What interest is there in an aluminum TwinH manifold

50C8DAN

If these were made available how much interest would there be out there?  And if there is interest how much would folks be willing to pay for one?

RL Chilton

I would be interested.  Maybe $200-$400 tops.  Possibly more if it was really something special, or came pre-polished, etc.  

50ClubCoupe

I'm assuming you'd be producing only the manifold for the 308 and not the 262 but I would be interested in a 262 version.  I'd be in the same price range as Russell but I'd probably even pay a little more if it had any enhancements or design improvements over the original. Oh, and of course, the cooler it looks, the more I'd pay! 

50C8DAN

Guys I have looked at this from a well regarded US casting company and the base price for the raw casting probably be in the $200 range, that is without any machining, polishing etc.  Tooling will be about $8K give or take.  So $200 is not going to happen and even $400 will not work if the interest is only for 20 or so manifolds.  I would think that an initial order of at least 50 manifolds is a min. to even start the project.  As for 262 vs. 308, it would be tough to justify the 262s unless there would be serious interest. 

However good input.

Frankvintagefullflowcom

They could be made in an "either/or" version by simply machining the carb bases accordingly. An Aluminum (Aluminium to some) 308 manifold exists but I have only seen one. Not sure why it didn't see much, if any, production. The only real advantage I can see is the weight savings which would only amount to a few pounds.

As many of my ideas go, it's a nice dream but not at all practical, but.....keep dreamin'. Sometimes they're the nicest thoughts we have.

Frank 

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50C8DAN

Eck Foundry in WI is one my company works with both as a customer and a supplier.  They do special stuff for old car items on the side.   In the last few years did a run of Packard heads for a group. They are also the world's largest caster of prop plane engine parts, so they are no slouch.  I have discussed various projects for Studebaker V8 Heads with them and also V8 manifolds, so they will do it if there is enough behind it to break even.  As far as weight savings, aluminum is about 1/3rd the weight of cast iron, so the savings is not that insignificant.  I don't know the weight of a Twin H manifold but you can work the math if you know.  The other thing of course is that a polished aluminum manifold has a lot of bling to it!

allan

I would think the aluminum intake would aid in heat dissipation.  I have put the later aluminum intake manifold on my '38 3X5 for that reason alone.

Allan

ski4life65

I would be in for a few. One of our members had an original Aluminum one at the Colorado National meet. Pretty cool

Frankvintagefullflowcom

That's the one I referred to earlier. It was for sale at $1200 or so and I considered it, just for the novelty of it, but then my wife suggested that it would also be quite novel to make the house payment on time.

F 

bob ward

Low volume alloy Twin H manifold repros are never going to be cheap. I dabble at home in aluminium casting from time to time, I can put some numbers to this from experience. 

If someone were to give me a set of usable Twin H moulds, core boxes etc I would be able to produce and sell raw Twin H castings for $150. To do the machining, fit carby studs etc, add another $100. To polish the manifold add another $200.

If I were to make the Twin H moulds, core boxes, jigs for machining etc I'd guesstimate 200 to 300 hours, amortising that over 40 castings adds another $200 to the cost of each manifold, all of which so far adds up to $650 per manifold. Plus packing plus shipping etc etc, which means my final selling price based on making 40 manifolds would be $700/$800 a piece.

Glowplug

Bob great price proposal workuo.

50C8DAN

Bob that is about where I was coming out on my estimate with Eck so good sanity check.  Not sure how many Hudson folks would spring for them at the $700 to $800 price.   I know I would but we would need like you said 40 or so.  I would like to see actually a few more than that. That is why I kind of backed off when numbers like $400 was proposed. As noted not going to happen at that price.

RL Chilton

I wouldn't drop it just yet.  When you posted original post, you did not specify exactly what "options" you might have.  I assumed we were talking about a raw casting.  Of course, polishing and machining would be considered "extras".  That way, your customer could choose to do that part themselves (as I would do), or pay to have it done before sending, if available.  

bob ward

I should emphasise that my price estimates are for a guy working from a home shop and selling direct to the end user. i.e. very low overheads and only one profit margin. Also, I'm definitely not touting for business.

There would be pluses and minuses if the manifolds and patterns were to be made commercially but the end result would be a higher price, maybe 25% to 50% higher

 A benefit is that the commercial guy will have much better gear and highly skilled staff and will be more efficient/quicker than the home guy at all aspects of the process, i.e. less hours in each part. The downside is that the commercials have serious overheads and their hourly rate is necessarily much higher than that of the home shop. 

Another downside is that 2 lots of margins are required - the commercial shop naturally has their margin, the HETer that takes on the considerable load of organising the whole project will also need a margin, HET altruism only goes so far. Not to mention that things can go wrong somewhere in the process, and despite the organiser's best efforts and intentions he can end up being the meat in the sandwich.

Glowplug

Bob you have hit my button! "HET altruism" a great expression, I have tried to come up with an all incompassimg saying and you have done it!