Guys

I came across one string talking about how much material could be taken from 60's exhaust manifolds allowing you to run a larger diameter exhaust pipe? Anybody got that spec? Or link?

Also - I want to sandblast and ceramic coat this manifold. So how do I remove the weight from the heat door flapper without destroying it?

Tha ks

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Slant six should have stayed in production.

Been a long time. I remember one guy claimed he hogged it out to 2.5 ID, but I think 2.25" is more realistic.

Milling down the flapper tower and brazing/bolting/welding on a plate to the top of it has worked for some, if that is what you are talking about.

After my LeMons race last weekend (low budget), I am starting to hog out the exit hole to 2.25" so we can pick up some free HP there.

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

Lou

Kinda what I'm talking about. I want to hog out the ex. dia. But, I want to remove the weight that keeps the flapper pressed against ex. gas pressure until it overcomes the door, so that I can have the manifold blasted and ceramic coated in white porcelain.

Dude in Omaha is giving me a good price on as much I can bring him. So I got other stuff like Fenton stove bolt hedders, Buick straight 8 manifolds... Ceramic is cheaper at one time vesus piece by piece.

I like a clean machine.

Mike

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Slant six should have stayed in production.

Lou

Thanks for being helpful and taking the time to help me with some of these bumbling questions. The regular semester is still in at the UW so I'm laying in wait scheming and home brewing in the mid time. However, reading a bit about mid 70's production, we have realized that a 75 gold duster maybe 74 doesn't have any of that 5 mph impact $#!+. So using a hood doors and trunk lid from a feather duster should yield an even lighter car than a feather duster, right? Just get the highway rear end gearing from a feather duster?

Mike

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Slant six should have stayed in production.

I think 74 was the first year for impact stuff on A-bodies. If you just want the flapper weight gone, why not just cut it off the end of that shaft? Still not sure I understand what you want to do there.

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

If the heat door is working, can't you have them block those areas off prior to coating?

I used an air die grinder to open up the exhaust manifold prior to switching over to the Dual Dutra Duals. The manifold doesn't match the 2-1/4". It is closer to 2". See if you can scrape enough together for a set of Dutra Duals. Doc can probably set you up. That retains carb heat, and you can run 2" or 1-7/8" duals down to the muffler. Big performance gain. Put it back to the tail in a single 1-7/8" or 2" over the axle. Goes like stink on poo.

I may go back on the single manifold to make more clearance for other power adding devices. We'll see. I'd like to keep my Dutras right where they are thank you!

My '74 require two men and an act of congress to remove those bumpers. Go back to '73 to get lighter bumpers. Just don't expect the car to survive a solid hit on the street. Giving up those bumpers makes your car less likely to survive a low speed impact.

CJ

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Part of Tyrde-Browne Racing

PS: Lou,

I think he wants to remove the door for the coating. Since the door is tacked on there, and can't really be removed without messing it up, a kit would be needed to rebuild it.

I'm not sure you can buy those anymore!

CJ

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Part of Tyrde-Browne Racing

What you read is kind of over-rated and misinformation is common in regards to the Feather Duster/ Dart Lite cars.

The battleship shock bumper reinforcements starting in 1974...the model year previous had straight angle iron style bumper reinforcements, but the rear bumper and shocks were very different from 1973 to 1974-1976...

The doors have the same reinforcements in them 1973-1976, so no weight savings there....(you want lighter doors, adapt a set of 1970-1972 doors to your car...)

So 5 mph bumper rubber covers weren't the only thing that went on the cars.

Feather Duster aluminum items are bumper reinforcements, both hood reinforcements (not the hood), intake manifold, manual transmission
case and tailshaft housing. This is good for about 150 lbs of weight savings on a 3250 lbs A-body... The rest of the mileage recipe comes from custom timing curve and carb tailored for it, lots of EGR to knock back ping with the loads of advance the distributor has, bigger tail pipe, and the use of a manual tranny with 2.94 gears...

You can lighten your 1973-1976 better by going to a fiberglass hood, using the feather duster bumper reinforcements and fabricating some
bumper brackets like the 1973 (be aware that if you take a front it with them, your front end will be toast), even lighter would be fiberglass bumpers.

If going for mileage, just having an engine and carb tuned and running correct, and matching your rear ratio to your driving style, and making sure the vacc. advance is functoning during highway cruise goes a long way.

-D.Idiot

Thanks guys. This is exactly what I need. So I'm not too worried about crash protection in the front end.

I do wish to shave as much weight as I can. I was even thinking plastic has tank & aluminum driveshaft cut & balanced.

And yes I wish to retain the working heat flapper and coat the manifold in white ceramic. Like your 20th century kitchen sink...
But I don't know how the weight is removed. It's the same on my 1990 5.2 d150's 5.2 v8 so..... See my guess is a huge effort for just a little bit of ingeneering. I know the flapper keeps fuel from pooling up on the floor. But as far as I can see it'd be like trying to get rusty screws holding rusty butterfly valves in a carb to pull the throttle shaft out. Unless that weight comes off.
I've seen it off. I don't know if it was internationally Removed but when I was growing up all smog stuff was junk. Cut the belt to the smog pump, pull the egr valve and put in a plate... Everyone I learned from in the 80's saw smog equipment as power robbing junk.

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Slant six should have stayed in production.

If you can dig up the kit, or find somebody that can remove the flapper from the shaft without totally mangling it, then re-weld it onto the shaft after your done, then your in business!

If your running the original tune, then the EGR and so forth comes into play. Without, then you'll be playing with the rest of the performance crowd. The crazy part is, I got way better fuel economy with a four barrel, a recurved distributor, a nice street port by DI and an OEM feather duster pipe than any stock car with a reworked 1bbl. Came in at 24 mpg with the stock weight of my '74 four door Valiant.

Don't be afraid to put a four barrel on there. I'm looking forward to seeing what a bit of compreesion and the four barrel do for Linda's 63 Dart GT. She has a Dutra Dual welded up special from Doug himself. He likes her!

CJ

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Part of Tyrde-Browne Racing

Update:

Found aluminum BELLHOUSING. Now need aluminum 833OD.

The stamped steel 2 piece cover & shield weigh as much as the BELLHOUSING.

Damn.

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Slant six should have stayed in production.

CJ

Here the deal. I'm putting this behind a 1962 aluminum 6. 225, with aluminum Bellhousing, aluminum case a833od with aluminum tail shaft and a recut ford truck aluminum driveshaft. Normal compression. Now, I am into a lot of different things from late 30's Lincoln flathead V12's to jimmy 302 inlines as well as Buick 241 & 263 straight 8's, because they knew what Chevy knew about overhead valves. Henry ford was a stubborn stubborn man. I know he waited until almost 1940 to get off the lawnmower brakes and mono transverse upside downside carriage lead springs. Just on and on and on.

But were a Chrysler Group. My question is (as my gain & goal is MPG) will a feather dusters dizzy work even better on an MSD versus a CD? I fool with inlines a lot lateley, picked up a 68 Pontiac sprint inline & gotta tear it down & mic it, but even with the cars I have the 6v adapter (they do make it) I get faster starts and more throttle response. As for MPG I don't know yet.

If a 4bbl is as lean as a 1 barrel, I like that aussiespeed Hurricane hyper pal rip-off. But what about floor heat? &#@% it & run a shaved set of hedders?

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Slant six should have stayed in production.

Msd only works until about 3.5k after that it's 1 spark per RPM, btw which is perfect for conventional inline sixes. This OHC misfit may spin all the way to 7k. That's what I hear. I never said I seen it.

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Slant six should have stayed in production.

You might see a small gain with MSD driven by the Mopar elec dist. MSD runs off main batt power, so no voltage drops.

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

Thanks Lou

Little improvements add up.

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Slant six should have stayed in production.