The worse exhaust manifold design in the history of the internal combustion engine!

[MARTINSR]

Originally Posted by Big Dave

Did it leak?

Nope not a bit. It was in my parts car, darn thing purred like a kitten! I hated to rebuild it but it burnt oil. It hadn't been ran in about 15 years and started with just a few cranks. The block you see is full of cracks and from the car I am going to be driving.



Brian

[MARTINSR]

Here is the parts car that the motor I am using came from.





I know this isn't your typical hypermiling vehicle, thanks for putting up with me. It IS an economy car. In it's day THIS was the "Civic" or "Corolla", maybe even the "Metro" or "Prius"!

It was one of the smallest cars available in America. It got mid 26 mpg and kicked butt in its day for economy. I plan on reliving that and then seeing what I can do with a few modern mods. I see some things that are SOOOO bad, a little change like wheel liners (they are like friggin parachutes now!) the headers, remove the metal fan, tires, I think I can get some REAL big improvements out of it and look forward to the fun in doing it.

Brian

[gone-ot]

...historical ecomodding by American Motors!

[basslover911]

Don't forget to keep it simple though! No ecu's, scan gauges, or fancy nonsense fuel injection.

I would love to compare that old very basic engine to a brand new engine and see if they treally are much better in the fuel efficiency dept.

[EdKiefer]

As noted by someone else , that is a flat head and tuned headers won't help as all the ports are connected in the head before they go out to the manifold .

[MARTINSR]

Originally Posted by basslover911

Don't forget to keep it simple though! No ecu's, scan gauges, or fancy nonsense fuel injection.

I would love to compare that old very basic engine to a brand new engine and see if they treally are much better in the fuel efficiency dept.

Oh dear God, there is no friggin way I will put ANYTHING on this car that adds to it's complexity. I MAY put an electronic spark device that you can flip a switch and be back to points, I MAY do that. Other than that, a stereo is IT, that is IT, I don't plan on adding anything other than that. I am so sick and tired of the computer control stuff I could scream. Nope, I want something I can work on myself. There is more wiring in the friggin stereo system in my Taurus than this whole car! This is no joke, you should see the one and only wire harness this thing has, it is about as big as your pinky, that is it, like ten wires, that is it! I love this thing!

Brian

[Big Dave]

Given the fact its a flathead engine, I do'nt know if that exhaust manifold is as bad as you think. It will probably flow more than those six Briggs & Stratton cylinders will put out. Once you get it running, try drilling a hole in the manifold and see how much back pressure is being generated. I'd bet it isn't much.

Go to a hot rod show and find a car with the old Ford flathead V-8 and see what headers they used.

Also, those "saddles" on the block might make it tough to put any halfway modern headers on it.

[NeilBlanchard]

Hmmm,

Originally Posted by basslover911

WOW ... Ive never seen anything like it but by making that a full header (4-2-1) I BET you could easily DOUBLE the cars hp, fuel efficiency, and even the life of the engine!

...except it's a six cylinder!

And if you thought it was only the exhaust manifold that was funky -- checkout the intake manifold!

[MARTINSR]

Originally Posted by NeilBlanchard

Hmmm,



...except it's a six cylinder!

And if you thought it was only the exhaust manifold that was funky -- checkout the intake manifold!

LOL, the intake is built in the head. The three ports you see for the exhaust are "Siamesed" with the two cylinders going to one port.

Brian

[MARTINSR]

Originally Posted by Big Dave

Given the fact its a flathead engine, I do'nt know if that exhaust manifold is as bad as you think. It will probably flow more than those six Briggs & Stratton cylinders will put out. Once you get it running, try drilling a hole in the manifold and see how much back pressure is being generated. I'd bet it isn't much.

Go to a hot rod show and find a car with the old Ford flathead V-8 and see what headers they used.

Also, those "saddles" on the block might make it tough to put any halfway modern headers on it.

You are right in that it doesn't need to be very efficient being the rest of the engine isn't very efficient anyway!

And it is true the flat head Ford didn't have a very efficient manifold, but neither did most engines back then! Look at a Cad V8 even up into the sixties, they had a horrible exhaust manifold. But as soon as any of these motors were set up for performance those stock exhaust manifolds went in the trash and they got a header pretty much like we see today.

Brian