How about carving an intake manifold out of wood? Then coating the inside w/ some kind of sealant? Discuss.

Awesome idea, or the best idea ever? Decide.

How about molding it out of space-age plastic. Then it will be better than wood and won't be bothered by your leaky carburetor.

OK I'll be honest - being the recipient of a car with a 2bbl poly 318, I was thinking of how can I get a hold of a rare manifold and make relatively cheap copies of that manifold. I thought about the thermoquad's phenolic main body and then I started drinking.

Look at most new cars today. Plastic intakes. Sure, they only flow air, but they are light.

OK - question remains... Factory isn't going to remake them, aftermarket refuses to support them, how do we cheaply and accurately reproduce them?

Say, an Edelbrock P600

Id be forced to drink also if I had a Poly 318..

I am one of the lucky ones, I have a Weiand 7503 that I bought before they went out of production. But the issue is real.

Edelbrock makes their prototype intakes out of fiberglass. They actually dyno at more power because they don't conduct heat as well.

I have been dreaming about a ceramic intake that would run cool. I emailed Edelbrock about that several years ago and got the reply, we don't need to we have a foundry.

I'd like to have a 351W ford intake to compare port sizes and locations.

Or make up a set of spacers that'd allow the use of a 302 ford intake. Just think, MPFI on a Poly!

Of course you could also just weld one up.

I cannot understand why Holley can't run a batch of 7503s, used ones are tickling $500 on the 'bay.

I called Hot Hemi Heads a year ago and suggested they do a Poly intake. Their dual plane intakes for Hemi look really good.

R.

I won't accept the "you can't do it" attitude. Making a cast of the outside of the manifold would be relatively easy, but how do you get the inside passages?

Only way I can think of is to cast in halves, carve out the passages on both halves, then re-assamble and fasten the halves together.

I wonder what Edelbrock would charge for a license to privately produce a limited run of their P600

The P600 has been out of production for years and years. I'd say there's no chance to get them to make more and even less chance to have them let you use their molds, if they even have them. Most of the P600s I have seen have the Stromberg 97 base, meaning you are needing three antique carbs or else three expensive reproductions.

The Weiand/Holley 7503 went out of production maybe five years ago and it's be much easier for Holley to run off a batch. Maybe you need to talk to their marketing people.

I favor my approach which is to induce Hot Heads to design and cast a real dual plane Poly intake, like they've done for other old Mopars.

Second to that would be making spacers to run a different intake.

Third would be to fabricate an intake which would lend itself to a Hogan-style 2-4s high ram.

Of course there are many stock 2-4s intakes for Polys out there and they don't bring as much as a single four-barrel intake.

R.

I've read that rapid prototyping technologies like 3D printing and stereolithography have produced intake manifolds capable of surviving a few dyno runs. Maybe it's not far from making production parts.

You can get a composite manifold for a chevy just not mopars yet.

If you must have one, I would think that it's time to rally your buddies together to design/build an aluminum intake. It's probably the only semi-reasonable solution. Wood? I wouldn't even entertain the thought. It will crack in short order...