blue thunder intake

Dean,

any carb with the Holley bolt pattern & hole pattern, also called a "square bore" as opposed to a "spread bore", will bolt onto the Blue Tunder manifold: i.e. Barry Grant and Edelbrock (Carter).

The Blue Thunder is an absolutely great street manifold for the big port heads, good choice.

George Pence

just received the intake last week. since i'm in california and no longer need to smog the car. the blue thunder intake have a egr. could i block it off and dont use it or do blue thunder make one without the egr. another question is, what size carb is good with a stock engine?

I'm running the Blue Thunder. You can block off the EGR. I had a Holley 600 vacuum secondary carb which was adequate. I recently switched over to a Holley 600 double pumper with manual secondaries. The response is better and the car feels stronger. My motor is internally stock with just headers and a MSD ignition system.

know where i can get a egr block off plate? thanks dean

confuse. what should i use for carb spacer. open or 4 hole?

Dean,

use a 4 hole spacer. an open spacer would defeat the functionality of the divided plenum design of the bt manifold.

referring back to your earlier question, the bt manifold does not have egr, it has an exhaust cross-over to heat the manifold, which improves low rpm driveability, quickens cold start warm ups & reduces emissions. blocking the crossover will increase horsepower at the expense of low rpm driveability & cold start warm ups, which admittedly is not as much of a concern in orange county california as it is in wisconsin. by the way, horsepower will increase 1% for every 10 degrees F decrease in inlet air temp.

george

Dean,

I forgot to mention one caveat regarding using a carb spacer with the bt intake. the bt intake sits approx an inch higher than the oem intake, about the same height as an Edelbrock Torker. to make clearance for an air cleaner assembly below the engine compartment screen (without a carb spacer) when using the bt intake requires using the "dropped" air filter base from a late '60's big block Corvette or the T shaped air filter assembly sold by Edelbrock. if you add a spacer, you shall reduce the vertical clearance and may have to punch a hole in the engine screen to fit any air cleaner assembly.

George

george, the previous owner sold the weber carb that was on it. he had a custom made engine screen that have a hole for the weber. anything sticking out of it would look pretty nice i hope. i havent really play with my new toys yet but i'm suspecting i might have a problem locating where or how the exhaust cross-over work. i'm still waiting for more parts, when i get it i'm sure i'll be back here bug you for more answers.

Hi George, I cant find where the exhaust cross over is because my exhaust is wrapped. where is it located? thanks dean

if you look at the intake manifold flange on the heads (with the intake manifold removed) you'll find 4 large intake ports & 1 smaller port, smack dab in the middle. The smaller port routes exhaust gas to the intake manifold from one of the exhaust valve pockets in the head casting. the intake manifold also has a small port, which mates with the port in the head, that routes this exhaust gas under the manifold plenum to warm it up. there aren't any external connections to the exhaust, its all done within the head & intake manifold castings.

George

here is the picture of the intake and the small hole that look like an egr opening. lower center of the manifold

a heated air tube for the bimetal choke actuator of an Autolite carburetor goes in that there hole! You'll need to cap that hole off with the oem Ford part. I think Edelbrock also sells a cap for that hole, or you could fab one up yourself with a bit of aluminum flat stock.

George

thanks george. hopefully i should get it running in about a couple of weeks.

Good luck with your engine work. Check the carb adjustments before you bolt it on. After you bolt the carb on, make sure the throttle plates open all the way without hitting the manifold (you can do this with the manifold out of the car). Optimize the float settings and idle screw adjustments after start-up but before you take it on the road. Your new carb will most likely need some jet changing & accelerator pump adjustment to work optimally, so don't get discouraged if there's a flat spot or hesitation when you first take it for a run.

George