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Another carb spacer conundrum.

jeepthrills01

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I know I said I wasn't gonna bother tuning the carb after the cam break in till the heads, P Rpm, headers etc were in place....well with quarantine and shutdowns everywhere...that a moot point. I'm trying hard to get it on the road. The point of my rambling..is this..

I found a 1 inch 4 hole plastic spacer still in the no name packaging in the bottom of my tool box from probably 30 years ago. The weird part is that there are 3 gaskets and a gold irradite colored sheet metal plate no bigger than a gasket. For the life of me I cant remember what the metal plate does...or if it's even needed...Usually its gasket/spacer/gasket/ carb.

Anyone remember these things?...i may just put it on without the metal plate..but its gotta serve a purpose....fire away gents...thoughts? Guesses?
 
You should probably leave it in the bottom of the tool box
 
This isnt a "dominator" plate is it? They used to have linkages under the carb and racers were worried that if some of it came loose, it would fall into the engine.
GM used to market an aluminum heat shield to put under the carb, but it was a lot bigger than just the base gasket.
 
In the '70's some manifolds had clearance issues. Simple fix was add a spacer (1/8" ?) with a thick gasket, so three gaskets & the spacer got the clearance for the carb linkage. I did this on one of my setups back then.
 
Picture?
I have done exactly as you said...gasket spacer gasket.
 
My first thought is, why are you installing the spacer in the first place ?
 
I know I said I wasn't gonna bother tuning the carb after the cam break in till the heads, P Rpm, headers etc were in place....well with quarantine and shutdowns everywhere...that a moot point. I'm trying hard to get it on the road. The point of my rambling..is this..

I found a 1 inch 4 hole plastic spacer still in the no name packaging in the bottom of my tool box from probably 30 years ago. The weird part is that there are 3 gaskets and a gold irradite colored sheet metal plate no bigger than a gasket. For the life of me I cant remember what the metal plate does...or if it's even needed...Usually its gasket/spacer/gasket/ carb.

Anyone remember these things?...i may just put it on without the metal plate..but its gotta serve a purpose....fire away gents...thoughts? Guesses?

if? i recall,we would put the gasket,metal plate,gasket,then spacer and gasket again.
it was supposed to make it a level surface in case the alum intake/carb wasnt sealing/machined off/worn whatever.
what we always ran into,was the carb studs being too short and having to get new bolts and removing studs.
havent used those in a good 20 years at least.
 
There were adapters for putting a square bore carb on a spread bore intake that fit your description. Pics would help.
 
The "adapters" I am familiar with were approx. 1/4" plus. OP could provide more detail.
 
Edelbrock supplied a plate with my Performer manifold for my 340 engine as stated in earlier post so you could use a square bore carb. It was included in the box with the manifold.
 
Sorry yall..busy day..

On top is the questionable plate...the spacer below.
Second pic shows thickness...not much..lol
20200402_183044.jpg 20200402_183912.jpg
 
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As far as why an I even considering this....primarily to save on fuel boil off.....as well a little more plenum volume to help make a little more torque..(318 in a B body)
 
Sorry yall..busy day..

On top is the questionable plate...the spacer below.

View attachment 930895
One came with my intake ( 440 } also. They way I understood it was the plate was to go on a gasket 1st then another gasket , then a sq bore carb , eddy , holley ect. spread bore carb didnt need the plate.
I would say your spacer would serve the same mounting style.
The new preformer intakes have a empty area on the passenger side that that plate supports on a sq. bore.
 
I always got better sealing characteristics from the aluminum style adapter with the socket Allen screws going down into the manifold and the 1inch bolts facing up....just seemed like a smoother transition...but it makes sense as a spreadbore adapter

Screenshot_20200402-185019_Chrome.jpg
 
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