  When installing the Mikunis HSR 42s I found and purchased an intake manifold with the emission routings blocked off and a low balance tube from an Elan on Ebay.  Turned it upside down and it became a manifold with a high balance tube.  Example below and yeah the Mikuni setup runs worlds better than what was on there.  Back to the present time, the engine shop said the intake manifold can be reused it just is going to be a bit of an eye sore when compared to the rest of the restored and repainted engine.  I agreed.  I found a set that look nicely made from spencersmotorsports.com that I'm considering.  If anything, they would need machined down in length a little to accommodate for the rubber mounts that bolt up to the carbs.  Can't have the air cleaners pinned up against the wall of the engine bay.  I reached out with an e-mail and tried calling.  No line of communication has begun and that was last week so thinking I should expand my search.  Looking for any examples, vendors, ideas previous experience etc.  Thanks!

Offline cazman

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Re: intake manifold options, makeshift etc for stromberg head
« Reply #1 on: Monday,October 23, 2023, 04:51:26 PM »
I have bought items from Spencer before; communication may be slow. Although I do not have Spencer's intake, I have an older version that is almost identical and I use similar round filters like in your picture. I have enough room. I am not sure you would gain much by shortening them - 1/4"?
1973 Europa TCS

Offline jbcollier

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Re: intake manifold options, makeshift etc for stromberg head
« Reply #2 on: Monday,October 23, 2023, 04:58:45 PM »
Any machine shop could make those up for you.  Shouldn't be too expensive.  Nothing fancy for the balance pipe.  Just two 1/2" nipples and a hose would do the trick.

Offline Grumblebuns

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Re: intake manifold options, makeshift etc for stromberg head
« Reply #3 on: Tuesday,October 24, 2023, 09:35:37 AM »
Having had several sets of intake manifolds made over the years, I can give some insight on what you are up against. The first photo shows the original manifolds I bought on a group buy about 10-15 years ago on the pre Yahoo Europa group mail list. The top red anodized manifolds were the original pair with the two bottom pairs, duplicates I had made up by my original machinist, now retired. He did a good job duplicating the original set. He was old school, all manual operations on the milling machine, no CNC setup. The amount of labor he put into the job must have been huge. With no drawings to refer to, all of his measurements had to been done with the actual manifolds with multiple operations and setup time for each operation.. After all that work, he only charged me $450/pair. Obviously I got a huge discount on his labor costs. The second photo,shows the manifold on a TC engine. The two manifolds were sold several years ago.
 
The next pair of manifolds, I decided to make myself. I have a friend who has a Harbor Freight mini milling machine who was willing to help with the project.  We purchased an aluminum plate approximately 2"x 4"x 12", enough for two manifolds from ebay. With his experience in CAD, he made up a set of drawings for his milling machine with a CNC setup. He modified the original to eliminate any extra aluminum and picture three is the result. His comment was that his mill was at its limits machining out the manifold. The only costs for this project was the aluminum plate, water jet costs for cutting out the blank, tooling costs for the milling machine and his time. We managed to sell this version for $400. I suspect we lost money on this endeavor.

So the bottom line is that it won't be cheap having the manifolds made up by a machinist. You don't have an example for the machine shop to examine to take measurements for a design. You should at least have a drawing of a design for a machine shop to refer to. Your best bet is to follow up with Barry Spencer and check out his design. From his website, his manifold looks pretty basic with minimal amount of frills and his price isn't too bad compared to what I sold my manifolds for. Just make sure they're mad from aluminum and not plastic, though that won't be a deal killer since there almost no other alternatives available. In the meantime use the stock secondary manifold until you come across someone selling an alternate manifold design.

Offline Lumbes

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Re: intake manifold options, makeshift etc for stromberg head
« Reply #4 on: Tuesday,October 24, 2023, 04:06:13 PM »
That is sound advice that I'm going to follow.  If I can, I will purchase the setup from spencersmotorsports but if not, I will use the secondary stock setup I have.  I definitely appreciate the writeup and responses.