I sure sure enjoy the wealth of info we get here. Thanks guys!

       A  L  A  N   F  R  A  K  E  S   ~  Tulsa, OK    

Dennis.  Thanks for the additional info.  It’s always good to see you chime in with that hard to find Ford history and information.

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

I believe the casting source for the 312 aluminum intake manifolds was Schmeller Aluminum Foundry in Cleveland.  That name shows up in some of the paperwork.  In addition, Schmeller was a source for other aluminum sand cast components to Ford.

A majority of the high performance FE engine series aluminum intake manifold castings was Buddy Bar. With Dearborn Steel Tubing Co. doing the machining and assy, as they also did on the high performance Y Block components. 

Regards,

Dennis

     

Does anyone know who cast the 2X4 manifold for the '57 Merc 368?

Larry D

Winnipeg, MB Canada Eh!


'57 Fairlane 500 Club Victoria

'58 Custom 300 Tudor

'56 Crown Victoria

'61 Starliner Z Code

'51 Ford Victoria

     Sounds like a good guess then. I was just curious. We did heads and blocks as well as the manifold business. Also machined the parts and did the entire Cosworth Vega program. Ram Air 5 Pontiac parts and Dr. Oldsmobiles tunnel port stuff. Fun time.

Frank/Rebop

Bristol, In ( by Elkhart) 

       That trip would be neat! I sold the grandson some parts a year or so ago, but he didn't mention the library, I wasn't aware it existed, although the Grandson knew a lot about the history of the place. Sounded like a nice guy. I think you're right about casting I.D. but I doubt they actually cast it. Might have been Barr.   

Frank/Rebop

Bristol, In ( by Elkhart) 

The 5500 quantity produced for the 1957 model year are the numbers that I have from a Ford source.

 Remember that count would also include over the counter sales,warranty replacements and a 3-5% casting imperfection.

That would also take into account all of Fords installations of "E" code engines-T Birds,Rancheros,passenger cars,etc.So about 5000 "E" installed setups from Ford.

The only hard evidence of Buddy Barr being involved is from a paragraph in the 56 Hot Rod (I"ll have to see what month)magazine tieing Buddy Barr to the Mercury M 260 intake manifold design and casting.

Ford racing had a racing relationship with Buddy Barr,Ralph Moody and a few more folks,all of whom were in California at that 1956 era of time.

The "lore" is that Ford farmed out the race only design in late 1955 to both Edlebrock and Buddy Barr with a promise that they would produce all of these style of manifolds for Ford.

Buddy produces the 1956/ M 260 setup which looks suspiously like Edlebrocks FM 255 intake.Thats the manifold with the overhang on the rear carb.The 56 Merc setup used a pair of bakolite spacers under the carb just as the "E" code passenger car did.

Its not very good for driveability (remember this was race only stuff) and Dearborn Steel Tubing gets involved for the 57 model year,driver quality stuff.

The diamond with the "S" in the center is Dearborn Steel Tubing"s casting identification. 

I"m under the impression that Buddy Barr did the Ford 56 manifolds and know for sure that Dearborn Steel Tubing did all of the 57 "E" stuff.

Theres at least two different castings of the Ford 56 manifold (I have both).There is NO evidence of a Dearborn Steel Tubing I.D. on either of those manifolds.

I dont know if all of the facts will ever come to light.There were at that time many aftermarket companys producing a version of the dual quad manifold.Just not with the blessing of Ford.

I contacted Buddy Barr castings years ago with no luck and I am planning an invited trip to Hollman and Moody for a look see in there library.

Oldmics - the truth is out there

5500 sounds like a lot of manifolds, but in Ford's scheme of things that was a small number.  I wouldn't be surprised if the manifolds would have been outsourced.  I have heard that Buddy Bar did them, but have not seen their logo on any 2-4 manifolds.  Seems like there was a diamond with an S in it on at least some of them.  Familiar logo to you, Frank?

The '56 manifolds had square pads with 4 holes bored in them to intersect the passages below, where the '57s had two of the holes in each pad cast together with a dogbone pattern.  I suspect the '56s were cast with the carb risers as two solid lumps of aluminum, where the '57s used some type of core to reduce machining and wasted material.  The '56 setups used a tappet cover made of flat plate with the oil fill and draft tube setup welded on.  They probably found out late that the regular cover wouldn't work, and needed a quick fix, didn't have time to make dies and stamp a run of covers.  Old Mics, this is your area of expertise.  Can you share anything with us?

John - "The Hoosier Hurricane"

I’m thinking Buddy Bar only because my factory MEL 3X2 intake has Buddy Bar cast on the bottom of it as well as a good number of my factory FE aluminum intakes.  I’ll not rule out Ford actually doing their own casting of these but Buddy Bar was a Ford affiliate early on so it's just a good guess on my part.  Winters did much of GM’s aluminum intake manifold casting much the same way Buddy Bar did it for Ford.

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

Ted,

        I'm curious, why do you guys think Buddy Barr made the dual quad intakes. Ford had aluminum facilities in house, and there were a number of closer sources to Dearborn. I know Winters didn't make them, because of the GM connections, but I'd suspect ECK foundries or Wisconsin Aluminum might have.

Frank/Rebop

Bristol, In ( by Elkhart)