Piece of Nailhead History?? Factory test intake??

I was reading an article from a 1970 HOT ROD May issue on Buick engine's and they showed a 455 with this type on intake on it, the article states that the air box with tube runners is a development tool for calculating best intake manifold shape & runner length. I bought a 401 engine that had this intake on it a couple years ago. Does anyone have info that they could share about this intake??

 

Cool, looks like it's going to walk away, or jump.

 

Picture of when it was installed on engine

 

Are the exhaust ports on the heads "D" shaped or round or oval ?

Bill

 

I think that the factory could do better than that for a test intake....
with no heat to it it would run like a dog,,, and add to that the cat pee we get for gas now days,,,, nope....

I would think that a channeled box would be the way a factory test intake would be... smoother curves ect.... sq. corners dont work good flowing air.... the factory engineers know this already....
I already considered a design like that and rejected it and I am dumber than a home made brick when compared to a factory engineer..... :laugh:

 

marine intake?

 

I've seen something similar on eBay in Oct 2012, it was homemade. Maybe I saved a pic somewhere.

Here's the experimental 455 intake Buick used for R&D:
http://www.stage1registry.com/articles/Hot Rod 1970 Page 2.jpg


Maybe you've seen the experimental intakes for the Nailheads, they were cast aluminum.
http://www.v8buick.com/showthread.p...ld-Aluminum-Factory&highlight=nailhead+intake

 

And some fabricated square-tube tunnel-ram intakes:
http://www.v8buick.com/showthread.php?124532-Nailhead-Tunnel-Ram&highlight=nailhead+intake

 

That looks like one of them pre fab kits you could buy on e-bay a few years back. Looks cool. It does look like it might walk away or bite you :TU:

P.s. I would love to know how it works

 

:laugh: That's funny!

Definitely looks homemade.

 

The ports are round, I was told by the previous owner that this engine and intake was use in an old ford drag car, so it might be a home made vintage piece, it might be good for a rat rod...

 

It's cool looking as hell but I really doubt it was an Engineering project.
It would never fit under any production hoods.
Why would the Buick engineers be playing with what basically is a Tunnel Ram.
The Nailhead is NOT a high rpm engine.
Still it is a COOL Intake and if I owned it I'd Run it!