This was used by a lot of us with 1600's and 1750's when the intake manifold was so modified by raising ports that the intake manifold could no longer be used as a coolant feed. The manifold was fabricated and dry. Head cooling plumbing was from casting plugs in the head with a seperate water tube manifold and thermostat. It worked just fine.
Yes, Ausca did use this quite a bit in the late '60's. Ausca was not the only one to try it at that time, but Ron Neal was experimenting with tubed ports and manifolds with tapered ID tubes running into the head. This became a necessity as manifolds were fabricated, not cast and had no colant passages.