UPDATE 421 Bathtub intake project #3
 

Guys,the last thread had grown again,so I thought to start another.
We have shipped 12 intakes at this time and more will be going.I posted where we are at on the end of the last thread of who still shows open for payment and then opening up for the second group to get their payment in.So far the people that got them are impressed with the fit and finish and also the way they were shipped.If you have not ordered one a have decide you want one PM me ASAP and text me at 5622430570.It takes 6 weeks to get more castings!
$2565 with shipping.Tom

Congrats on your project turned product!

SD intake
 

Guys, I got mine (early) and it is beautiful. Please, if you ordered either these guys went to a lot of trouble to produce them, so get your payment in and if you have changed your mind let them know. You guys who have received yours, please post and let everyone know. Thanks to Tom and John. Mike

Tom thanks for spearheading and being involved in the project I know it has been talked about for a long time.

My check went out today! I am excited about getting it, and I think it may clear under the 65 GTO hood.

Got mine yesterday an I'm over the moon! Superb casting, better than the pictures exhibit! You really need to see it in person to appreciate how much better the finish is compared to other intake castings. There is absolutely no comparison.

A result of the 808-F aluminum used makes the surface appear illuminated with a nice sheen. The flat machined surfaces show no hint of porosity and appear more like solid steel, and the overall machining quality just doesn't get any better.

On a scale of one to elated, I'm ecstatic! Can't wait to test function!
I'm out of town for a day or two, I'll post a few pics when I get back.

Quoted from the literature included :
"Enclosed is a Pontiac "Bathtub" style dual quad intake manifold. The casting is a replica of the early '60's Pontiac manifold."
"This product was produced 100% in the USA with a US based foundry, US pattern makers, machine shops, etc."



Thank you Tom, Thank you John, and to All others involved in this venture.

Frank

Like 4zpeed say's--Thats why I will never paint mine.

Sent my check out this morning.

Thank you Tom and John for all the work put in to make this happen. I doubted that my ‘63 would never see a SD intake. Can’t wait to get it!

Sent my check today. USPS said be there Monday. I told them no signature. I cant wait. Wish you guys wouldn't keep saying how great the intake is. The suspense is driving my bp up! Thanks to all responsible for this intake being available.

Sent payment out today as well. Don't know what I am going to do with it just yet......but I just had to have one. Thanks for all the countless hours and headaches that Tom and John have put into this project. If possible, after all the aluminum chips stop flying, it would be nice to get a count of how many of each design are out in circulation. Thanks, Jeff Suchma

I’ve been away. Will send a check out ASAP.

Guys,if you or you know anyone that wants a early intake that has not ordered we have a couple Xtra castings that could be machined to be shipped!Tom

Tom I didnt put my email address in letter,[email protected] or 724-689-8973.

Check went out Friday USPS priority should be there hopefully today also sent info in PM.

thanks for all your efforts getting these made .

Can't believe no one has posted pics of their new treasure! Come on guys, brag a little here! :)

Bathtub, late style, arrived today. Very well packed. I’m extremely impressed with the quality of this casting. Super happy! A huge thank you to Tom for getting this project off the ground and to John for getting it across the finish line. Gentlemen, you made the Pontiac community proud!!!

Mike Garblik posted pictures in the other thread.

B-man and several others have asked that people post pictures of their intakes so I will post pictures of mine. I bought one of each and they are identical except one has CHG 9 on the front crossover and one has CHG 10, and the water crossover passages and some bolt locations of course differ to accommodate the different series of heads. The phenolic spacers are 1/4" and are made and sold by Dashman's, part CAFB.250

https://www.dashman.net/search.php?q=cafb&submit=Search

The original bathtubs had 3/8” wood spacers I believe.

The carbs on the one intake are real 3433/35 SD carbs but with the large diameter airhorns on them.

As can be seen in one picture I am in the process of making up a batch of bathtub linkage. All but one of these is spoken for and was promised to people during the time it took Tom sand John to get this project done. I have no interest in doing more batches so if someone would like to take production of this linkage on for the hobby send me a pm and I may hand this off to you. FYI this linkage was designed to work with AFBs that have super duty throttle arms and it may not work very well with other carburetors or throttle arms or not at all.

NICE photo shoot! Thanks!

Folks I've had a major producer of carburetor components step up and indicate interest in taking on the bathtub linkage thing so that is off the table.

So who is going to post the oil-seasoning recipe (like the cadt iron fry pan) for those that prefer no-paint?

What is the potential to mount Spreadbores for us in the Q-JET generation?

NO chance without adapters!Tom

Trial-error buddy, LOL

GT

I believe John did a light clear on the intakes before machining to keep the cooling machining oil from getting into the alu!Tom

Sent my check out last week. Cant wait for it to arrive.

Tom is there still one of the old style intakes left.
If there is I'll take and old style intake too.(Early one)

GT

Yes there is.Send John a check,he has one on hand.Tom

Thank You Sir I'll get that check out tonight.

GT

For those that may not know, Brad is still selling some linkage stuff under the eBay name of 4speed427. It is not being sold by the new Fabcraft owner. Here’s a link to the outer arms needed for the linkage to work.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/40232753306...gAAOSw7k9c~BQA

when they become available who do we contact?
my intake came this week looks very nice thank you for the efforts. How about a 67 and up pontiac inglese injection manifold now? haha
also you guys with experience, does it look like the holley efi will clear on this manifold?
https://www.holley.com/products/fuel.../parts/550-527

"Fits on intake manifolds with flange spacing between 6.43"-13.5" (Includes most Edelbrock Manifolds)"

First I have to finish the batch I am working on and send him a finished one. He will then decide if he wants to do it. If he does he will make it known to the hobby.

I received my "Late" intake today.
Very well packaged. Made the trip just fine.

Thanks for the effort to one and all.

Tom V.

WOW Tom that was fast, Maybe I'll get mine next as I'm in the same group
as you, Plus I ordered a early one also.

GT

John told me he ordered Xtra late intakes.Now he just has to get them from the foundry and get them machined and then shipped.Patience guys,everyone will get theirs.Tom

Tom, out of curiosity, what is the total number of manifolds being produced?

That will be up to John,I would think maybe 60 total.Tom

I thought it would of been more like hundred as I thought there was
more interest in them. Maybe it's the money I mean it is a good
chunk of change ; Well worth it for the product we are getting though.

GT

Only been on the PY site!Will see what happens when we get a little love in a couple of the Pontiac mags.Tom

And them maybe a Pontiac factory cross ram copy:)

The Pontiac 10.230 deck height crossram (according to info from Tom S years ago) was actually a short deck 9.2 intake that used spacers to get to the correct 10.230 cylinder head height. But it would be another project I would buy into Skip.

Tom V.

The factory Xram either the short deck RA IV or the short deck RA V is unusable on a std deck block.There is no room for a distributor.You could use a electronic stub down there with coil on plugs or make a SUPER tall dizzy to clear the intake.In the factory installations they made a special tach drive dizzy to clear the intake.Greg Tedders had Ric Johnson devise a front mount somekind of dizzy to use the Xram I sold him.NOT for the weak of wallet.The M/T is the go too.Tom

I have a little feedback on fitting the bathtub intake to my engine. This is NOT intended as a post to complain about ANYTHING on this intake. I did a final fitment of the lower intake yesterday. It's a beautiful casting, with lots of material available for fitment. My application is late style, Edelbrock CNC ported, D port heads. Stock block, deck cut to zero, .-002". The lower intake casting was a close fit, but not a direct bolt-on. On a 50+ year old block, with aftermarket heads, you just can't expect that or get that with ANY intake. I had a tight fit on a few bolt holes, especially the front 2 on the water crossover holes. I lightly polished the remaining 8 mounting holes with a cartridge roll, removing about .005" The front 2 holes I carefully ran a 31/64 th drill bit through removing about .015" from each hole. Then I used a cartridge roll to gently open the hole to the rear an additional .010" That gave me excellent clearance to start all the bolts. As you all know, all the bolt holes must have enough clearance to allow the manifold to pull forward and crush the rubber O-ring to the timing case, always a leak point. The only other modification I had to make was cutting a little clearance in the timing case for a nice, straight shot for the long pull-in bolt through the timing cover for the O-ring. Not sure if there was casting flash in the way on the timing case, or if the threaded hole in the intake was off a few thousanths, but you don't want any interference between the timing case slot and the bolt. Finally, for those buying the aluminum thermostat housing from Ames: It is a pretty lousy piece, IMO. It can be made to work, but mine had 2 time consuming issues to deal with. First, the mounting pad was very poorly machined and was not even close to flat. Measured on a surface plate, it had almost .030" warpage and would have leaked for sure. Spent about 1/2 hour with 280 paper and a surface plate sanding it flat. Second, inside the neck, there was a huge pile of aluminum slag blocking about 25-30% of the flow area inside. Spend a bunch of time with a die grinder and a carbide bit chopping all that crap out so coolant could flow smoothly through it. So look carefully inside if you buy one of these. Port alignment on the new intake is just great. I had to do nothing at all on any of the runners. Fantastic job guys!

Thanks Mike,as everyone knows these were scanned to fit both of my engines.We did not know how much my heads or blocks had been decked.Tom

Having bought current manufacture aluminum tripower water necks for years from various vendors I can say that the surface where the neck bolts to the intake not being flat, and there being slag or casting sand blocking the passage inside the neck, can be a common thing. I just hold the mounting surface on a table top belt sander for a second or two and that usually fixes the mounting surface. A screw driver removes casting sand and a die grinder, as Mike said, may be necessary for slag.

I began the final steps to do a permanent install on my new bathtub manifold base. To match up properly and produce the best power from my CNC ported Edelbrock heads, the roof of the bathtub intake needs to be raised substantially. Thankfully, Toms original design and subsequent revisions allow for this by having lots of material in the of the port! Almost 1/2" of aluminum available . I needed to raise the port about .250", so very much appreciated. Look how nice the as-cast port alignment is. Compare that to the reproduction Ram Air IV/455 HO intakes. Most of them need substantial welding to just be usable. Not to mention that is a super easy manifold to make compared to this 2-piece factory tunnel Ram. I have about 4-5 hours of grinding to do the other 7 ports, then it's final wash and install. Thanks again for a really nice piece.

The donor intake was a early style with a 2.100 opening.Jon Schmidt did the computer magic to relocate the ports to the late style.We all thought better to take out material than have to fill in.Tom

Absolutely, I have welded up Wenzler and Offenhauser intakes to raise the ports. It's a ton of work, not to mention it looks terrible when done. When this is installed, the only people who will know about the tall ports are the PY forum folks.

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/i...vfn_A&usqp=CAU



Frank

Not sure if these pics will help but I believe this intake will
Clear an early Firebird hood. Pic shows performer rpm and Holley that a standard 400 air cleaner fits fine under hood. Also placed tunnel ram and a Holley 650 with a 1” spacer (no air cleaner) and out some
Foil in the air horn. Hood shut but did compress the foil to about 1/2” or so.
My plan and hope is that the Holley efi will not require a spacer and I will gain that 1” back or atleast
Some
Of it. This is a. Standard non 400 hood.
Observations: 69 alternator bracketry may not allow alternator to clear front of flange without trimming of manifold. And the water neck bracket location obviously will not be available
Large base distributors will definitely NOT fit, I have an hei body on This motor currently but will
Switch to standard smaller body when time comes,
I only tried to thread one bolt in to make sure manifold was in right position for the pictures. I may fiddle around with it when motor goes back in. I had a roller
Lifter fail so pulled motor to clean it up and the photo op was available

These are not complaints only observations

Good pictures. Cut the crossover off and use a late model water crossover instead?

You might be able to use a little longer alt belt and move it away enough.When I get around to it,im moving my alt to the pass side to clear some room on that side.Already have it setup with I think a 64 power steering bracket and a 63 Tempest alt bracket just been too busy to make the change.Mounted it all on a 69 engine I had sitting in my garage.FWIW,Tom