I am about to consign my heavy-weight cast iron intake to the recycle pile in favor of a shiny new Edelbrock Performer 390. However, when checking out the Fel-Pro #1247 gasket set for fit, noted that the gasket holes for the exhaust crossover passage in the manifold are not punched out. I recognize that a cool-air intake charge makes for more ponies, always desirable.
However, I live in an area that reaches 0 degrees F and below in the winter, and 100 degrees + in the summer. So, I am wondering if I would be sacrificing any driveability or other positive aspect by NOT enabling the crossover to function, especially since I am also giving up the coolant-heated spacer under the carb (Holley 600 cfm #1850 if that makes any difference). Would anybody care to weigh in on the pros and cons of crossover heating? Or will the gasket eventually burn thru so I have crossover whether I want it or not anyway?
And finally, do insulating carb gaskets do anything to reduce fuel percolating and legendary slow hot-starting in Fords?
Appreciate any and all thoughts!! Steve

 

Steve- IMHO the Xover only really helps the engine warm up faster. My FE has a blue thunder intake that has the crossover welded shut. With a manual choke and duraspark+jacobs ignition, this has always started fine, even @ -10 here in michigan. I'm still running the coolant spacer but don't have the water hoses hooked up to it. Isn't a 600 kind of on the small side? What are you going to ask this truck to do? The Ebrock performer runs out of power too soon for lots of us. The performer RPM or the blue thunder intake might be better. Tell us what you are up to. DF

 

My "Old Yellow" '74 hi-boy is mainly a heavy hauler. If it's not toting a heavy Bigfoot slide-in camper, it's towing 5000#+ of boat around, if not the combination of the two. The 390 has a Crane HMV 272 degree dual profile cam, Hi-Intensity lifters, and running Sanderson Shorty headers with stock heads, NP435 & 205, 4:10's.
Primarily based upon talking to Edelbrock, and scouring the web for what I could find, decided that the Performer was best suited to my application. I was strongly tempted by the RPM, but Edelbrock guys adamant that Performer with 600 cfm would be optimum for me. Doesn't seem like they would steer us wrong, I hope!!??!
I've been running the Holley 600 cfm for years on the stock intake, and never felt like it was wanting for gas(never pass an open gas station anyway;-) ). I rarely get much into the 5000+ RPM range, to make sure old FE stays with me as long as possible! Probably wasting my $$ on the replacement intake anyway, but am about to install an A/C system, had oily valley that I wanted to clean up, so decided to bite off the whole meal at once. I may eventually move to an Edelbrock carb too, but decided to try this way first.
But it isn't installed yet, so happy to listen to what you have to say!
You say you are using your carb spacer sans coolant? Trying for better flows or just need the height for linkage? I'm still debating whether to keep mine.
Thanks, Steve

 

Steve- I would like to pretend that I was hoping for extra flow, or that by using the spacer I could have heat under the carb if I ever needed it, but the honest answer is that that is what fit best with my carb studs. If Ebrock says the regular performer is better for your usage I'll believe them. They have nothing to gain by steering you wrong. What kind of ignition does this truck have? Upgrading from points made a big difference on my 71. Has your oiling been fixed? Now might be a good time to at least do the pump, filter passage and the rocker shaft area. DF

 

Thanks DF!
I think my oiling system is in good shape. The machine shop that did my work last go-round was a good one and spoke "Ford."
Guess I'm still a little in turmoil as to exactly what to do. The more I think about it, unless I somehow blocked the Xover I'm sure the gaskets would burn thru in very short order and let things heat up as designed, but wonder if it's worth the hassle to have it welded?!?
Edo suggested omitting the riser block, but weren't too specific on why, except for hood clearance. I might go ahead and leave mine in there with an insulating gasket under it to help isolate the carb from manifold heat and see what happens.
Now guess I just have to hunt down the hernia belt to get the old cast-iron anchor out of there!
Thanks for the inputs. Steve

 

I used ColdSteel, but JB Weld might work as well. Some like to use the stainless steel plate to block things off. I'd take the time to block off the cross over. Find a metal shop and get a thin piece of stainless and cover the cross over. Use the heat riser with a valve, the stock AC has a nice vac controlled valve that'll work just fine, it controls the water going into the heater core.

By the way, I used the ColdSteel to block of my cross overs and use the Edelbrock alum intake and the base of the carb / top of intake run about 127~130 deg F with no hood on a cool night. If I remember correctly, fuel boils at 140 deg F. Alum absorbs heat 5 times faster, the intake will get PLENTY of heat from the engine! Block it off, at least with a plate of steel! The performance intakes have this already blocked (Performer RPM)

Also, the water cooled adapter could be used to cool or heat the carb, run two hoses to a T then use heater control valve to select which ones flows. Use cooler water from bottom of rad and hot water from water pump/ heater line.

 

KarlJay,
Interesting thoughts! It hadn't occured to me to use JB to fill the Xover hole, and I've already got the large economy size!
But now I am wondering how you got it to "anchor" to the manifold securely enough to assure that it could never "go-a-roving" on down into the head after many cycles of heat/cool? Will it bond to the aluminum well enough to stay in place, forever?
I have some stainless steel sheet metal too, but am concerned about goofing up the gasket seal?
Can you give any more specifics of how you nailed things into place?
I think I like the notion of keeping the heated spacer block, with all of the ways to use it!
Thanks, Steve

 

When I had my heads redone, I cleaned the cross over passage very well. Then I used the QuickSteel and forced it into the passage. I pushed it from both sides to force it in real tight. Then I smoothed both sides to prevent hot spots ( a little water on your fingers works well to smooth it) I left it about 1" thick so that the exhaust gas wouldn't hit it directly. The paper work on the QuickSteel says it is good to 500 deg F and I don't know if that's higher than JB is, but it is holding.
I did notice a few pieces blew out the exhaust and landed on the ground, but the main part is still there. I pulled the heads off and saw that it had reacted to the heat, but only inside the port not near the intake, so it is still holding up.

I like the idea of a steel plate, you just need to make sure it's cut a small enough to not hit the intake runner, and that it's thin enough to not be a high point. I'd make it a little thinner than the intake gasket and use a dab of sealer to hold it in place. I used a good bead of sealer around each intake runner and let it set up a bit to insure a good seal. With the FE, you don't want an intake leak or you'll suck in oil.

If the intake is alum, you can have the passage welded shut, I like that idea best. Don't worry about being too cold, many FEs run without the cross over, and you will gain some power (it helps with pinging as well).

 

[font color=red size=3]My '73 F100 has a stock 390 running a stock intake with an Edelbrock 600 cfm, dual exhaust, Duraspark ign. The 600 is enough for me, it has never ran out of juice, but I've out grown most of the racing and burnouts (most;-)).

I had to put on a 1" spacer to get the linkages to clear the stock manifold. First I had an aluminum spacer, but I had a lot of perculation/hard start problems. So I got a plastic 1" spacer and it solved all the perculation/hard start problems that I was having. If you have to get a spacer, I suggest a plastic one. And the 4 hole ones are supposed to be better for low-end torque (or so I'm told).

Just a thought.

Marty

"Cleverly Disguised as a Resposible Adult"[/font]

 

Steve,

I read your question when you posted it and started to respond that it is OK to run without the x-over, but then thought I'd look in to it before I said anything, well I did run across an articule about just this. The gist of the piece was that you should run it because the sooner the engine warms up the less wear it endures, It's a fact that there is a temperture range that an engine should operate within to minimize wear, below 160 degrees and some thing like over 220, the wear on the cylinder walls is a number of times greater then when it's in between these two temps. Unless you're racing it and tearing it down frequently they stated that you should run it, and that it would increase the life of the engine as compared to without it.

I've thought about this, how do you get the warm up and yet keep as cool a fuel and air mixture...I talked with a company that does the heat coating and they were telling me about some of the internal engine parts that they have coated for racers, you might look one up in yor area and see if they have any ideas. Still working on it.

Jim

 

Gulp!! More food for thought!
I'm afraid that the die is cast - welded the crossover shut today!
Essentially all my "truck driving" is long-distance, use the big beast almost entirely to head out of town on long trips, loaded to the gills. So hopefully won't experience too much excessive wear as opposed to what a daily driver would.
I'm not sure that I totally accept a heated intake having that much effect on warm-up of the bottom end. It may let me get the choke off a little sooner, but I run a manual so always de-choke as soon as I get moving anyway. At least that's what I'm going to rationalize to myself. :-) You've definitely cost me some sleep tonight tho!!
I also picked up one of Edelbrock's wood-fiber spacers today, so that will join the mix too. It's scary to think how many ways there are to mis-apply some of the speed stuff tho if you're not into the hobby big-time.
Thanks for the advisory. Hopefully, I'll let you know that it was ok in about 10 years and 100,000 miles! Steve