VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER Chevrolet Speedsters Replacing Stove Pipe

During the build of my '28 speedster I replaced the cast iron manifold with a couple of straight pipes. Looks great but created another problem, I had to eliminated the stove pipe and the flex pipe back to the carb intake.

I noticed that the speedster is sluggish when running and the intake manifold is cold to the touch while my '28 truck intake (with stove pipe) is nice and warm like it supposed to be. I seen that other speedsters have modified the intake manifold by adding a tube so that the engine water provides heat to the manifold. This seems harder since i would have to capture water under pressure to run through the manifold then back to the cooling system.

Has any one ever considered wrapping the intake manifold with copper tubing and using oil from the filter going back to the engine block as a source of heat?

I figured that it could service two purposes 1) warm up the air like the stove pipe 2) reduce the heat of the oil like a engine cooler.

Mike
In your situation look at how the truck is setup and try to replicate it. I realize you have made changes to the exhaust but the stove pipe only collected air that was heated as it came past the exhaust manifold so wont be hard to copy on that end but I dont know what happens on the carburettor end.
Tony

Lots of early carbs had a fitting on the front of the air intake that was attached to a heat pipe coming from a "heat stove" (piece of sheet metal around the exhaust). The fitting had an exterior sleeve that could be rotated, revealing slots beneath the sleeve. The sleeve would be closed for winter driving (heated air) and open for summer driving (fresh air).

The atomization of fuel is an endothermic process (requires heat). The richer the mixture, the more head required. The heat will be drawn from whatever surrounds the atomizing fuel (air, metal, etc.). Icing can occur if insufficient heat is provided.

Jon.

George Childs told me that once, many years ago, he ran Lurch's engine without the flex heat tube attached. The carb frosted over and the engine eventually died.

Since the hot air is meant to go into the carb, I don't think 'heating up' the intake manifold will be good enough. The carb was designed to atomize fuel into hot air.

One solution that I can think of is to make a stove pipe that is cut in half and can be clamped around one of the exhaust pipes under the car and then run a flex heat tube (you might need two spliced together to reach) from the stove pipe to the air inlet of the carb.

Don't forget to incorporate an air filter of some sort. You certainly don't want to suck dusty, dirty, gritty air from under the car into your engine.

Let us know what you end up with.

Cheers, Dean

Was at a car show today and saw a beautiful 1928 speedster. I noticed an interesting intake manifold. The owner had formed and welded a rectangular box around the original intake manifold and piped hot water through it. I'm sure that would solve your problem.


On my 1928 4 port dirt track sprint car I run an aluminum down draft intake and a Winfield no icing issue no matter how hard I push it.


just sayin'


brasscarguy