Well I am in the process of collecting parts again for my SBC swap and in order to keep reliability high and price down I have decided to go with Ram's Horn Manifolds. I have been focusing my search on the 2 1/2" dump ones as I don't want to limit performance more than I already have with the decision to go with manifolds over headers.

I have found the cheapest place to buy set that meet these criteria is from Rock Auto coming in at $128.10 shipped with a discount code.

I am not complaining about the price but the problem I am having is that they have the generator mount cast into them that I am going to have to grind off. Would anyone happen to know a part # ones which don't have this mount that can be bought new?

This is what I am finding at Rock Auto (Dorman # 674503 & 674504)

I had some just like that without that brackit on my 400 sb, Im pritty sure you could ask for some from a 70s or 80s v8. I have a book that says if you port them thay flow pritty good, just my two pennys.

81 corvette. Supposedly flow almost as good as headers. That's what I'm getting ready to install on mine.

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84 Coupe - 350 4Speed

I realize money is always a factor but if I'm faced with paying $256 for a set of the manifolds you picturs or paying $349 for some unpolished stainless steel rams horn manifolds from Speedway, I know which way I'm going. The only problem I have with the Speedway ones is they weren't making them when I did my SBC swap.



John Stricker

quote Originally posted by jstricker: I realize money is always a factor but if I'm faced with paying $256 for a set of the manifolds you picturs or paying $349 for some unpolished stainless steel rams horn manifolds from Speedway, I know which way I'm going. John Stricker

John,

The price I quoted is for the PAIR w/shipping!

You are right the speedway ones are nice and if the price difference was closer like you thought I would be going with them.

You could find them in a junkyard for $20...then sandblast and powder coat them.

I went with the 2.5" version. Put a lot of work into cleaning them up and smoothing them out on the outside and they are ported heavily inside too. They are coated with a ceramic race coating as well. I was going to go with headers but decided to go this way since I've heard a lot of people having problems with cracking especially with the forward one and the extreme heat cycles it will endure. My dad has sanderson shorties on his corvette also ceramic coated. They have just started cracking after about 5 years. Not too bad, but it is inevitible. From all the things that I've read and heard, 2.5" ram horns will flow BETTER than shorty block hugger headers but can't beat full length. Since our cars only have one option, I'll stick with the manifolds.

-Tim

quote Originally posted by rogergarrison: You could find them in a junkyard for $20...then sandblast and powder coat them.

I have kept my eye out at the junk yards but have never found anything other than the 2" dump version.

that bracket could be a nice dog-bone mount. It would have to be solid on one end duel to the heat but you could use rubber on the trunk mount side for some cushon.

quote Originally posted by joshua riedl: that bracket could be a nice dog-bone mount. It would have to be solid on one end duel to the heat but you could use rubber on the trunk mount side for some cushon.

I have been thinking about what I could mount to that bracket but I am definetly not going to mount a Dog Bone to it. I have heard enough exhaust leaks on Fieros that I don't want to create another one by trying to transfer that much load through a manifold.

quote Originally posted by jstricker: I realize money is always a factor but if I'm faced with paying $256 for a set of the manifolds you picturs or paying $349 for some unpolished stainless steel rams horn manifolds from Speedway, I know which way I'm going. The only problem I have with the Speedway ones is they weren't making them when I did my SBC swap. John Stricker

The picture above is for the polished stainless manifolds (more expensive), the un polished are $349 and look like this:


After some use they have discolored some from the heat, but no rust:


They were not available when I did mine either, but after cracking a set of 81 Vette tubular manifolds a couple times and a set of pacesetter headers, I went the speedway route with no regrets. I understand they are more expensive, but they will never rust!

I went with a pair of the 2.5" ramhorns and mine came with the bracket attached, it really was not that much work to remove the bracket with a grinder, for the manifold you mount on the front of the engine you will have to grind the bracket off, otherwise you will interfere with the alternator mounting plate. And to be honest you can hardly see this manifold anyway, the one on the rear then is very visible but just take your time and it will look fine, I had mine pwer coated with high temp paint and they look pretty good.

Jefrysuko i got this book from barns and noble (sp?) i love the book, relly good tips on how to get good power cheep or free,might be worth picking up.

quote Originally posted by slinger: Jefrysuko i got this book from barns and noble (sp?) i love the book, relly good tips on how to get good power cheep or free,might be worth picking up.

That does look like a good book. I have a few others by David Vizard but not that one I will have to pick it up sometime. Thanks for the tip.

Yes mine came with the Vette alternator brackets on one of them. They were on my dad's '64 Corvette before he went to shorty headers so I got mine right from the source. I didn't do the majority of the porting. My dad put these manifolds on a ZZ430 crate motor with the new (at the time) fastburn heads so the ports weren't even close. All of the smoothing on the outside was done with a dyna-file. If you know what that is it is like a mini hand-held pnuematic belt sander. It left a nice smooth finish and they look really sharp. If I were to do it over, I might go with those speedway manifolds. But, in my case I already had the ram horns so thats what I did. Actually, here is the secret. If you find these for sale new, just order 2 passenger side manifolds. That way they won't have the alternator crap hanging off the front. You'll want to double check that with the supplier since different year Vette's had it on different sides. I'm pretty sure our '64 should be pass. side but it has a '67 harness up front so it is drivers.

I just thought of this now, if you really want a nice port job and have some extra cash you might try extrude hone. Here is their website. They do great work and this process is awesome. Pricey, yes. Flow like the wind? YES!

http://www.gethoned.com/par...arts&show=automotive

-Tim

quote Originally posted by fieroguru: The picture above is for the polished stainless manifolds (more expensive), the un polished are $349 and look like this:

Yes, as far as I can see, Speedway had no online pictures of the unpolished cast manifolds, so I linked what I could. I think the unpolished ones like nice as well and if one wanted to spend some time on them, would polish up nicely.

John Stricker

quote Originally posted by TD37: If you find these for sale new, just order 2 passenger side manifolds. That way they won't have the alternator crap hanging off the front. You'll want to double check that with the supplier since different year Vette's had it on different sides. I'm pretty sure our '64 should be pass. side but it has a '67 harness up front so it is drivers. I just thought of this now, if you really want a nice port job and have some extra cash you might try extrude hone. Here is their website. They do great work and this process is awesome. Pricey, yes. Flow like the wind? YES!

See that is just it. I have found them for sale new. They are listed as a Dorman parts under two different part numbers but all of the pictures that I can find show the bracket. I am going to give my local parts supplier one last call on Monday and if they havn't found them without the brackets I will order one of each of the part #'s that I have found and see what I get.

I have heard about extrude honing as well but in order to keep the cost down on this swap I will be doing all of the porting myself. Unfortunately that probably means that it will be fairly limited.

with regard to porting the ram-horns, the Brzezinski manifolds mentioned in the Vizzard book, are still avaialable, pricey, but the main thing done to these was to open up the end ports of the manifold to match a felpro #1404 gasket, supposed to give extra 6-8hp see their website http://www.castheads.com/co...stems.php#manifolds, by the way my manifolds were modified in this way, not sure how effective they are, I have not taken the car to a dyno yet.

quote Originally posted by mafv8: with regard to porting the ram-horns, the Brzezinski manifolds mentioned in the Vizzard book, are still avaialable, pricey, but the main thing done to these was to open up the end ports of the manifold to match a felpro #1404 gasket, supposed to give extra 6-8hp see their website http://www.castheads.com/co...stems.php#manifolds, by the way my manifolds were modified in this way, not sure how effective they are, I have not taken the car to a dyno yet.

Now that is some good information. Thanks for the link.

BTW: I am planning on having my V8 swap done for the 25th anniversary show so I thought a new signature was appropriate.

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Well, I went ahead and placed my order with rockauto.com. I ordered one of each of the part#'s I listed in my first post. I will let everyone know how they look when I get them.

Well the manifolds showed up today. They came in boxes with the Dorman sticker still on them. They were cast in China, which I expected, and have some numbers cast into them that arn't the Dorman part #'s. I will see if they are the original GM part numbers sometime later. First thing I noticed is that the casting quality is horrible and the cleanup of the flashing is worse. They will work well for what I need them for but my concerns about not wanting it to be noticable where I ground off the brackets is moot because I can't do any worse than what has already been done. That is alright though because TD37 has inspired me to smooth them down so hopefully noone will know the way they started out.

One other thing which will cause me a little additional work is that there is what I assume to be a heat riser tube in the 674503 one but not the 674504. So if anyone is planning on going this same route I would get the later part # in hopes that it won't have the tube. It looks like the tube is only pressed into the holes so I am hoping that it can be easily removed and I can have a friend weld the holes up. Also one of the threaded holes for the bracket mounts appears to restrict the manifold so I will probably have that welded such that I can open it up on the inside.

I'll take some pictures later to show quality of the manifolds.

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Pictures.....

And here are some pictures of the grinder marks that I was refering to...

Looks like these might even work on D-port LT1/ZZ5 heads...

[This message has been edited by crazyd (edited 01-01-2008).]