Harrell Intakes

Harrell Engines Intakes

By the mid-1940s, Jim Harrell had refined the design for the intake manifolds he had been working on and had the patterns made for both dual and triple manifolds. Around 1945-’46 Jim contacted Dick Pickerel’s older brother and a friend to do the preliminary machine work on his first intake manifolds. On the first several manifolds, Jim used the name TORNADO on the name plates. We’re not sure why he chose that name. Perhaps he just liked the sound of it, or as Dick Pickerel remembers, it was a name that had been around for awhile and sounded like a good name for speed equipment. In any case, Jim had side plates made for his manifolds carrying the name TORNADO. Well, apparently Lee Chapel and his Tornado Engineering Company had already thought the name was very suitable for racing equipment and was still using it. Somehow, Jim got word that Chapel owned the name and was using it on equipment including his dual manifolds—Chapel made and marketed “Low Riser” and “High Riser” manifolds through his speed shop in Oakland, California. Certainly Jim was aware of Lee Chapel’s manifolds, but apparently didn’t care for them. However the name TORNADO must have lodged somewhere in the back of Jim’s mind. As soon as Jim was made aware of the problem over ownership of the name, he had new name plates made for the sides of his manifolds. From then on, Jim’s manifolds have carried the HARRELL name.

Jim had only made a few TORNADO name plates and they were removed right away. However, at least one set of original side plates was still around in the 1990s when Dick Pickerel owned the patterns and made a run of manifolds. The picture below shows dual HARRELL manifolds that had just been cast and machined. Dick placed an old TORNADO side-plate he had on one of the manifolds (with carbs.) to make the connection with the first couple of manifolds Jim made back in the mid-1940s.

During this same period of time, Jim was also developing his own racing heads for flathead Ford and Merc. V-8s. Jim’s heads reflect his constant striving for performance and appearance. They carry the name HARRELL LOS ANGELES.

Source: http://www.harrellengineshotrodding.com/products.html

THE ORIGINAL HARRELL 2×2

Status: No longer in Production

This is one of the more rare intakes. The intake was Harrell’s first design.

THE HARRELL 2×2

Status: There is rumor that Jim (White) Harrell & Nick Harrell will be trying to reproduce in 2018 from the original tooling.

There is not much information on the intake itself. If anyone has more info please let me know. Collectibility for the originals is pretty high. This one got a lower score because of it’s rumor of being reproduced in the near future. I am looking into who is doing it but after a wonderful email it was confirmed that efforts are still underway.