Inliners International Forums General Discussion Engines Howard Intake

I am planning on running three Holley 94's progressively on a Howard five carb intake. From what I've read, I need to apply some heat (hot water) to the intake.
Should I, 1) attach 5/8" thick hollow aluminum blocks to the bottom of the intake & run water through them, or 2) drill the intake and run a length of 1/2" copper tubing inside it?

I'm open to any ideas,
Rickf

Rickf,
I've seen it done both ways. But you can purchase a kit for a water heater from Langdon's for a very reasonable price and it should work for you. Call Tom Langdon and mention Inliners and he'll help you.
Normbc9

Rickf,

Are you using one of the original Howard manifolds or one like Patrick's? it seems that even with manifold heat, much of the unvaporized fuel from the 1, 3, or 5 carburetors will run right down the runners into the head, where it will probably be vaporized. The reason for heating a stock manifold or a two-carb manifold is to provide a hot surface on the manifold lower surface to boil off the liquid fuel, especially when the manifold pressure is low (vacuum is high). If progressive linkage is used so that the carburetor above the center port is active for normal operation, the forward and aft ports may be getting less fuel than the center port, even with manifold heat.

Another approach would be to use Tom Langdon's progressive C/W or H/W carburetors with all three carbs linked together, and without manifold heat.

another approach would be to just run the 2 and 4 carb positions on the Howard manifold, with manifold heat under the carbs, with or without progressive linkage.

If you want to run more than two carbs, run 2 and 4, with heat, as the primaries and then kick in 1, 3, and 5 as the secondaries. That is how I now have my 5-carb Wayne manifold set up.

As Norm suggested call Tom Langdon and/or Patrick Dykes.

A similar question came up on the Stovebolt Forum. You might want to contact "bigbadswingdaddy" to see what he did.

There a lot of possibilities.

I agree, running only #3 as the primary (out of 3 on line, 2 dead holes) is going to favor the center port.
I haven't examined a Howard myself, but based on the descriptions and photographs there was no serious attempt to equalize mixture distribution in most multi-carb log manifolda. The manifolds were basically just plumbing fittings, with constant ID, no taper, and no internal dams etc. to bias fuel flow. Aftermarket manifolds were, IMHO, pretty crude with improved WOT power as the only target until perhaps 1960. There was no commercial attempt to use plenum volume until the SBC injected motor in 1957, and the Ridgerunner (1962?), and no tuned lengths until the B & RB Commandos in 1960 and the Hyper-Pak. Even the factory stuff needed some help - Chrysler published many diagrams on how to re-dedicate mixture flow in the manifolds.
Using # 2 & 4 is going to be closer to what you want for normal use, and progressive (staged) carbs even better.