Aluminum manifold on 1966 390

[Guest]

Good Evening,

I recently pulled my 1966 Bird out of the barn after over 30 years of procrastinating... Needless to say, the motor was seized. I have it being rebuilt right now, but am considering an aluminum intake manifold. My question is the stock manifold has two ports for vacuum, and what I find on e-bay only has 1. Can I plumb around this, or does the car need the additional vacuum to operate all the accessories. Any suggestions on a good (but inexpensive ....since I am way over budget now) aluminum manifold? Thanks.

[RustyNCa]

Good Evening,

I recently pulled my 1966 Bird out of the barn after over 30 years of procrastinating... Needless to say, the motor was seized. I have it being rebuilt right now, but am considering an aluminum intake manifold. My question is the stock manifold has two ports for vacuum, and what I find on e-bay only has 1. Can I plumb around this, or does the car need the additional vacuum to operate all the accessories. Any suggestions on a good (but inexpensive ....since I am way over budget now) aluminum manifold? Thanks.

I'd say just pick up an Edelbrock Performer RPM intake if your not worried about running the factory boat anchor of an intake.

[jopizz]

Good Evening,

I recently pulled my 1966 Bird out of the barn after over 30 years of procrastinating... Needless to say, the motor was seized. I have it being rebuilt right now, but am considering an aluminum intake manifold. My question is the stock manifold has two ports for vacuum, and what I find on e-bay only has 1. Can I plumb around this, or does the car need the additional vacuum to operate all the accessories. Any suggestions on a good (but inexpensive ....since I am way over budget now) aluminum manifold? Thanks.

You can buy a two or three port adapter if you need more vacuum ports. If you are going with a newer carburetor like an Edelbrock it will have extra vacuum ports you can also use. The Edelbrock performer is the only 390 manifold that's still made I believe.

John

[simplyconnected]

...Any suggestions on a good (but inexpensive ....since I am way over budget now) aluminum manifold? Thanks.

Restoring old cars is anything but inexpensive.
If you have the engine out and are properly overhauling it, I suggest you buy a pair of aluminum heads and a matching aluminum intake manifold. Edelbrock is the only company that makes them (that I know of) and they only fit 390's and up.

Ford made fifty different heads for FEs and as many manifolds. Getting old parts to fit is sometimes a challenge unless you get them in sets. - Dave

[cdhowell]

Blue Thunder makes aluminum heads and intake. As well as Survival motorsports for heads.

[Guest]

Thanks for the info gents. Aluminum heads are on the wishlist, but not on the budget list! My main concern was if I would have enough vacuum to run all the vacuum accessories on the car with just the one vacuum port on the manifold.

[WC145]

I'd say just pick up an Edelbrock Performer RPM intake if your not worried about running the factory boat anchor of an intake.

I put an Edelbrock Performer RPM on my '66 last spring. I reused the vacuum attachments from my old manifold, just unscrewed them from the old one, cleaned them up and screwed them into the new one using a little thread sealer. I had to get a new brass fittings for the coolant line and the temp sensor. I'll try to get out to the garage later and take a picture.

[RustyNCa]

Thanks for the info gents. Aluminum heads are on the wishlist, but not on the budget list! My main concern was if I would have enough vacuum to run all the vacuum accessories on the car with just the one vacuum port on the manifold.

You should be fine unless you are looking for ported vacuum. The vacuum doesn't know where it can from, just that it is there.....

Just one a good t or y for the lines.

[Guest]

WC, some pics would be very helpful! Thanks.

[WC145]

Sorry this has taken me so long to repost. The brass fitting you can see that has two ports on top came off the old manifold, the vacuum line to the power brake booster and the one that goes through the firewall on the passenger side run off of it. The distributor vacuum advance runs off a port on the front of the carb and the PCV hose and a smaller vacuum line that runs to the vacuum canister both plug into ports on the back of the carb.

Oh yeah, there aren't any inexpensive aluminum intakes for these things. My Performer RPM was around $370. I think you can get the regular Performer, which is basically an aluminum version of the original, for about $335

[Guest]

Very helpful! Thanks!