starcain wrote:The manifold has a 27020-40 P/N. What were these manifolds used on before they started using them on the Ks? Maybe the earlier ones were parkerized? What we need is additional pictures of parkerized and cad plated manifolds on an original bike or at least motor. Just saying so isn't quite enough. We need proof for the pudding. Also, there is no question that the manifold nuts are supposed to be cadmium plated.
Jerry, it will be interesting to hear what Jim Garrett comes back with.
The subject manifold was used on a variety of 45” and 55” flatheads (WR, K, KR, KH) that employed 4 bolt 1.5” Linkerts. Although Bruce Palmer doesn’t cover these specific models in his restoration guide, we might still glean some insight on the subject of finishes on said manifolds from his teachings. His book covers the following models.
- Palmer Models.jpg (61.7 KiB) Viewed 4491 times
Per Palmer the inlet pipe and nut finishes were as follows.
’36 - 38, bright nickel
’39 - 43, cad plated unpolished pipes and nuts
’44 – 47, parkerized pipes and nuts
’48 - mid 49, polished cad pipes and nuts
’49 - 57, unpolished cad pipes and nuts
IF, the above information relates to
ALL manifold varieties manufactured over the stated time period, it would muddy the subject of manifold finishes sufficiently that one could easily envision either a black or white manifold on a K Model. Note that no reference to a painted manifold exists. If we take Palmer’s teachings literally, it suggests that all manifolds after 1947 were white, thus we would conclude that all K Model manifolds were white (but we know better). However, who is to say the MoCo didn’t have a crate of black (parkerized) manifolds laying around, circa 1947, that they decided to use when the K Model was introduced and it took them X years and Y months to consume these before they made a new lot of cad plated manifolds and used them thereafter? I suspect some Ks were fit with black manifolds and some were fit with white manifolds. I also find it interesting that black manifolds were used with white nuts. The more I read about the finishes on manifolds and nuts the more I'm leaning toward a hodge podge of finishes that were used as available. In other words they weren't about to shut down the production line because they ran out of black or white manifolds.
Look forward to hear others thoughts, opinions and new information on the subject.