Intake Manifold Rule
 

Rule book states:

INTAKE MANIFOLD
Must retain the unaltered stock manifold, consistent with year and
engine horsepower claimed. Grinding, sandblasting, or any other
modification to manifold prohibited. Any film coating inside
manifold prohibited. Runners and plenum must retain OEM
appearance. Final acceptance at the discretion of the NHRA
Technical Services Department.

I know it is common practice with Pontiac intakes to separate the coolant crossover from the intake, to allow a better intake to port alignment. Is this practice used in Stock Eliminator?

Also, is the modification restriction only apply to the actual intake ports? Or can one modify cooling passages?

Rick Thomason
GTOMayhem

Re: Intake Manifold Rule
 

INTAKE MANIFOLD
Must retain the unaltered stock manifold, consistent with year and
engine horsepower claimed.

This says it all . I would not try to pass tech with the coolant crossover cut off the manifold .

Re: Intake Manifold Rule
 

What about blocking the small exhaust holes under the front of a quadrajet on the 67 only Pontiac intake?

Re: Intake Manifold Rule
 

You can do that by getting a different carb gasket . So there won't be any modification to the manifold . Those passages probably don't do much if you filled the exhaust crossover ports in the cylinder head , which is a legal modification .

Re: Intake Manifold Rule
 

Work to align the intake ports; the water passage will take care of itself. People have been racing Pontiacs in Stock Eliminator for over 50 years and I do not think any slight misalignment of water passages in the intake manifold has ever been an issue.

Re: Intake Manifold Rule
 

Fill the exhaust crossover in the heads. Do away with the water pump o ring to manifold (grind it down and put a pipe plug in). This will allow you to shift the intake back and forth to align the ports. Ron.

Re: Intake Manifold Rule
 

So, you block it off with a pipe plug in the timing cover and another in the manifold? If so, then in general(not Pontiac V-8 specific) you could use a pipe plug to plug any hole, such as a coolant passage, in any intake manifold?

Rick Thomason
GTOMayhem

Re: Intake Manifold Rule
 

Not sure where you're going with this, Rick.
You can block off heater ports on an intake.
Also , you can block off w/p bypasses with a plug . Of course, it can be done at the thermostat housing (i.e. Olds, BBC) or at the water pump or block..(SBC).

Re: Intake Manifold Rule
 

Old school ideas persist. Sure, some are ok, but after having to test everything Pete McCarthy and other known back yard specialist ever said I found out 98% of what they shared was home grown myths. Which is understandable.

But, I want equal heat in the chambers. You do too. A hole only the size of .100 thou will transfer enough water to get the job done. I'll hazard a guess my offset from the Xover to the timing cover is as big as anything you've seen. It retains the o-ring and carefully placed RTV. Mine is S/S so I can separate the X over.

Works on the S/S baddest Pontiac engine combination on the planet. Why wouldn't it work for you.

And you don't have all that fussing drilling and tapping and probably some grinding.

Won't be long. NHRA will allow Stockers to cut off the X over. Bet?

Re: Intake Manifold Rule
 

Thanks for everyone's input. The knowledge base here is second to none. Those of us that are new to Stock Eliminator ask some unusual questions sometimes, but we always get answers. Not always the ones we expect or even what we thought we already knew. Sometimes the answers bring even more questions.

Mark you have a PM.

Rick Thomason
GTOMayhem