Hot Rods Spacers between carb and intake for reducing heat transfer

Never used a spacer for reducing heat to the carb , see it mentioned frequently especially us that put biggar engines it tight quarters in old cars. My application is SBC (only slightly modified) in a 1940 Ford Sedan. The carb I'm using is a Edelbrock Performer 4 barrel carb on a aluminum intake. Edelbrock says it's a good idea to put in a wood -fiber laminate spacer to reduce heat transfer ?? I don't like backing up if I didn't do something right.. What's you take on this? Is it really necessary ?

Gene

 

Shit, I thought everyone knew to use one. I use aluminum.

 

I use them on all 40's with the same intake and carb-phenolic resin I think-1/2 thick

 

Mine works. Some type of fiber material. Picked it up right from the edelbrock trailer at one of the shows.

 

Gas keeps getting more alcohol/methanol percentage, which lowers the boiling point. So, anything you can do to block some heat is good.

I saw a short video of an inline Buick 8 idling normal, with hood up. The owner wanted to know what caused his strange phenomenon, of idling perfect, then without warning, the carb sneezed out ALL the gas in the bowl, from every possible place in a split micro second.

What it looked like to me, is the carb suddenly reached a temp that tripped a violent boil that blew all the gas out. I've heard of that happening with a glass cup of water in a microwave. The water reached the boiling point, but the glass added stored heat to cause what looks like an explosion, just by bumping the cup ...it's rare, but supposedly happens.

I honestly see the day when carbs will no longer be usable with future gas mixes.
.

 

I have used Edelbrock #9266 , it's a compressed rubber compound and .320 thick.
It works just fine preventing hard starts after heat soak.

 

I use them on my cars just because I had a chunk of 3/4" phenolic resin board that I made them out of. I use non-alcohol gas whenever I can.

Gary

 

With all the illegal cooking of stuff that keeps folks 'up' all night, where's the bootleg pure gasoline?
Folks in the hills must have it figured out...

 

What is this with( wood fiber Laminate) by Edelbrock Seems to me it might be more beneficial for reducing heat transfer than metal ??

 

Yep
A 1/2" phenolic spacer w/ gaskets and four new (longer) studs and your set.

 

X2

 

we made them from ash or other dense grained woods and then sealed them with gas proof epoxy , if you know a wood worker they can make it easily, I had a few made from marine plywood that were only 1/4" thick and insulated perfectly..

 

Here is a weird one. My Son is running exactly the same two four setup on his T bucket as I have on my 27, except he has a polished intake manifold. On very hot days, after driving for a long time, the fuel would percolate in the carbs, and mine never did. We kinda nailed it down to the sun reflecting off the shiny polished intake and heating up the carbs. They were hotter to the touch than mine on my unpolished intake.

He added a couple of phenolic spacers and the problem went away.

Don

 

Is it "required", no.
Is it helpful in helping to control the carburetor heat, obviously. That is plastic, wood or phenolic ONLY. Aluminum is NOT a good insulator of heat.
!/2" is plenty. 1" will effect the tuneup. Any addition to the plenum volume will effect the way the engine runs. The thicker the spacer, the more effect on the way the engine runs.
A cooler carburetor means denser gas, which can mean better drive-ability and normally means better power.

Mike

 

polished metal will not dissipate heat as well as raw aluminum

 

Do you think that one should be under every carb on a tri power setup?

 

if effects one of them it should be under all of them as the manifold heats some what evenly

 

I have a Moroso 1" thick plastic one on my 355, first time I bought one, I usually make them from phenolic or aluminum.

 

....

,,,,,think of it as exposed surface area,,,a million tiny bumps on your manifold,,,

 

Very interesting about chrome and highly polished parts Never thought about that ... Also' that was my next question ,if the spacer is too thick won't that have a bad effect on the performance...?

 

My Webers won't run without a phenolic plate. I have the 1/4 inch asbestos gaskets plus a full width 3/16" phenolic plate to stop heat rising from the engine to the carbs (2-3 choke carbs). On hot days this still didn't seem to be enough as the engine compartment of my TR3 is quite close. The last time I had the intake off I packed the heat riser ports in the heads with ceramic wool and added a recirculation pump to cool after the engine is shut off. So far so good but it hasn't gotten that hot in flyover land yet however after a hard run it doesn't flood anymore. When the recirc pump runs with the electric fan after the engine is shut off the water temp comes down very fast. I pull water from just before the water pump and pump it to the rear of the heads.
Greg

 

These carbs are on a polished intake, 1 inch aluminum spacers and another steel spacer with a gasket between each piece, no problems ever and runs perfect.

 

..............I love it!

 

The builder of my Jimmy 302 engine, HAMBer "Truckedup" fabbed a phenolic spacer / adapter for the Carter AFB on the Clifford manifold it runs. I am currently refreshing things as I take care of a blown head gasket but the engine ran about 80,000 miles in the South Florida heat without carb problems on the E10 corn-squeezings fuel.

 

If you see me running in a 40 sedan all hunkered down on the springs it aint shine I hauling its bootleg gas from Mexico.

In answer to the question always take the manufacturers suggestions as gospel. I like a phenolic spacer like the real racers use. Something else that works especially if you are using a spread bore carb is the really thick gasket that they used to use on quadra jets from the factory you can still get them from Mr gasket.