porting a SPICA manifold

[estorhok@xxxxxxxx]

Any SPICA owners out there try porting their manifolds??  This past weekend,
I did on my car...  A little background- my '73 GTV was getting a little 
tired, and blowing smoke, so a complete rebuild was in order, and not a 
plain, ordinary one...  AROC Detroit is part of a council of clubs here in
Detroit, and we have some rule for autocrossing, so there are rules which
define what a stock motor is:  largest standard overbore- new pistons and
liners for me, ballance and blueprint allowed, ports may be matched- but
not more than 1 in from the port/ manifold interface, and the rest stock.	

On mine, I'm doing the "40" over pistons/liners (mine were BADLY scuffed), and
ballancing the crank/flywheel assy, drilling the 2nd and 4th main to deliver
oil directly to the bearing to make the engine safe to 7500rpm, ect...

Back to my point, when I put the gasket up to the head, I cut the gasket to
fit the ports, and then very slightly cleaned them up.  When I put the cut
gasket up to the manifold, I almost fell down!  There was at least 2mm that 
I had to cut out all around!  And the worst was the casting just around the
hole that the injector comes through- there is a 2-3 mm lip in the casting
there!!!!!!  So much potential for performance here!

Perhaps this is one of the reasons that SPICA cars have a bad reputation??
The port does neck down to less than the area in a Weber venturi, so there
is NO way a stock SPICA manifold can flow more than a carbed one.  But a
modified one.... watch this space- or find me at Kansas City.

Amazed
Eric Storhok
Ann Arbor, MI

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