Blower Manifolds for Cleveland

I am always drawn to the rare, or hard to find things in life. I enjoy the idea, and people who take the road less traveled, especially when it comes to some mechanical things, like different engines. Recently, I discovered a 351c blower manifold......I wasn't aware that any one was casting one for the 351c. I am aware of the one that B&M used to make but this wasn't that one. And, I'm well aware of the dual quad manifolds that some blower shops sell, where they simply milled off the carb pads and welded a blower base shaped plate to it, but asthetically, and internally, it's not the same. I work at The Blower Shop now, and just this last week I saw a dedicated, cast, supercharger manifold in the shop that I didn't know anyone was making. I believe one of the Pantera parts manufacturers is producing this. It appears to take a low profile supercharger like our 250 series. This may not be for everyone, but Kudos to that manufacturer. I'm just old enough to remember back when our cars were just used musclecars, and most every Main Street where crusing was happening, had "Street Freaks" prowling with Tunnel-Rams and blowers sticking out of those hoods. Hot rodders were doing this way before phoney blowers like "Mad Max's" engine and " Fast and Furious" movies. Street Rods have done the blower route for decades now. Anyway, certainly an aquired taste, and most people don't want to cut their rare hoods these days, but I'm glad some people still get a kick ( no pun intended) out of it.

I just searched around the Net, and I think the manifold I saw was a Speedmaster. Again, this manifold was not cast as a "-71" series blower mounting, but more of a low profile style blower mounting. It may be originally for dual 4150 style carbs, but the owner was definately going to mount a blower on it, which would make sense as to why it's in our shop..

Spike, can you snap a few photos of this manifold when you get back to the shop? Sounds interesting.
Chris

Sure Chris. You know, supercharging has for a long time now, been the easiest and most efficient way to increase horsepower and torque. It doesn't require aftermarket high-dollar heads, monster camshaft grinds, or finicky running engines. All one should have is a good, strong shortblock, and every hot naturally asperated build usually goes for those rod/ piston/ring/ bearing and stud upgrades any way. But supercharging can net you an easy 50% more horsepower AND torque, while delivering good idle and at a loss of 1 or 2 miles per gallon. Big roller cammed, big headded, big carbed engines can't make that claim. I have a blown drag hydro, that I can tell you, flat jumps out from under you and pulls all the way from idle to going thru the lights. In fact, compared to running a carbed engine, I had to up the pitch on the prop 'cause it had so much "ooomph", I was burning the prop ( same as lighting up the tires on a car). The Chevy guys have all this already done for them, and I feel it's been too long in coming that more Ford enthusiasts have the same options to boost their engines. There's two ways to go, with Roots blowers......low profile ( which likely will still need a hood "blister", or go for it, with a hole cut in the hood for that _71 series blower case to show off. I'd buy a 'glass hood to modify, were I to push a puffer up through the hood, and save the stock hood .

The instant response is very addictive...and hard on tires. It would be nice to see more Fords doing it.

Since you mentioned Mad Max...one of the US replicas and it's running a functional 671 and Scott EFI. If I recall correctly, the original build of this car used two 4v carbs before the switch to FI.

The owner was/is a police officer out of New York.

I was looking at the BDS site and they show a dedicated 351C blower intake in their 'complete' kit, but if you look under intakes only, they have the converted type of manifold, not the real blower manifold.

https://www.blowerdriveservice.com/...-671-STAGE-1-POLISHED-BLOWER-KIT-1V_p_74.html

This is out there…..

https://www.alkydigger.net/product/RBZ-351C.html

rcadd1ct said:

This is out there…..

https://www.alkydigger.net/product/RBZ-351C.html

Click to expand...

Interesting, but the picture is not a Cleveland manifold. You can see the thermostat and water passages through it.

tony-muscle said:

Interesting, but the picture is not a Cleveland manifold. You can see the thermostat and water passages through it.

Click to expand...

Ya

Hard to get good web help.

Mine is a Offy four barrel intake that had the top milled of and a blower plate welded on by Don Hampton. Hard to see in the picture.

Holy S**T 1973machi

It is one fun ride. My current project is a 72 Mach I with a Gen 2 Coyote in it.

tony-muscle said:

Interesting, but the picture is not a Cleveland manifold. You can see the thermostat and water passages through it.

Click to expand...

That particular intake looks like a 460 style blower manifold, however, the 351 style blower manifold I saw was just like that only for a Cleveland application. I know it's still an adaptation-style manifold, but at least it's low, and doesn't outright appear to be a dual-carb welded up piece. I think if one were to grind off the injector-looking bosses and either polished up both the manifold and plate, or tumbled both to look one-piece,this would be the better looking manifold offered from all I've seen.