Alright, I have my B intake manifold, cleaned and painted -- ready to go. I have my 500cfm Edelbrock 4 barrel carb, I have my modified 56 passenger car 4 barrel linkage/bellcrank/firewall pivot/kickdown rod for an original Fordomatic setup (55 Club Sedan). When I put the phenolic spacer on the intake, I notice that the holes for the original Holley are a bit smaller. Wouldn't the recommendation be to port those holes out to match the spacer? Or is this just a little tedious for a stout street motor (292, C2AE block, .060 over, mild cam, G heads, really, really torquey!)? If I do port, should I just bevel, or have a 90 degree edge like the original holes would have been? Any of this making sense?

Dan

Daniel Jessup

Lancaster, California

aka "The Hot Rod Reverend"
check out the 1955 Ford Fairlane build at www.hotrodreverend.com

It will be best to match the intake to the spacer.

Here's a thread with a lot of good info on the subject:

http://www.y-blocksforever.com/forums/Topic4861-4-1.aspx

Lawrenceville, GA

g'day gary

mate your spacer should be fine for our conditions i bet you'll find its pressed fibre if you clean it a little it should be a really dark reddish brown they go black with use & age they are designed to take extreme heat without distorting but check ebay aus under carby they usualy have plenty of spacers from alloy to phenolic.

i buffed the dark blue on the mainline yesterday then buffed it with normal polish then gave it a hand polish with my speed wax it looks micky mouse like a dark blue mirror.

if you guys want a really good polish thats easy to use find a detailer that has autosmart products & see if you can buy some mirror image or cherry glaze polish of them i use them every day i can polish a full car in 15 mins by hand its that easy .

moz. geelong victoria australia.

graduate 1980, bus, truck, car, hot rod, boat, submarine, hovercraft, hydrafoil, firetruck, mobile home, jet, helicopter, cruise ship, motorcycle, bicycle, santa's sleigh, clock, alloy bullbar, alloy fuel tank, lens, dr who's tardis, matter - anti matter warp drive buffer & y-block lover

Dan, If my memory serves, which might be doubtful, you should check out Moroso part number 64946.  I think that is what I bought.  It matches your manifold size and then you can open up the top as shown in that thread.  I hope this helps.

Jan  Urbanczyk  Major USMC Ret.

                                                                 Bowie Maryland

Gary,



Another option would be the aluminum spacer used for PCV conversion (sold by '55/56 T-bird parts suppliers). Though I don't know if aluminum is used because it dissipates heat better than fiber (it could just as easily CONDUCT more heat?), or is easier to manufacture/work (I applied black radiator paint to mine).

6 VOLTS/POS. GRD. NW INDIANA

Hood clearance aside, is there an advantage to going higher with the spacer... .5", 1", 2"???  Without knowing any better I replaced a .5" 4 hole plastic with a 1" open aluminum spacer.  I am now aware of my mistake and I'm going to replace it, but I want to do it right this time.  THANKS!

Edit: Is this product worth trying? - http://www.jegs.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_10001_10002_11598_-1

- John

John: Lake Forest, IL



'57 Fairlane 500 - Looking better every day.

John -

I think that the thick Holley gasket does just what its supposed to do - provide a thermal break without changing the tuning effect of the "180°", twin H-patterned intake manifolds. Direct contact with the carb base is eliminated and the fore and aft extensions of the gasket provide a "shadow" for the bowls - saving them from line-of-sight heat radiation from below. There are some versions around that use stainless reflectors for the same purpose - including one that is sold by GMPP (I believe). Aluminum isn't really too good at being a thermal isolator - its so good at conducting heat, it often chosen for use in heat exchangers and radiators. People also need to be mindful of the small throttle bore holes in a stock Ford ECZ 9425-B manifold - they are more like 1.438 diameter - versus the 1.56 holes in the Holley gasket. Those steps are hard on airflow.

Temp control of the exhaust heated manifold is also an old trick available to those who wish to try. Blocking or partly closing the exhaust crossover port is a time honored method of driving down the heat. There are "truck" intake manifold gaskets available that have built in restrictors. If the manifold gets too cold - street driving can suffer in some weather conditions.

I believe any benefit of adding an isolated "ram tube" effect between the carb and manifold (a tall four hole spacer) gets lost when the air column enters the common chamber below and gets driven against the floor.

 
 Steve Metzger       Tucson, Arizona

hey gary

mate id love to fly up but ive detailed 2 busses this week after shampooing 100 bus seats  plus 1/2 doz cars & the mainline my arms dont want to work anymore & i had to work today  its not the mainline i can polish that fast more like magna's falcon's & commodores the mainline takes me abouy 20 mins seriously though if you can get hold of some of that polish get it its so easy to use ive put it on a whole car gone & had lunch come back & taken it off 1/2 hour later it also makes faint scratches vanish

moz. geelong victoria australia.

graduate 1980, bus, truck, car, hot rod, boat, submarine, hovercraft, hydrafoil, firetruck, mobile home, jet, helicopter, cruise ship, motorcycle, bicycle, santa's sleigh, clock, alloy bullbar, alloy fuel tank, lens, dr who's tardis, matter - anti matter warp drive buffer & y-block lover

Steve,

"Thermal isolation" an interesting concept.

While "thermo-dynamics" is certainly outside my field of expertise, I have to wonder why there appears to be much controversy re: the best material for a spacer?

No amount of insulation will prevent materials exposed to high temperature for extended time from eventually equalizing. While fiber may slow this process, the reverse would have to apply. Once any material has achieved a set temp., wouldn't it's ability to DISSIPATE heat become the overiding factor? Superheated fiber would tend to maintain it's temp. The required thicker gaskets on either side of an aluminum spacer would also provide a significant degree of isolation. The charge of supercooled/atomized fuel rushing through an aluminum spacer would tend to lower it's temp faster than fiber due to enhanced dissipation, while hot fiber would RAISE the temp. of the mixture. Would fiber lower fuel-bowl temp. at the expense of mixture charge efficiency? (My head is spinning!)



Though I hesitate to stray so far afield, this reminds me of the controversy re: stock vs. closed fiberglass fan shrouds:

While the aftermarket fiberglass shroud may pull more air through the radiator when idling in traffic, would it not also RESTRICT the amount of air at highway speed? If the vast majority of your driving was HIGH-SPEED, would not the fiberglass shroud be detrimental if your cooling system was borderline adequate?






6 VOLTS/POS. GRD. NW INDIANA

I suppose the question needs asked - if given the opportunity to stand barefoot on an iron plate heated to 180° F (very conservative number) - would you stand on an aluminum pad or phenolic?

Seriously - I think the issue has to do with the ability of the inlet air to drive down the temperature of the carb and fuel bowls (while trying to avoid the fuel vaporization temperature). I can recall some instances (while living in humid Ohio) where conditions were so damp, it "iced" the carb in my truck and stalled it. The aluminum spacers might lose heat quickly in the passageway exposed to airflow - but everywhere else, they are conducting heat very nicely thankyou. The phenolics may not lose much heat to the airflow passage - but they don't transfer heat quickly and directly from bottom to top either.

Aluminum manifolds have a lot of inherent conduction too - and the "air-gap" type, exposed runner designs, etc. are designed to keep the aluminum "insulated" in open air. By doing so the designers make the direct heat conduction path as small as possible. There are some aluminum spacers that have considerable "air" in them too - so there are other ways of dealing with the conduction issue, I know.   

 
 Steve Metzger       Tucson, Arizona