A bad day at MOWOG

Not that any manifolds had the precision that would be nice, but this one takes the cake. Manifolds, heat shields, spacers, and gaskets can be a challenge to assemble to make a decent path. On this particular manifold, the stud to port clearance is way off on both sides.

The pits is I had it all cleaned up and ready to go with replated studs fitted, and all custom fittings for Adam Stockwell's '68. Then I set the heat shield on it, and went Oh Sh__.

Pics of the worst side:

Well, what you going to do about it? Grind the port or relocate the studs?

Gerry Wrote:

Ouch! Makes a person appreciate that theirs came out OK, especially since Moss lists them as NA. There probably are some repros somewhere I suppose, but if there are, are they as good as OE? Better?

Sorry for the trouble Jimmie, but this is a great example to the heathen that what is preached asp often about attention to detail is very important. Haste may seem appropriate sometimes but careful, methodical work pays off every time.

Jack

OK. It is obviously an OE manifold. It came bolted to a B at one time which means it was made properly and got screwed up at a later date. What's your point other than you didn't notice it earlier?

David,

Out of the couple of hundred or so I have here, I just now found the bad apple.

Wow do I win an award for having such an off manifold? Anyway I am sending you another manifold and HS4 set tomorrow to add to your collection. Thanks for the hard work. I cannot wait to see the pictures.

workinearly Wrote:

Adam,

As you knew, I was getting some of my parts ready for you as I already had a '68 set of AUD265's on the shelf and ready to go. It takes a several days of soaking in the vat to clean the internals of an intake, and this one had already been cleaned. I had cleaned up the mounting surfaces, installed freshly plated studs, and gotten all the fittings set up for your application. Then went to mount the heatshield and saw the above.

After that I finished cleaning up the manifold that you sent me, and it is just fine!

As I said before, the parts are never perfect but I've never seen one anywhere near this far off before. Actually it was close to 3/16" off.

That is a good posting Jimmy...something to be aware of.

thanks

Jimmy, a question for the expert. Does the stud spacing change with the carb bore size? I was just wondering if that spacing would fit a larger size SU? Just wondering if this manifold might have been accidently machined for the larger carb, if so it would make a nice race piece once the ports were opened up.

Hi Bill,

On HS4 and HS6 carbs the spacing is the same, although there are only 2 diagonal holes in the HS4 and 4 square in the HS6.

Actually, the carbs slides freely onto the two misplaced studs. The studs were just positioned way off from where they should have been.

The car this manifold originally came from would have had a very badly interupted flow. I suppose more are possible.

When I see things like that I think. Thats what happens after lunch at the Pub.

I think you got it nailed Dan! Either that or on Monday morning, Friday afternon...

I have BOXES of distributor parts that fall in the same category! Rivets that were never pressed, 6 cylinder parts in 4 cyl distributors and vice-versa, crappy castings with pores clean through them, shafts that were partially machined off-center, etc...

Jimmy-

Maybe these manifolds were custom prepared for the special ‘offset drilled’ SU’s made last Monday at the SU factory after a weekend of too much partying

I've seen people use the HS 4 manifold with HS6s and only useing the two studs and opening the manifold up to suit. Perhaps that could be done with this one rather than scrap it?

In a perfect world, 'blueprinting' an engine would be unecessary as the factory would make them all to exact specified measure. This is just an object lesson in why blueprinting an engine can gain 4-5% power - you are fixing the minor (in his case a bit more than that) screw-ups allowed by factory tolerance or negligence.

Which is why we 'pin' specific manifolds to specific heads - and redo it if we need to change either in race cars.

twentyover Wrote:

Jimmy - I'll take manifold. I've got an idea on what to use it for. If it doesn't work out, then no loss. PM me for shipping arrangements.

David,

You are more than welcome to it, for whatever it costs to get it to You.

Are you starting a museum?

I think the price of SU manifolds, that are centered, just doubled! Think I saw one on ebay up to $175.00 Sorry, Just kidn ;) The oddball one would probably be worth more.:)

That one would be perfect for hogging out to fit 1 3/4" SUs......

bills Wrote:

JimmyHilton Wrote:

underdog Wrote: