Owning a classic car today is not all about performance.  If it was, I would slap a 427 into my TBird and be done with it.   Where would I drive my fast car and who would I race?  Here in North Central Florida we are blessed to have long country roads without much traffic. In town, you are lucky if you can drive over 50 mph.  Street car performance died years ago. Back then, cruising Miami on a Saturday night was one drag race after another.  We hardly ever killed anyone, but their wasn't much traffic then either.

Today's classic car world is about nostalgia, cruise ins, bench racing and talking about cars.   How many of those dual quad motors you see on cruise night actually run well?  Not many.  I own my 55 TBird because it rings a lot of bells for me at the same time.  It reminds me of when I first started messing with hot rods.  My wife likes the TBird because it's a convertible sports car.  Back in the day, Y Blocks were cheap and for a few hundred dollars you could by a V8 Ford with a manual transmission and burn those narrow tires to the ground.  There is not much of a Wow factor in a single four barrel 292 engine.   Dual quads would look cool.  Tea pot carbs are uncool unless you are a concurs judge. 

I hope I haven't insulted anyone by my statements.  We are all individuals.  I want my TBird engine to look like it has 600 HP and drive like it's going to church.    From the cars I see on my local cruise nights, that's a pretty popular theme.

Well said.  I see where too many people tried to push you back to using a single four but I do a lot of engines for customers who simply want the ‘WOW’ factor when it comes to carburetion.  Hence the popularity of multi-carb setups on these older engines.  It’s a given that most older 3X2 and 2X4 setups do not equal the performance of a modern single four intake and carb but as you said, it’s tough to now to find a place to legally run those engines to their full potential.  I just did a 3X2 Offenhauser setup on a rebuilt Y for a customer for a ’32 Ford and it was not about performance but getting the car and engine back to a nostalgia late Fifties look.  That 3X2 setup likely cost on the order of 40-50 horsepower over a modern induction setup but ultimate performance was not the goal here.  The goal was just a good driver with old time looks.

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

Someone should build a Y Block Hilborn Fuel Injection look alike with a modern fuel injection setup inside.  Make it low enough to fit under a TBird hood with integrated air filters. Now that would be cool...

One of our members - can't remember the handle - used the two throttle bodies off an "IROC-Z" Camaro and ended up with a nice looking outfit. With the right computer and tune it probably had reasonable performance.

 
 Steve Metzger       Tucson, Arizona

I was at a shop yesterday that built guys cars . Took a average car and made it into Restomod he was working on a 1967 Mustang fastback. It had been in his shop for almost a year and only the
engine/transmission were finished. No paint, no upholstery, wheels or tires and the the guy was into it $40,000 and no end in sight. It boggled my mind.
I guess that's the future of the old car hobby. He told me that to build a car for SEMA show in Vegas it might cost $300,000, YEA wow. Pete 

That's one way to go.  I have a friend who builds all his cars into restomods.  When he's done, there is nothing original left but the fenders.  In my mind that's not a classic car anymore.  That's a new car built out of new parts.   Everyone is different.  I prefer to leave my cars as they would have been built in the decade I am aiming for.  My favorite decade for cars was the sixties.  It started out with home built hot rods and ended with muscle cars. Rack and pinion steering was for British cars and fuel injection was just damned mysterious.  Nothing wrong with upgrading the car for safety purposes. I upgraded my master cylinder to dual chambers because I don't need any more excitement when I drive.  If a fuel injection unit looks like Hilborn injection, that's cool.  Not everyone wants to drive around with a screw driver on their front seat.  I just spent the entire morning sorting out the wiring of my O/D.  I could have swapped in a modern tranny and saved myself the trouble.  Where's the fun it that? 

I am the one with the twin throttle body set up under the original air cleaner. The T'bird has the wow factor is there and it runs like a charm. Does everything you are wanting to do and yes you can use an aluminum valley pan if you want under an original manifold from Canada. Your problem is the air cleaner which is not easily available and if you can find one will be unreasonably expensive. Good luck! MIKE

Mike, still lovin his 57 t'bird after 53 years!

Phil, nicely said about what it is you’re looking for. Given that, any ot the 3x2 or 2x4 manifolds will work. There’s a variety of ways to get around the carbs (avoiding the teapots) or the air cleaners (as in the back carb using 94’s and some manifolds). Many small aircleaners will fit under the hood of the bird, although you might have to make an adapter plate for the base. Typically no big dead.

This is the neatest air cleaner I ever saw. Doane Spencer’s 55 2x4 55 bird.









miker
55 bird, 32 cabrio F code
Kent, WA
Tucson, AZ

Now somebody has an imagination - 1955 FYB RAM-AIR SHAKER ...



Do you have any shots of the hood modification(s), steel or fiberglass?

What's with the coolant manifolds?

____________________________

Wow!  That's more like it.  I can't believe he squeezed two 4V Holleys back to back on that manifold.  I don't care for the dual water inlet's, but that just me. Thanks for the input.  I'm just getting started with this TBird hot rod. You never know where this trip might take me.