Inliners International Forums General Discussion Hi Performance need advice heating my clifford intake

My Clifford 4 BBL manifold is heated with exhaust. Really easy and works fine.

I have heard that the Offy and Clifford intakes where never intended to be water heated because of potential porosity issues and water seepage into the internal plenum area, especially when pressurized. And exhaust heated was the preferred method these manufacturers recommended.

That's not completely true.
The Offy was intended to be a exhaust heated intake. I have prepared many of them for water heat and run one myself. Simply pull the steel staked plugs out of the bottom and weld aluminum plugs to seals the holes. Make or buy a plate to seal the bottom and run water thru it.
The oldest cliffords had either No heat or used exhaust heat, the more modern Cliffords are designed for true water passage flow. Although, I have heard complaints of some leaking.

Ok, maybe it was the older design that had the issues I had heard about. I knew the Offy's were intended for exhaust heating and thought the Cliffords were also at the beginning back in the 60's.

You can go even easier: I used epoxy to seal the plugs that came on my Offy. No problems so far.

I got my manifold from Clifford but it has no name on it. I heard at that time the mid '70s, that they were going through some changes and that Offenhauser was doing their manifolds. Mine was cast for exhaust heat from a stock manifold so they sent a plate that didn't fit. I returned it and they welded the plate on and sent it to me. Not a lot of choices back then for GMC stuff especially a GMC 4bbl intake. I thought it would be cool but I was wrong.

Stan,
Here is a couple examples of thermostat housings and one example of a housing with threads on the top for a return.

Wow Tom thanks a bunch! I think I have seen about 8-10 variations of these housings!
So If my understanding is correct, you would definitely not want your return from the manifold going into the top port of the housing like the top pic, because it is above the Tstat. Correct?

In the lower pic you could use either the top or bottom port because they are below the Tstat. Correct?

The housing I have looks similar to the bottom one you are showing only my ports are on the passenger side. Remember I have the correct 292 pump with the big bypass hose on the drivers side.

I think what I am going to do is pick up my supply from the drain plug as you recommended. Then return it into the lower port in my housing (the one you have your thumb on).

I am still confused as to why I cannot put this spacer http://www.summitracing.com/parts/vta-706001-vcq under the top hat and use the supplied port for the return from the manifold. From the pic it looks as if the Tstat sits on top of the spacer and the inlet port would be below. What am I missing here?

I think I have at least 8 variety's!

Mine is ran to the bottom of the T-stat and works perfectly. Run many thousands of miles that way.

Well I guess I did it right.
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Wow, I like that look! Is that standard 3/8" fuel line hose and fittings?

Yes, very clean indeed. ..I like it.👍

Did you figure it out? Looks like an interesting way to get the water out. I'm interested because i'll be plumbing the water soon to my offy intake.

BTW I used liquid metal to seal the plugs on the offy. Hope it holds.

That'll hold. That's what I did.