I'll agree with you that there are far bigger gains to be obtained in other
areas, but for many folks those options aren't possible. Lots of people live
in areas where their car must pass a visual inspection under the hood, and a
set of SU's or such isn't possible then. Using the larger runner Stromberg
manifold, probably is. It may take some drilling to install the emissions
accouterments, but this is not a daunting task. This would be a sneak option;
ie, not truly legal, but not obvious either.
I am not sure about going to the bigger Stromberg, particularly with the small
runner manifold. With the larger runner, it is probably worth considering.
Though I know nothing about the availability of that size Stromberg in the
states, or its cost, as well as it's visual similarities to the plethora of
emissions controls stuck on the 150 Spitfires were equipped with. Although JB
Weld could fix that for an inspection (stuck on, non-functional). I also don't
know about the mounting flanges on the larger Stromberg and mating it up to the
150 Spitfire manifolds. One must be careful about having too many file marks
and suspiciously located welds going through a visual inspection.
While it's true that a single 1.75 Stromberg has about the same the flow as two
1.25 SU's based on hole size, the manifold used by the Stromberg is so bad that
I don't know if it could come close to matching the SU's. Log manifolds like
that were fast fading away in the 1950's. True, one could spend time inside
that Stromberg manifold installing curves and splitters to make it actually
flow, but that's getting into the absurd level. I've long suspected that half
the performance increase of going to SU's has to do with the manifold itself.
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