ram air III d and IV round port A body exhaust manifold availability dates?
 

everywhere i check on line they show out of stock or unavailable etc, i know this has been going on for sometime due to covid, supply chain issues etc. I bought a set of repro round port first gen f body manifolds early this spring and the vendor said he did not expect those to ever be made again.

Has anyone talked to Ames or Butler or Ram air and gotten a solid delivery date for the a body sets? part numbers are N179HP AND N179HC
Thanks in advance

I dont know availability. I do remember Jim's metal shed in Plum borough, Pa.back in mid 70s. Having round port exhaust manifolds even for 69 F as well as tri power intakes. (He is in Tenn.now),when he left he ,well here goes junked all of the them. We just talked about this on phone. There were more than a few. Yep.

Small world, I grew up in Plum Borough. :cool:

Call Paul,last time I talked to him he was hoping to be able to ship exhaust the end of September.After working with a foundry I would take with a grain of salt.Getting info direct from him will be the most accurate at the time.Tom

I talked to a guy at RARE a few weeks ago. He said the reason they're behind is they had a deal with a foundry to produce their manifolds. The foundry kept dragging their feet saying next month and then next month, etc. 6 months later the foundry said they weren't going to do them so they had to start looking for another foundry that would do it. They finally found one thats saying the end of Aug. Rare is hoping to start shipping out manifolds in October because they have to to do the machining on them once they get them from the foundry. Rare said that's a best case scenario with their fingers crossed. That's the story anyways. I'm waiting on some oversized d ports for my 70.

....could use a Passenger HO Roundport RA II-IV manifold. is there such a thing as a 2-bolt flange Pass O manifold?

I've been waiting now for 11 months. I called Paul a few times here an there and got the same story but did not know about the first foundry. I could have ordered a set from Ames at the time but read that his are better quality.

I got my long branch manifolds from Paul @Rare just about a year ago. This was after waiting over 1 1/2 years for a set of round port long branch manifolds that never happened. Ended up having to buy D-port heads because I couldn't find exhaust manifolds. Kind of ridiculous. We are not getting any younger. The round port long branch never happened that I know of. It's been 5+ years now. It's a real shame that exhaust manifolds end up being the huge bottleneck that changes or cancels so many Pontiac builds. Yes, you can always have a set of custom headers made, but for a street car, the great Pontiac manifolds have many advantages.

Although Paul is a nice guy, the couple weeks and months quickly turn into years and often the parts never happen. Unless you can deal with that, your forced to look for other options.

I have a set of round port long branches. They happened. Just not sure of time frame. I was told there was one set left when
I bought this set at Carlisle this spring

A body round port manifolds, correct?

F-body ones I understand were never made. "Foundry issues" since 2015 I keep hearing.

I am
Seeking a pair of d port and a pair of round ports a body manifolds yes
The manifolds in the picture above are f body round port long branches purchased by me in 2022. I do not know when they were cast

I still have a round port engine sitting in my garage. I got a pretty good deal on it, but at the time was not aware of the manifold issues. Same thing, I called Paul many times, but to no avail. To be clear, I was looking for the ones made especially to put the motor in a pre-'68 car. I finally found a guy that had a pair of the regular '68 and up round port manifolds, so I grabbed them. Now, I've got my eye out for a '68 and up project to put it all in (as sooon as I get our '67 together). Good luck with your search.

Hehehe, sell me the Passenger side.

So the F body round ports were never made...ever?

I waited many months for RARE 2.5” A body round port manifolds, was really looking forward to using them. Got a few different stories like “Got the right sides in waiting on the foundry for the left sides” etc. I’m sure Paul is a good guy but I got tired of waiting so now I have a pair of 1 5/8 headers for my project. All good.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I guess I got lucky or maybe got in before the manifold drought. I ordered a set of round port A body manifolds with 2.5" outlets from Ames last October and got them immediately.

Maybe I am wrong, but I had understood that the first gen F-body manifolds were the long branch ones;
The 67 Firebird RAI used the same manifold used on the 1967 full sized;
The second gen Firebird used the style manifolds used on 1967+ GTO's;
As a matter of fact, the 1970 Firebird and GTO used the exact same casting.

Although I am unclear on the minute differences between the two castings, those long branch round port exhaust manifolds would be applicable to 1968.5 RAII & 1969 RAIV.

Uhh no
 

Original 67 GTO HO/RA manifolds are a set of one year exhaust manifolds.
The LH '67 manifold positions the LH side outlet slightly further back than later A-body HO/RA manifolds.

Original 70 Firebird/GTO RAIII manifolds are one year manifolds, not just a casting number deal.

Thank you for the correction, but for yet more clarity;

Please note what I said:
I never said they were the exact same castings;
I didn't think that this minutia needed to be covered since the long branch manifolds on an F-body was the root of the query to which I was attempting to help answer.

spoke to a contact yesterday, said they are having trouble getting foundry time for a body manifolds both styles. In addition the original machinist they had used has passed. His family is trying to get up to speed but there will be some learning curve, as it was told to me.
Spoke to Ames yesterday as well, and they said the list is at least 38 pairs long. i think for d ports, and the round port list is not even started as they have no clear time frame they may be available.
Maybe Norwalk will turn up some information, it seems the market is still there for Pontiac hi performance cast iron manifolds