My very modified 79 came with an HIF-6 hung off what appears to be the Mini-Sport heated manifold. I'm unsure of the maker is unsure but it is the hot manifold for sure. Right now I have standard cooling and heater hoses and the manifold connections have dust plugs on them.

So - who can show me how this is suposed to be piped?

a) can someone provide a talk thru & better yet pictures?

b) what exactly is this supposed to gain?

 

Most Mini's with heaters have a hose or tube from the back corner of the head to the heater core via a hole in the bulkhead, and then back from the heater to the lower radiator hose - this return hose usually runs along the side of the rocker cover (between rocker cover and carb) ; cut the return hose in the middle and stuff the two ends onto the tubes coming out of the manifold.

Over the years, the Factory tried a few methods of pre-heating and de-icing to minimize the amount of time you needed to have the choke on first thing on a cold morning - there were straps around the dashpot and coil-heated insert/spacers between the carb and manifold, air filter box intake nozzles pointed at the exhaust manifolds, stuff like that. The heated intake manifold is an attempt to keep you from icing up by getting the heat into the aluminium as soon as possible. There is also an attempt to have a consistant heat throughout the manifold and negating any hotspot effects where the intake and exhaust manifolds get close in the middle ... but there is a cost. You will loose a small bit of power with a water-heated manifold and that will vary with the tempurature of the coolant.
So if you start ok on cold mornings and don't worry about heavy dew or frost, you shouldn't need to plumb your manifold.

 

sounds like I shouldn't bother ....

The 79 is a toy and if it is THAT cold, we don't go out. I was most intersted just to do something with the connections on the manifold.....but I guess it sounds like it isn't worth the effort. Heck, I have no water leaks now, why run more hoses?