side draft webers
 

I am trying to locate a small block side draft weber intake and carbs for completion of Holman Moody ChallengerIII Falcon.Any leads would be greatly appreciated.

There are early pictures of the 260 XP Ford engine dressed with a set of 4 side draft Webers but I have never been able to find if they were mass produced. Moon makes this setup for SB Chevy. I'm interested too.

..........Rick

Can you make these work?????


ebay Item # 2401861679

body pix
 

Super cool body, tell me about it.
Jim
thecobraguy
jthomas427@sbcglobal.net

Circa 1995 there was a 289 Cobra (from Texas I think) with a very nice side draft set up at the Mid America meet. I think it has been converted to down drafts since. I don't remember the chassis number but Jim Wicks or Ned Scudder might be able to help. Maybe the owner still has the side draft set up.

The side draft Webers, which use the 48mm DCOE style carbs, were manufactured years ago by Mickey Thompson. Phil Remington, SAI Chief Engineer for SAI, hand built around four units, of which one was built exclusively for the 289; the others were for GM and were used on their 215 cid aluminum V-8 (testing purposes only). One unit used 58mm DCOE carbs.

It took Remington over 60 hours to make the Ford unit. To this day, he says that it was probably one of the most daunting pieces of fabrication he ever performed in his 60 yr. career. When I asked him why, he responded: "well.....you have to take square tubing and eventually progress it to a round shape". Pictures of the unit can be found in Pete Brock's book on the Cobra Daytona Coupe, although the picture in question might be a photo of the cross ram on a Chevrolet.

I once saw a piece of old SAI sales literature showing the completed cross ram and the brochure indicated it as "upcoming" option for potential Shelby buyers. No such luck. Remington said that, at the time, there was really no way to mass produce them and that is why he built the downdraft Weber intake. He said that the initial downdraft intake was made out of wood and sprayed with silver paint, photographed, and sent to FIA for acceptance. It passed with flying colors.

CSX2561...

Kinsler has a Chevy side draft FI settup . I think Wayne P has one too. Maybe you could get either of those 2 to fab one up.Might be enough demand in the Cobra biz to produce them en-mass. Easy with todays technology. (by the way, I got one of them Falcons for sale if anybody's looking)

Ron:

Thanks for the photos on CSX 2561. That car was the one used in the "Honey West" TV series with Anne Francis. It now belongs to Joyce Yates, a SAAC Director and long time Cobra enthusiast, who lives in Nashville, Indiana.

BM or sumbuddy used to make some manifold adapters that would bolt to a regular 4v manifold, so you could run 2 or 4 side drafts. You sure that car in the pic don't have them adapters?

Computerworks

Gee, do you have a picture or two of every Cobra? That's the engine bay my memory says it what I saw in 1995. How about CSX2144 circa 1971 up the street from me sitting on four flat tires or a damaged CSX2465 just over the hill circa 1972 for sale for something like $200.

Ford of France

Some place in my library there is a book or magazine (or both) that shows Phil's side draft handiwork on a Ford 260 engine on a test bed I think. I think Joyce's car is CSX2540???

If I remember correctly, Bill Carroll's book on the Cobra discusses the fact that the first Webers fitted to the Cobra at Shelby's were the side draft Webers. These were dropped in favor of the down draft Webers once they became available. I personally have seen no early authentic pictures of the side draft Weber setup that I can recall.

I would imagine that the side drafters would really make any type of valve adjustment and perhaps even spark plug changes more laborious and the heat off the headers would cook the venturi tubes.

In 1973 I went to the IMSA sports car races at Talladega (the days immediatley before the 500 Nascar race) as a crew member on a L88 powered (gulp!) Camaro. Bob Christenson (owner driver) was racing against among others Peter “Perfect” Gregg in his works Porsche and Charlie Kemp in his COBRA II. I recall two V-8 cars with Webers. Kemp with his 351 Cleveland using 48 IDA somethings and a Corvette (Ex Jobe I think) with side drafts. The Corvette had an aluminum headed 427 (Chevy of course) with a side draft Weber system that looked much like the prototype that Phil Remington made for that 260 Cobra engine except bigger. That means it also looked like the side draft system on Corvette Grand sports. The linkage sure was complicated looking. I think they were 58 mm carbs. That looked gigantic. That Corvette was one of the loudest cars there between the Webers and sewer size headers.

It rained during the main race. The Weberized cars did not do so well as the weather changed from sunny dry to southern down-pour. These guys were hitting upwards of 160 mph (on racing rain tires) in the driving rain!!!!!