Flathead V-8

[gbritnell]

Gentlemen,
The intake manifold is finished, at least all the shape. All that's left to do is solder the cover plates over the runners when the soldering kit arrives. I finished up all the small machining jobs, the generator bracket, cutting the angle on the carb bases and drilling the carb mounting holes. It was then on to the burrs, stones, files and emery cloth. I will take more pictures when I do the soldering but for now here's where we're at.
gbritnell

[Don1966]

I will say one thing, you sure have the will and determination to create. That's an awful lot of setups to get that manifold carved out like that. I don't think I have enough years left to learn enough and be able to get to the stage where I could touch that. The manifold is a trophy.

Don

[metalmad]

"That Manifold is a Trophy" You said it Don!
Pete

[steamer]

That looks fabulous George!


Dave

[ths]

Time, patience...but really having the confidence in your ability to get the result you want. Outstanding. Hugh.

[vcutajar]

Amazing, simply amazing.

Vince

[Doc]

Man that is looking nice I love that manifold! 

[ColH]

Hi George
Following along.  Don beat me to the question on whether you have a full size engine to work from.  Amazed with your work. I think you may have mentioned this in an early post but do you intend to put the engine in a car like Steve Is doing with his cavelle?
Col

[fumopuc]

WOW. George, it is like Don has mentioned already. This life seems to be to short to touch that level.

[ozzie46]

 Amazing work as usual George. You never cease to amaze me. 

   Ron

[cfellows]

Just don't understand how you do it, George.  The design, alone, is really impressive, let alone actually building it!

Chuck

[gbritnell]

Thanks guys,
Col, I don't really have any plans to put the engine into anything. I do have my 302 v-8 and the T-5 transmission and 9" Ford differential that I plan on building a chassis for, one day.
My enjoyment is building engines at this point. The flathead like the 302 is about 1/3 scale so that makes a frame about 40" long. That gets a little tough to take to shows.
gbritnell

[gbritnell]

To finish the manifold machining I needed to make the patch plates to cover the runners. The runners were machined 'to the numbers' when I did them so I took measurements and both cavities were within .001 of each other. The patch plates needed to be .078 thick and having nothing that thickness I cut out a couple of pieces of .25 stock and first cleaned up one side. The pieces were then flipped and the .078 thickness was machined leaving a frame around the edge to support the plate while clamped in the vise.
I made a machining chart and started cutting the required shape, at first opening up the center windows so I wouldn't get any chatter on the side walls. I was using a .125 end mill to do the profiling.

[gbritnell]

With the center area finished I did the outer sides of the legs. The piece was then taken to the bandsaw and the frame area was cut away. I measured all the dimensions of the part and found that I was +.003-.004, which was fine as I allowed .002 when I made the cutting chart. Better big than small. The next step was to file the overall dimensions first. This was followed by filing each leg to the proper size.
The inside corners were then squared up and a .125 radius was filed on two of the outer corners. I slowly fitted each leg until the pieces slid snugly into the cavity. With the fitting done I sketched the inner half of the port radius on each leg and burred and filed it to size. One down one to go.
The second piece was practically a carbon copy of the first, file and fit.
All that remains is to lay a bead of solder over the joint areas and then skim mill the bottom flat. I haven't received the aluminum solder kit yet so that will have to wait.
gbritnell

[Dave Otto]

Nice inlay work there George!

Dave