Assuming I can find someone who welds aluminum, what are
the pros and cons of using 1.5 aluminum B18 intake manifolds
with 3 carbs and a custom made linkage?

As far as I can see:

It would look cool
it would allow me to use fuel injected exhaust manifolds
it may breath better

it would be more annoying to tune
it may not work at all

I've heard of 3 webers on these cars (and I think that
kgtrimning has a manifold) but I like SUs and dislike
webers, and I've already got spare SU sets sitting around.

An alternative would be to weld up something to an
existing FI manifold to adapt it for use with carbs.

This has been sort of discussed before but I don't remember
any distinct conclusions.
chris

My 22 cents: Because of the draft characteristics of the firing order I would go with 1 carb per cylinder. You could use motorcycle carbs. With that setup you would have the possibility of awesome power (especially with slide carbs) and I would always get you home (what are the chances that all the carbs would fail at once?). Pretty stupid sounding I know, but it's late and I should go to bed....I have seen this set up on some british car (austin healy I think)....yawn....hmmmph...........
--
patrick of montreal, '66/120, '83/245.

I understand that there are a few 3-carb sidedraft manifolds around.
I have seen a couple different 3-carb downdraft manifolds for the
B30, in fact I have one, but have not installed it for a number of
reasons, the main one being it is running GREAT with the stock
manifold now. There is also a problem of interference between the
front exhaust (FI) manifold and one of the loops on the intake
manifold. BTW this is not ideal port timing because of the firing
order of the B30. An ideal hookup would be with cylinders 1 and 6
together, 2 and 5 together, 3 and 4 together. Would be hard to do in
real space with equal length runners.

Some of the old-time Chevy 6 racers used to put an Amal carb on
each cylinder. The Amals were sort of like an SU except the piston
was the throttle and not operated by vacuum. There was no separate
butterfly.
--
George Downs Bartlesville, Oklahoma

Man...I had been thinking of the exact same thing for years and years...a 3 carb 162 actually. And after my recent 164 purchase which I thought had a screwed up FI system, I thought I had my candidate for the car. Simple...just cut one B18 manifold between cylinder 3 and 4 on, and between cylinder 1 and 2 on the other...right down the middle of one of the carbs, then have 'em welded together, machined down to smooth...and voila...triple SUs on a 164.

After looking at a spare 164 carb manifold next to a pair of B18 manifods, it was obvious that Pete is absolutely right. The spacing is totally off on the B18 head, and it won't work. I ain't done thinking about it yet....I'd love to have triple SUs on a B30, but that ain't the way its going to happen. Let me know if you figure anything out...

Oh, and by the way...did you ever get your driveshaft issue sorted out? I found a short front peice of a 164 overdrive driveshaft. Let me know if you want it. matt@metricsucks.com

-Matt

I've been trapped under a big pile of smelly work for
the past week. I also had one of my toolboxes stolen.
And I've got a growing list of things I need to check
on my car, like that sometimes seems like it is running on
only 4-5 cylinders when I start up (and when it does
finally catch on all 6, it farts a little black smoke).


As far as the M410 -- I'd love to have the short piece
of the driveshaft. I still haven't fixed a shipping
method from Co (from justin) so maybe you could just
toss it onto the pallet with the rest of the trans stuff.
How much would you want for it? Also do you have a
crossmember for an overdrive trans?

Lastly there is a guy in australia on the yahoo
140/160 group who said that he installed a celica 5 speed
transmission into his 164 to replace his M400. I think
I'd rather use an M410 but judging from their rarity
maybe a celica box is a worthwile alternative when
going from slushbox to something usable.

Anyhow, let me know about the driveshaft. My email
is chris-volvo(at)tinker(dot)ucr(dot)edu

chris

I'll get back to you via email regarding the driveshaft...

As for the Celica (or would it be a Supra) 5 speed...I expect that would be a real good option, but a lot of work. I've not heard of it with Volvos, but using the Toyota gearbox has been a fairly popular conversion in the Jaguar circles as an alternative to the old XK 4 speed crash boxes. Surely it would be up to the B30 power...moreso than the M400/410 anyhow. Some of them Jag folks are running upwards of 300 hp or more..

I personally don't mind either the M410 or the Jag gearbox...but I would definitely consider the conversion for the Jag considering the astronomical prices for a used non-sincro XK120 tranny. Ouch!

Talk to you soon.
-Matt

Chris,

You can't do that, the port spacing/order is different between a B18/20 and a B30.

At least not by simply frafting 2 manifolds together, at the very least youd have to chop it up into lots of litte pieces.

Regards

Pete

What about using a FI manifold with the runners
cut down to where the carb would fit inside the
motor bay, then weld on a box that has 2 runners
on the motor side and a place to mount the carb
on the other side? Put 3 such boxes on and then
rig up some linkages?

Something like


turns into


(pictures not to scale...)

chris

Might work, never seriously looked at modding and EFI manifold. You ought to have a balance pipe linking the three carbs as per B18 manifold. I do think you'd end up with a lot of sudden changes of direction and sharp edges, they really kill performance.

Regards



Pete

A clever machinist can do about anything. Sounds like a neat project. Do recall that Austin Healey built a three SU 3000. For about six months. I can tell you from first hand experince that tuning three of them is tougher than two. After all, most of us only have two ears...

Some Jaguars (mark X & what else?) used two HS8's or hd8's. As did one year of Rover 2000tc. Some porting internally as per David Vizard spec and some rampipes and you'd have tons of CFM. I realize that that may be hopes of using the FI exhausts and also to gain some tuning by (partially) isolating cylinders, but when I mentioned a 3588cc b30 possibility on my web page, I was thinking maybe HS8's.