Just received new issue of Y Block Magazine, thanks Joe D. and Ted for the great "Awful-Hauser" intake testing. Maybe we should start a Go-Fund-Me page
to buy up all these junk manifolds to get them off the market and out of the hands of magazine engine builders!!!!!   BarryL

Awful-houser made manifolds for many brands of engines in that same time period.  I wonder if poor performance was common throughout their product line?

John - "The Hoosier Hurricane"

Hard to say.  I looked on eBay for Offenhauser intakes for Rocket, Nailhead, Cadillac, etc, trying to find vintage manifolds.  Not many vintage ones to see, but the ones there looked better than the Y offering.
They may have had multiple designers, with different ideas about how to design a manifold or maybe they just couldn't figure out how to handle the unconventional port layout.  If the former, hopefully he was trained better afterwards or fired. If the latter, it seems that buying competitor manifolds to dissect would be worth the cost, to see how they did it, and perhaps even how to improve on their design.  If Offy was the first to the drawing board, this would not have been an option and their hubris could have prevented them from improving on the first design, particularly if they were selling well enough.  Judging by how common they are, they must have sold.

I'm glad to see a test with the big strombergs.  I've been curious how those perform.


Lawrenceville, GA

Barry L's idea almost has merit!.  Going way back to 1970-71, starting with the Popular Hot Rodding's engine buildup of that time, that excuse for a Tri Power manifold probably has done more to harm the Y-block's image than any other factor that I can think of !  Even exceeding top end oiling issues & the suspicions that the over & under intake ports were a no no re performance improvements.. Oh, & many thanks of course  to Ted &  Joe D Craine for the work they put into that testing project. I'm surprised that for the testing, Joe willingly paid $250 for that piece of junk..   


Paul

Is there a way the article could be posted here?

Durham Missouri

Joe wrote that particular article so for now it’s a Y-Block Magazine feature article.  When I next see Joe, I’ll ask if he wants to post it to my website where it can be linked.


I dynoed a Buick 401 Nailhead with the Offenhauser (Awful-Houser) 3X2 setup and it was way down on power compared to the cast iron single four barrel intake.  And this engine had an upgraded camshaft to boot.  Engine looked good though if that’s any consolation.
 

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

I believe that offy intakes in the 50's were made for dry lake racing, not for street driving! the y-block was dropped before they ever made anything better and the interest was not there to upgrade it! Edelbrock and Weiand both made later update's that were much better. the later Weiand is a lot harder to locate!



 lincoln/merc. y-blocks &mel's                                                               bucyrus, ohio.

I'd like to clarify if I may re the besmerking (is that a word?) of the Offenhauser name. Fred H. Offenhauser, 1888-1973, has been elected to 4 automotive halls of fame, including an international one..  However, what I believe to be the case with the "awfulhouser" Y-block intake, was that it was marketed by the Offenhauser Sales Corp, of which he was "not" associated.. It was founded by his Nephew, "Fred C. Offenhauser" about 1946 (according to Wikapedia)  In fact a lawsuit resulted at some point, & it was decided that the corporation could continue the  family name, but could not make any references to the Indy engines & so on, built previously by his uncle's company.. In my opinion (for what that's worth) it's unfortunate that the court made that decision..      


Paul

I have sent the magazine article to Ted for inclusion on his website as a reference link for anyone who did not receive a copy of the Y Block Magazine.  I will be glad to answer any questions about the testing, the manifolds, or show pictures here in color if anyone has a question.  It was a lot of work, but I feel we answered the question about whether the problem is a builder, or just the intake manifold.  Joe-JDC

 

 

 

 
This is just a few of the pictures of the Offenhauser before any porting was started.  


JDC

Here’s the link to Joe’s 3 Deuce article that was recently printed in The Y-Block Magazine.
 
http://www.eatonbalancing.com/2018/07/27/y-block-3x2-testing-by-joe-craine/

 

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)