MuchoReverbo
Member
Here's a classic multi-carb induction set-up I restored a couple years ago.
The infamous Man-A-Fre 4x2 with four Rochester 2GCs from the early 60's.
This is the more rare "Atlanta" casting (the same as is used on John Milner's iconic Yellow Deuce Coupe in the film American Graffiti).
Here it was when I bought it on eBay:
It was in rough condition but was better than most you'll find nowadays. It didn't have any cracks but there were some voids and surface imperfections from the casting technology of the time. The carbs were not the greatest cores for rebuilding but were not totally-worthless.
The set-up was missing the linkage and fuel block and lines and the manifold had been partially drilled for the "Afterburner" feature which added a direct shot of fuel into the plenums similar to a direct-port nitrous system minus the nitrous. Only one of the four Afterburner bosses were drilled which was used as a full manifold vacuum port.
Here it was all cleaned up. Notice it has most of the lettering where a large percentage of these have missing letters due to casting flaws. This was an above average example of one of the most sought-after intakes in hot rodding history.
Here it is after blasting it with aluminum oxide:
A close-up of the nice lettering:
Here's a close-up of one of the voids in the casting near the top left plenums. While the hole is not clear through the casting, which would cause a vacuum leak, it is kind of ugly and could eventually cause a leak.
Here's another casting flaw at the other end. You can also see where the one afterburner boss is drilled.
Here's the completed manifold assembly. I welded the voids up with Muggy Weld aluminum alloy welding rod and re-blasted the manifold. I considered powder-coating the manifold aluminum color but I decided to do one better and had it ceramic clear-coated. It leaves the aluminum looking brand-new (and more natural) and is impervious to gasoline and heat. A lot better than clear-coating in this situation.
I replaced the carbs with better cores and had them totally-rebuilt and re-dichromated the correct gold color with a few modern upgrades such as chrome socket head cap screws, accelerator pump arms and linkage. The throttle linkage was also upgraded from the crude "Cal Custom" linkage of the time that was used on the Milner Coupe with aircraft quality spherical rod ends make this already touchy set-up a lot easier to dial-in to perfection and will stay that way a lot longer too. The cheesy Cal Custom linkage was very prone to slipping out of adjustment and a nightmare to syncronize by comparison.
The four carbs flow about 800 cfm into direct-port induction. This set-up was the poor man's fuel injection of the late 50s / early 60's and you saw a lot of these on Vettes back in the days. Originally-designed for the 283-327 small blocks, Man-A-Fre eventually made a big block version too however, the big block manifolds are not worth nearly as much as the original small block version is (largely due to American Graffiti). No Graffiti Coupe clone is really complete without one of these babies.
Here it is with the air horns like the ones used on Milner's coupe. Not practical for daily driving but awesome for a show or a blast down Paradise Road if you happen to run into Bob Falfa (Harrison Ford) in his mean black '55 Chevy!
The infamous Man-A-Fre 4x2 with four Rochester 2GCs from the early 60's.
This is the more rare "Atlanta" casting (the same as is used on John Milner's iconic Yellow Deuce Coupe in the film American Graffiti).
Here it was when I bought it on eBay:
It was in rough condition but was better than most you'll find nowadays. It didn't have any cracks but there were some voids and surface imperfections from the casting technology of the time. The carbs were not the greatest cores for rebuilding but were not totally-worthless.
The set-up was missing the linkage and fuel block and lines and the manifold had been partially drilled for the "Afterburner" feature which added a direct shot of fuel into the plenums similar to a direct-port nitrous system minus the nitrous. Only one of the four Afterburner bosses were drilled which was used as a full manifold vacuum port.
Here it was all cleaned up. Notice it has most of the lettering where a large percentage of these have missing letters due to casting flaws. This was an above average example of one of the most sought-after intakes in hot rodding history.
Here it is after blasting it with aluminum oxide:
A close-up of the nice lettering:
Here's a close-up of one of the voids in the casting near the top left plenums. While the hole is not clear through the casting, which would cause a vacuum leak, it is kind of ugly and could eventually cause a leak.
Here's another casting flaw at the other end. You can also see where the one afterburner boss is drilled.
Here's the completed manifold assembly. I welded the voids up with Muggy Weld aluminum alloy welding rod and re-blasted the manifold. I considered powder-coating the manifold aluminum color but I decided to do one better and had it ceramic clear-coated. It leaves the aluminum looking brand-new (and more natural) and is impervious to gasoline and heat. A lot better than clear-coating in this situation.
I replaced the carbs with better cores and had them totally-rebuilt and re-dichromated the correct gold color with a few modern upgrades such as chrome socket head cap screws, accelerator pump arms and linkage. The throttle linkage was also upgraded from the crude "Cal Custom" linkage of the time that was used on the Milner Coupe with aircraft quality spherical rod ends make this already touchy set-up a lot easier to dial-in to perfection and will stay that way a lot longer too. The cheesy Cal Custom linkage was very prone to slipping out of adjustment and a nightmare to syncronize by comparison.
The four carbs flow about 800 cfm into direct-port induction. This set-up was the poor man's fuel injection of the late 50s / early 60's and you saw a lot of these on Vettes back in the days. Originally-designed for the 283-327 small blocks, Man-A-Fre eventually made a big block version too however, the big block manifolds are not worth nearly as much as the original small block version is (largely due to American Graffiti). No Graffiti Coupe clone is really complete without one of these babies.
Here it is with the air horns like the ones used on Milner's coupe. Not practical for daily driving but awesome for a show or a blast down Paradise Road if you happen to run into Bob Falfa (Harrison Ford) in his mean black '55 Chevy!