Here's a crazy thought... gas manifold with shield and lever

Over the last year the thought of what to do about my manifold has crept in and out of my head. Right now, my distillate manifold has the selector lever broken off, and I'm pretty sure it's stuck. And one of the studs for the heat shield it broken off as well, and the others have been coated over. So, it would be some work to put that manifold back into a condition to hold a heat shield, and look like a selector lever is there.

Now, all I plan to do with it is just show folks what the selector lever looked like, and explain why the heat shield was there. (Which I still have to get)

My H isn't running great. Bob Kerr showed me what a difference just tightening up the manifold would do. But he also said the mounting hardware was wrong. This weekend I drove an H that was restored by Mark's Tractors (The guy paid a fortune to have it shipped out there from CA and back, plus the restoration... which is the best paintjob I've ever seen... but I digress...) That H was the smoothest sounding H... heck, the smoothest sounding tractor I've ever heard! He had a gas manifold on. I'm wondering if just getting a new type manifold, and than attaching some studs to hold the shield, and attaching a selector valve (that won't move) would be a better way to go performance-wise? The "Correct Police" may have a cow, but the manifold would be hidden under the shield.

What do you think?

that is a crazy thought. i don't see how it could work.

I made studs for my gas manifold on my M and mounted a heat sheild It looks good and hard to tell.

Could I bother you for some detailed pictures?

What I did was took the gas manifold off the tractor and had the heat shield to set over top. I then got it all centered and marked the 2 top holes. I then drilled and taped the manifold I believe 3/8-16. I made up some treaded rods and screwed them into the intake. I put a nut on the rod and tighted to the mainfold leave enough room for the shield and anther nut. Once you have that set tighten and mark out the bottem hole and do the same. I added a flat washer against the shield on the bottem on both sides since its sloted. It seems to be working nice on my M and gives it the right look. Paul