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By 1/8cavman - 3 Years Ago
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Hello fellow Y-block enthusiast. My name is Mike Kelly. I am 74 and live in Southern Oregon. I have owned Y-block powered cars since the early 60's. I own a 56 Bird that I bought in 1970. It is driver quality with parts from all three years of the little Birds. Almost always driveable, and never finished. This forum has a great amount of knowledge, keep it going. Question, I have two Ford factory iron 9425 B intake manifolds. One has the firing order and cylinder numbers casting on the intake runners, along with the 9425 B casting part numbers. The other manifold has only the part number casting 9425 B. Otherwise, they are identical. What and where were they used?
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By 55blacktie - 3 Years Ago
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Do the letters ECG precede 9425B? I just looked at two manifolds. Both were the 57-style. One had the firing order on a runner, but the other did not. The carburetor bolt pattern is wider than the 55-56 4-barrel manifolds and will not accommodate pre-57 carburetors.They are the best Y-block OEM single-four-barrel-carburetor intake manifolds. If you replace 55-56 carburetor and intake with 57-up, you will also need a 57-up distributor with both mechanical and vacuum advance.
Posting photos will not only confirm the above, they will generate considerable interest if you want to sell them. If the price is right, they go pretty quickly. As you know, they are heavy, and that will be reflected in the shipping cost.
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By 55blacktie - 3 Years Ago
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1/8cavman, check your personal messages.
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By 55blacktie - 3 Years Ago
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The 57-up Holley 4150 base bolt pattern is 5.16 (5 3/16) side-to-side/5.625 (5 5/8) front to back.
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By Hoosier Hurricane - 3 Years Ago
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Here's ;my take on the two manifolds. I have both types, though I never noticed. I believe the ones with no firing order are passenger car manifolds. The ones with the firing order are HD truck manifolds. The ones without the firing order have provisions for the automatic choke heat. The one with the firing order is not drilled for the choke heat tube. Passenger cars had automatic chokes, HD trucks had hand chokes. Tomorrow I'll put them side by side and see if there differences in port sizes and throat sizes. They may be different, they have to be different castings because of the cast firing order info on top. The cores for the inner parts may be the same for both types however.
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By 1/8cavman - 3 Years Ago
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Both of these manifolds have the ECZ 9425 B casting. They are the 57 and later Holley 4150 bolt pattern. I know what the 55 and 56 intake manifolds look like. Hoosier Hurricane you are probably correct. I didn't realize 4 barrel manifolds were used in HD trucks. I am opening up and smoothing the runners a little, trying to match them to the heads which I did years ago. Nothing radical. Aluminum parts (heads, covers, manifolds) would be great but at this time too much money. Hope the price of fuel doesn't go nuts. Thanks guys for your replies.
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By 55blacktie - 3 Years Ago
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Woops! I posted this in the wrong place. If you are going to port-match your manifold to your heads, you should also consider opening up the plenum to two ovals. you can find photos on yblockguy.com and eatonbalancing.com.
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By Ted - 3 Years Ago
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Mike. Welcome to the site.
I find that the majority of ECZ-B intake manifolds do have the firing order shown on them. Those ECZ-B manifolds that do not have the heat tube for the choke are more than likely to be from the HD truck engines which were produced all the way into the 1964 models.
There is a date code on the back runners under the casting number and those date codes can be used to identify both the time frame and potentially the application from which the manifold originally came. The first digit of the date code would be the year (ie: 0 = 1960), the second digit would be the month, and the next digit or digits would be the day. Here are some pics.
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By Hoosier Hurricane - 3 Years Ago
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I compared my manifolds, the ports are the same, the throttle bore holes are the same, the depth from the carb flange to the plenum floor are the same. Ted, where did you come up with that EDB-9425-F manifold????? Is it for sale?
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By NoShortcuts - 3 Years Ago
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1/8Cavman. Welcome to the site! Early '57 production FoMoCo y-blocks (Ford & Mercury) using the B single quad intake manifold did not have the firing order displayed! This was true for both passenger car and 'Bird applications. My recollection is that it was in February of the '57 model year that the firing order was first displayed on the 312 engine single quad application intake manifold casting.
This information was previously covered in an earlier Y-Blocks Forever Forum entry and, as I recall, in the Classic Thunderbird Club International Restoration Manual authored by Gil Baumgartner.
The information pertaining to casting date codes, no choke heat tubes for truck applications, and the B code intakes being the best for performance of a y-block factory single four barrel intake are both correct and reliable.
Hope this helps! 
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By DryLakesRacer - 3 Years Ago
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I bought this manifold about 5 years ago right after I started on the dual quads I ended up using. If I went to the single I would use it.
You can see the casting has a ECZ-9425-B and not the 8425. There are holes for a choke heat tube but no other casting numbers or casting company or logo. It came as a complete kit. Bolts, washers, gaskets. I don’t remember where I bought it but it was on-line and I had to sign for it on receiving it. I thought it may have been a knock off of a Blue Thunder or one they made with their logo not cast.  
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By slumlord444 - 3 Years Ago
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That's a Blue Thunder. The have the Ford casting number. Later ones also had the firing order. That's as good as you can get.
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By Ted - 3 Years Ago
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James. That Blue Thunder intake manifold you have looks like the version III as the versions I and II had plenum slots in the divider. I’d have to see the back of the manifold to determine if it could be a version IV as that version had some material removed from around the right rear side mounting boss to give more clearance for the MSD distributors. The version V manifolds have the firing order on them similar to what is found on the factory ECZ-B manifolds.
Here’s the link to the magazine article that prompted Blue Thunder to remove the slot from the intake manifold plenum divider.
https://www.eatonbalancing.com/2014/11/23/intake-manifold-plenum-slots/
And here’s a picture of a version II BT intake being machined for the aforementioned additional MSD distributor clearance.
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By Ted - 3 Years Ago
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.....Ted, where did you come up with that EDB-9425-F manifold????? Is it for sale?
John. That’s a ’57 supercharger intake manifold. Not mine. It was simply in the shop for some repair work. Looks like a misprint on the part number as I thought most of those were EDB, not EBD.
DryLakesRacer (1/29/2021)
I bought this manifold about 5 years ago right after I started on the dual quads I ended up using. If I went to the single I would use it.
You can see the casting has a ECZ-9425-B and not the 8425...........
What you are seeing as ‘8425’ on those intake manifold pictures I posted earlier is actually ‘9425’. The ‘9’ has the lower loop closing up to the point it looks like an ‘8’.
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By DryLakesRacer - 3 Years Ago
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Ted, here are the rear photos. I’m guessing revision IV by the machining. 2 questions.
I see the vacuum threaded boss has 2 holes one to each plenum feeds. What’s the correct use for this?
The choke machined hole is in the aluminum casting only not in the crossover exhaust chamber under it. Is the stock tube to be used or a tube stuck in the passenger side and another in the driver side to the carb top like original inside the air filter for clean air suction.
I wish I could remember what I paid for the manifold kit but my brain doesn’t function on things like that. I should have put the recipe in the box. 
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By Ted - 3 Years Ago
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DryLakesRacer (1/30/2021)
Ted, here are the rear photos. I’m guessing revision IV by the machining. 2 questions.
I see the vacuum threaded boss has 2 holes one to each plenum feeds. What’s the correct use for this?
The choke machined hole is in the aluminum casting only not in the crossover exhaust chamber under it. Is the stock tube to be used or a tube stuck in the passenger side and another in the driver side to the carb top like original inside the air filter for clean air suction.
I wish I could remember what I paid for the manifold kit but my brain doesn’t function on things like that. I should have put the recipe in the box.[
Those pictures help to confirm that your particular manifold is cast for use with the MSD distributor making it a version IV. The version IV is the same as the version V except for the addition of the firing order on the version V. There is a version VI in the works and more details on that when it happens.
That vacuum port at the back is used for the vacuum wipers. It can be used for power brakes but is not a suitable vacuum source for a PCV valve. A PCV valve vacuum source does need to be either at the base of the carburetor or at the carburetor spacer where the vacuum source is shared by all the cylinders and not just those at the back.
Those small 1/4" holes on each on the side of the manifold adjacent to the exhaust crossover passage for the choke does not require any additional work other than hooking up the air inlet filter on the left side and the small line on the right side to the carb choke pot. The factory hardware works with those two holes. Instead of using a metal tube to go through the exhaust crossover passage, there is additional aluminum cast into the manifold which simply has the necessary hole drilled through the aluminum that allows the air going through that hole to be preheated before arriving at the choke coil. By doing it this way, no metal tube is required and thus no deterioration of the tube over time. If not using that passageway, it’s neither an exhaust or vacuum leak. With most new carburetors being supplied with an electric choke, that particular passageway in the manifold is not used.
Rest assured that whatever price you gave for that manifold several years ago is now less than what they are being sold for now.
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By DryLakesRacer - 3 Years Ago
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Thanks Ted. This the first aluminum aftermarket manifold I have ever owned that did not have a casting logo hidden for casting plant or a “brand”. Always seemed weird that this was not done.
I originally thought all aftermarket manifolds had brands but noticed on the BlueThunder website theirs do not.
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By Joe-JDC - 3 Years Ago
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Here's the newest version V of the BT with the firing order. If my intake is indicative of all of the latest versions of the BT, then it is degrading a bit in average flow from previous years. I have noticed at least 10 cfm average drop in flow from the version IV and V. The version IVs that I have flowed were averaging ~278-279 cfm, and with porting, was able to get the worst port up to 312 cfm, but this version V average flow is 268 cfm, and the worst port(#6) I have only been able to get to flow 296 cfm. Joe-JDC  
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By DryLakesRacer - 3 Years Ago
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Joe- did you dimple the IV also.
I’ve also wondered how much it helps with atomization and efficiency of a stock engine at cruising speeds. .
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By Joe-JDC - 3 Years Ago
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Yes, I did dimple the earlier version, a Mummert, several FEs, SBFs, etc., after Ted proved on the dyno that the dimples help with torque and horsepower averages. I think he did an article in Y Block with the results a few months ago. Joe-JDC 
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By DryLakesRacer - 3 Years Ago
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Yes I’ve read his articles and really enjoy them; efficiency has taken over my brain especially increased torque down where we use engines. Our 292 has always has the little “jump” at the crack of the throttle which increased with a true 3-speed automatic. Even the change of a rear end with 2.74 gears didn’t alter it. Now following the shoot outs with the vintage engines do a lot to entertain me now.. thanks
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