Ok, I have a 350 chevy with an Edelbrock Performer RPM Air Gap manifold that has both front and rear water outlets. I used a 1/2 NPT to -8AN straight fitting in the front to a fast flow 90 degree fitting with stainless steel braided hose. The rear water outlet has a 3/8 NPT to-8AN straight fitting to a fast flow fitting and they are connected with the above mentioned stainless hose. Now my problem lies with the MSD street pro billet distributor because it has vacuum advance. I know that the vacuum advance canister is supposed to be on the passenger side of the engine, with the canister facing towards the corner of the right front fender. However, with the distributor in that position, the canister is hitting the rear water outlet fitting, and is not allowing the distributor to fully seat in the manifold. How do I get around this without losing the 4 corner cooling? It will be a street driven car, and for mileage purposes, the vacuum advance would be nice to have and I don't really want to lose that either. I want to drop the motor in the car tomorrow, but now I cant cause of this and unfortunately, I have a time constraint. Can anyone please help , I beg of you. Any suggestions/opinions will be seriously considered. Thanks, Paul Moore

 

Why do you want 4 corner cooling?

 

I am using it because it makes more HP and TQ, it's a fact! One of the guys that I work with was a hot rodder in the 60's all the way up to a couple of yers ago. He started out with small blocks and then went to Big block when he got his 70 Chevelle SS. Anyway, back then the manifolds didn't come with the rear water outlets so they used to drill a hole in the manifold and then tap it. He told me one time that they put an engine on the dyno without the water crossover, and with it on, the engine made an extra 8 HP and 12TQ! After a few more engine were built and tuned using this method, they found out that the average gain was in the range of 5-8HP and 9-14TQ, not bad for some fittings and braided hose. The coolant flow to the rear heads allows the rear 4 cylinders to remain cooler, prevent hot spots, and more efficiently control carb metering/air fuel mixture. Depending on what carb you have, it can help in the tuning process as well.

 

the vac. advance can doesn't have to be there, you just need to turn the dist. and move the wires over one terminal

 

Most, if not all of the guys I know doing this use -6 lines. Going down 1 size may give you the extra room you need. Also, i dont know how the stores are in your area, but sometimes the same size fitting has different dimensions depending on the manufactuer, so if your dead set on running -8, check the fittings next to each other from different manufacturers-you may get lucky.

If your want to get really hard core with this cooling issue, you need to drill/tap in fittings between cylinders 3/5 & 2/4. This is where cooling really needs to be addressed since they're side by side firing closely together.

 

Trust me, IHI, I have already though about doing this numerous times. I know that that is probably the WORST area on the small blocks for hot spots and warpage because the exhaut ports are sooo close to each other unlike the big blocks. However, I am EXTREMELY hesitant to drill into my brand new $1000 Edelbrock aluminum heads, and I'm not going to pay someone to do this for me. If you don't drill in the right spot and exactly the right angle, then your heads will be nothing more than really expensive paper weights.

 

LOL, that's why mine are'nt done that way. I'd let a shop do it if I ever get really ambitious or have nothing else to do

 

Yeah, when I was originally thinking about doing that, I found alot of the info in the Chevrolet Power book. It's amazing the info that they hide in there so you really have to read every page. Anyhow, I was going to use one of Jeg's pieces to do it, let me see if I can find it....

http://www.jegs.com/cgi-bin/ncommerc...?prrfnbr=36014

I believe that's it. It is supposed to go under the thermostat housing and run to your heads. At first I though "my heads already have 2 threaded holes on each side"(where the senders/sensors would go) and figured that I would use them, but after I talked to the guys at Jeg's they told me that I had to drill and tap the heads like you said between 3/5 and 4/6 and I was like, I don't think so.

 

I've got that same spacer with the rad cap on it, ordered my radiator without a cap so i could put the cap at highest point.
I'm running a Vic Jr. right now since I got it cheap ($35) so the rear bypass holes on the intake are not an option right now for me. At a minimum I'm going to get a Super Vic, but am really leaning towards the Brodix. I'm either gonna pay to have the intake smothed and ported by local guys, or just spend the extra money up front and bolt it on. But then I'll have the 4 corner cooling.

When I pull htis motor to install a bigger shortblock I'm going to have the heads massaged for every last bit of cfm possible and while they're at it, have them drill/tap the hole so I can use this feature since the intake has it's own 4 port bypass holes, I can use my spacer holes to flow to the heads. At least if they screw them up they can fix it Best thing about aluminum heads I say!!!

Only problem I can forsee is the pita factor of routing the lines, they'll have to shoot back towards the front of the motor so i can route them under the headers and into the heads, only way I can see doing it so removing the valvecovers for lash adjustment would not be a problem.