anyone useing these? are they any good or just another speedway joke? there only a 1/4" thick. my gas is boiling in the carbs seen it for myself. what do you think? any good or do you know something better.
I'm running a 305 with an aluminum intake and a Carter carb. After shutting the engine off (anywhere ... parking lot, home garage, driveway) I would smell raw fuel. I never did pop the hood and actually check for the fuel boiling out of the carb but I did purchase an extra thick gasket (might have been called a heat insulating gasket) for the Carter (gasket was about 1/4" thick, similar to the thickness of a factory GM Quadrajet gasket) ... my problem was solved, no more raw fuel smells at all. As per your original question, I have no experience with phenolic spacers, but isolating the carb from engine heat (using a thicker gasket in my case) did the trick for me. I would guess that phenolic spacers work, just saying they might not be the only solution to your problem.
I have run phenolic spacers as insulators or isolators depending on who you ask. They work real well.
Have a set on my 6.1 hemi and it dropped the intake manifold temp by over 80 degrees. They do work and are definitely a big bang for your buck.
To answer your question - yes they work. But so does plywood. Plywood needs to be thicker. Many pro stock cars back in the 70's had wooden carb spacers.
Ford used them on Y-Blocks in Thunderbirds. The people I know who removed them when they cracked or broke soon replaced them. Mine is about 1/2" thick with gaskets on both sides. Works for me.
I'm using the 1 1/4" aluminum risers I bought from Dashman here on the H.A.M.B.. I had a slight gas smell also and since I put these and three new carb bases from Charlie at Vintage Speed on I have had no problems. I put the new bases on first and ran it, it ran much smoother but still had the gas smell. I then bought the risers and put them on and no more gas smell, and it idles smooth in gear at 750 RPM. I guess getting the carb base away from the intake helps.
OK, so what is "phenolic" anyway? All I know is that it dates back to the bakelite days and it smells real good (in that forbidden chemical way) when you drill holes in it. Anybody?
Oak will be OK - but 3/4" marine grade plywood will give you more insulation due to the layering and glue.
You can buy these at Napa, the one I got was a little too thick for the application so I thinned it some on a fixed belt sander, took a bit of time but came out nice.
Mike51Merc asked:, so what is "phenolic" anyway? Phenolic is a composite material. It is a resin impregnated wood or cloth laminate which is cured under pressure (and heat?) to make a very stable composite.
I have seen spacers made of wood ... but (as someone else mentioned) the wood used was plywood. I would think there is a better chance of the spacer cracking if you use board stock rather than plywood.
I've always run these http://www.summitracing.com/parts/SUM-G1408/ comes with the longer studs too,the 1" rise usually adds a 5-7 HP increase.
borntoloze>>>a better chance of the spacer cracking if you use board stock rather than plywood.>>> Yeah. So choose you boardstock carefully whether hard or soft woods. I use carefully selected pineboard finished with a thick layer of varnish. Plywood is sometimes hard to work with due to layer splintering. Jack E/NJ<!-- / message -->
You can make your own really easy! That's what I did. I searched all over, and couldn't find one with the internal portion the way I wanted it... so I just made my own. You can buy phenolic pieces right from MSC (www.mscdirect.com) with thicknesses from 1/32" to 2", and the stuff is real easy to cut with a Dremel, hack saw, hole saw, table saw, etc. There are different kinds of phenolic material, depending on the base material that the resin is mixed with - there's paper, linen and canvas. I think paper and linen are the most common in automotive applications (canvas is too coarse). If I remember right, I used linen because I read somewhere that it was the best. ~Bob
This guy seems to be doing a good job with insulators. Have talked to him several times. He works out of his house the last I knew. Think he was once in aerospace somewhere. States that he has had to quit his job to keep up withthe interest and orders. Call and talk to Dennis at Cool Carb 717 309 0719. He has a lot of tech info about temp differences that he can share with you. Might be the answer for many of us. FWIW.
Burchwood is much better. It doesn't transfer heat like aluminum and doesn't distort like plastic or phenolic. I had one on my last mill and was good for 9 additional horse on the dyno. AED makes a 1/2" Burchwood spacer that sells for less than $40.00.
I make carb spacers from Vermont birch (solid and plywood) for 97's, 94's, Holley 4 bbls and Roch 2 bbls. I have been doing this for over 25 years. My friend has had one on his drag car for two years and says his carb stays cool even in ambient 100 degree Florida weather.
I just went to a 1/2" phenolic 4 hole to gain some bottom end and insulate the carb from the intake, it worked well on both sides of things. Set up dependent they can be a good fine tuning device. Super Sucker appears to have one of the better overall performance designs.
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