Alexander manifold help

[Guest Deb]

My dad has researched himself into a stand still trying to find out what this Alexander manifold was meant for.

He can find pictures of the outer manifold, but not as a twin carb set up.

Can anyone help?

 

[MrDuke]

Could it have been a custom, or limited-run job? Maybe for a 7-port A-series head, or similar?

 

In any case, it's absolutely gorgeous. If he can't find a practical use for it, he could polish it up for an awesome piece of artwork.

[michael1703]

Those carbs look 1958 ish, seems quite a depth to the set up, look like a or b series flanges

 

early mini?

[twitcherman]

Didn't they do tuning bits fro Austin A30/A35?

[twitcherman]

Found this, A30, i.e. early A-series, seems likely:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turner_Sports_Cars

[Inspector Morose]

Seems Alexander did manifolds for the Hillman Minx and Alpine too. I'll plump for Minx.

[DSdriver]

Try it on a Sunbeam Rapier. Those were the days when you could put twin carbs on virtually any car and go and win the Monte Carlo Rally.

[cros]

That would never ice up!

[seth]

That is definitely one of the best inlet manifolds I've seen today.

 

Port spacing doesn't look right for an iron head Rootes engine, which they all were until '59, but might suit an aluminium head but Rapiers and Alpines were all twin carbed anyway (downdraught Solex).  This carbs also look quite small, H2s maybe? So only 1 1/4" butterflies?  Small I'd say for an alloy headed Rootes engine.

 

This link is heavily A series biased but there might be some useful leads though I didn't find anything.

 

http://mk1-performance-conversions.co.uk/alex_brochures.htm

[Inspector Morose]

Bugger me! They made their own heads as well!

That's the beauty of this place. Post some obscure bits and there's a wealth of knowledge of the sublime to the obscure from people around the globe who will spend all night trying to identify it just for the challenge!

[Squire_Dawson]

I'd hazard a guess at early Morris Minor. They're much sought after, but those early SU carbs are pure dog shit.

[mercrocker]

Not going to fit easily under a Minor bonnet, certainly not an OHV one and deffo not a Mini one!   Surely those fins are meant for something out in the breeze, or with a big gob....

[doobietoo]

Not going to fit easily under a Minor bonnet, certainly not an OHV one and deffo not a Mini one!   Surely those fins are meant for something out in the breeze, or with a big gob....

 

Or at the back.....

[sheffcortinacentre]

my mate has a triple su one to fit the mk1-3 zodiac & has seen them for the 105E prexflow ford & triumph/standard engs.

[Ronnie L]

The manifold is for an engine with four inlet ports. This rules-out the Morris Minor side-valve engine and all the A series units. It also rules-out the side-valve Fords for the same reason. The carbs look like 1950's vintage so this probably rules-out the later OHV engine fitted to the Anglia and 60's Fords. The deep cast fins were there to reduce the temperature of the inlet air, a bit like a simple inter-cooler. It's interesting to see the way the carbs are at different heights and off-set to the left - presumably to make them more compact and fit into a restricted space.

[forddeliveryboy]

Triumph of some sort, perhaps a Spitfire?

[Timewaster]

D'oh I recognise the Fox head pattern flange from years of selling gaskets but for the life of me I can't remember what it is.

If only I had a payen catalogue.

 

I want to say X flow Escort.

[mercrocker]

Anyone familiar enough with Standard Eight or Tens?   Spacings look about right but that's only a layman view.   Alexander did a kit for those with the twin SUs placed like this one.

[seth]

Anyone familiar enough with Standard Eight or Tens?   Spacings look about right but that's only a layman view.   Alexander did a kit for those with the twin SUs placed like this one.

 

Siamese port  - as were the Herald 948 and 1200 engines.

 

I'm struggling to think of many 4 inlet port 'cooking' engines of the '50s /early 60s that would have been numerous enough to make manufacturing this set up worth while.  Doesn't match Cov Climax, MG XPAG either. The Rootes ally head seems to be the only one I've so far come across that has the centre inlet ports together and the outer ones apart.

[michael1703]

Now I think of it, i restored a sunbeam alpine last year and it has the same mounting.

 

The central hole has a massive stud which is about 5 inches long and about 5/16th thread and then the flanges are held to the head by a shared stud with the exhaust manifold which has a stepped spacer which half lap holds each manifold

 

Also the carbs are on the near side so the staggering of the carb would keep it away from the wheelarch and strut brace

[nigel bickle]

I have an Alexander manifold on one of my Standard Pennants, but the 2 SU's are evenly spaced..

 

I'll try to get some pics when next back

[fordperv]

I don't know what it fits, i do know it's lovely looking

[Ronnie L]

Yes it's a truly lovely piece of engineering. A work of art in its own right. It's a testimony to Alexander Engineering's design and manufacturing prowess back in the 50's. 

However, the fact that it's a complicated and sophisticated design / casting suggests that it was expensive to produce and to buy. I think this indicates that it was for a very specific application - a vehicle for which no other twin-carb set-up was available. It would never have been worth making this for an engine for which a twin-carb set-up was already available as original equipment eg Rootes, BMC and Standard - Triumph, unless of course this design of this manifold was hugely superior to the mass-produced versions from the car makers. 

This really is a beautiful piece of kit.

[jonny69]

As said, it's not for a Ford Sidevalve because it has two inlet ports and the spacing is wrong for the Anglia/Cortina pre-crossflow and Escort crossflow, nor Pinto. Definitely none of the Fords.

 

Nice manifold though.

 

Edit: Don't rule out that it could have been for an OHV conversion head for any of the old sidevalves.

 

Edit 2: To my eye, it looks like British engineering - I'm not sure it'll be for an American OHV conversion because they tended to go more for the log style manifolds and didn't tend to use SU carbs. And the port spacing makes that a tiny engine...

[doobietoo]

Alexander made heads too

[John F]

Does this help at all?

 

http://www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/march-1964/72/alexander-conversions

 

[Ronnie L]

It's definitely for a very small 4 cylinder engine. I reckon that's why they had to put the carbs at different heights in order to squeeze them together as closely as possible. 

[brickwall]

One of the Turner sports cars?

[Squire_Dawson]

Just doing a bit of lateral thinking here. Reading Barrett's thread about his Austin 7 Special, could it be one of the aftermarket kits offered for an A7? They were very popular in motorsport of the time, and often got turned into specials, as we can see.

[John F]

It's an aftermarket kit.

 

The link I posted is a .pdf of a comtemporary magazine detailing which cars the kit was available for (click on "full size" to see the actual page rather than the OCR scan).

 

Interestingly, the advert for the '58 Sunbeam Rapier on the same page mentions that it's had an Alexander conversion. This suggests it might have been a fairly common mod at the time.