The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The HiPo Shop 1958 Apache intake manifold

Hello everyone, my question this evening is, does anybody know if they make a tri carburetor intake manifold for a 1958 Chevy Apache with a 235?

S

Speedway and others sell the Offenhauser 3-carb 235/261 intake (and the 216 and earlier 235 3-carb intake)

All day long on EBAY. 2 carb and 3 carb set ups.

Cool, thank you. anything special I need to be looking for?

The most practical thing to look for is a prominent place above your work bench to proudly display it.
They are awesome eye candy, but they are said to be difficult to synchronize, and unless you do significant performance modifications to the engine (camshaft change, dual exhaust), you will not see any significant improvement in performance.
If you do a cam change to match the 3-carb setup, you will have to increase the idle significantly to keep it idling, and you won't realize the increase in performance until you reach the upper RPM limit of engine. You will also be lucky not to have dead spots on the way to upper RPM limit while under load.
These engines were designed for high torque at low RPMs.
You can always put the 3 carb setup on and only have the center carb hooked up. If someone picks it off, just tell them you only hook up all three on race day.
Carl

One thing that will be an issue is clearance for the rear carb on a 3 carb setup. On the '55 2nd to '59 trucks, the clearance is very tight against the firewall.

Ditto on the two dummy carbs on the ends. Make an airtight plug that fits the manifold under both outer carbs, go ahead and rig convincing-looking throttle linkage on all three, and run fake fuel lines to the outboard carbs. You will impress the tire kickers at the car show, and you won't burn down your ride from flooding and backfires caused by over-carbureting the engine.
Jerry

I would love to see pics of this after you get it set up!

Everyone assumes you will be running 3 huge Rochesters or Carters, there is nothing in the rule book to say you can't use 3 smaller carbs like the performance versions of many European 6 cylinder cars did, if you size and jet the carbs right it will give you a nice even mixture distribution and a smooth running motor.
Possibles are VW Beetle Solex carbs, these have adjustable main jets available and a good choice of rebuilt examples, Weber 34ICH, SU's on a right angle adapter. Jeep 4 cylinder carter carbs which is a smaller version of the Chevy 6.
Dare to be different!