Dan, are you saying a 289 Cobra should have an intake with the PCV port?
Thanks,
Mike C
Yes. Ordinary street Cobras with High Performance 289 engines used positive crankcase ventilation systems. Ford manufactured the engines in Cleveland Ohio with PCV systems. (260 engines in Cobras used road draft tube crankcase ventilation.)
If somebody ordered a C4SA-9421 intake factory installed (C4SA9421 on part, S1CS-9421 in 1965 service parts list) and the Holley® R-2599 carburetor (Ford C3AE-9510-A) to go with it for use with a 1963˝ engine, the Ford rear of intake manifold PCV equipment was moved to the aluminum intake. This intake model was available at factory installed until at least about September 1964 and maybe longer. CSX2486 was ordered with a low rise COBRA intake in September 1964 but the car was delivered with a stock iron intake so the $51.50 charged (which was the catalog price for a C4SA-9421 intake) was refunded along with a letter of apology. There was no mention of an optional carburetor being ordered. That is the last mention I have come across of a new Cobra order for a factory installed “low rise” COBRA intake manifold.
1964-65 engines had PCV systems originating from a rocker arm covers but still had a hose connection behind their carburetors in the aluminum spacer installed between stock iron 4V intakes and carburetors.
When the 2-4V option was ordered factory installed mid-September 1963 onward, a custom PCV system for new Cobra was installed.
The C4SA-9421 intake manifold is a descendant of a prototype 1962 260 4V iron manifold by Ford Motor Company. Holman-Moody made a copy version for 260 engines in 1962 racing technology in aluminum with and without their logo cast into them. The C4SA-9421 COBRA and TIGER lettered versions were produced and Shelby American offered them for sale. It is a poor choice for a 289 c.i.d. engine with runner volumes intended for a 1962 style 260 c.i.d. engine.
The intake I show in Reply #10 is more mystery than we would wish as I have never found a Ford Motor Company or Shelby American reference that positively identifies it beyond doubt. I have studied them on and off for decades now. I had one that had been used in a Cobra and had the typical crack at a carburetor mounting stud. The casting was also more porous than I liked. The port runners were fairly small and their walls were cast thin. The GT350 street and race versions of intake manifolds were in use before 1964 ended. GT350 street cars used PCV systems of course. These no PCV ones that have been cracked and or cracked and repaired not so well have been very hard to sell. I nearly gave the one I had away. Well repaired ones have also been slow movers because so far we have no proof any new Cobra left Shelby American with one factory installed and the lack of PCV port makes an issue for near stock cars still using a PCV system. (There were adapter Ford spacers back then with hose connection for a PCV system but that is another subject.)
CSX2497, CSX2553, and CSX2555 all got 1965 MUSTANG GT350 high rise intakes and carburetors AFTER 1965 MUSTANG GT350 production started. (I had the carburetor from CSX2555 for years.) One of the cut back door race roadsters, CSX2513, was retrofitted with a 4V induction system using one of the 1964 427 Ford carburetors for a while circa December 1964. Which intake casting they all got is a mystery. Offenhauser (ready to use), Buddy Barksdale (unmachined castings racers could finish as they wished), and Ford engineering (machined by DST) versions were all supplied through Shelby American as versions of 1965 COBRA high rise intake manifolds by April-May1965.