Carb spacer?

[odoa3]

I have a 350 in my 75 K5 with a Edelbrock Performer 1406 (600 cfm/electric choke.) I have a dual plane spread bore Weind intake manifold. There is a spacer with four holes between the carb and manifold. Couple questions:

1. Why is the spacer there? What purpose does it serve?

2. Is it a benefit or simply a restriction?

I am mid carb rebuild and wondering if I should stick the spacer back on or if it does more harm then good. Any info. would be helpful as I am hoping to take it out for the first time tomorrow. Thanks.

 

[sled_dog]

its there for two purposes. One is to insulate the carb from the manifold heat. Cooler fuel, can mean more power or worse atomization. Two is that adding a four hole spacer and spacing away from the manifold that bit is suppossed to increase torque and throttle response. Never tried it myself. I intend to on the 383 when I get it running.

 

[odoa3]

Thanks, Sled Dog.... guess I will keep it on.

 

[icer97]

I had to run a spacer for clearance reasons. My carb wouldnt bolt directly to my manifold, the linkage would bind.

 

[google]

Same here only it wasn't linkage. I had to run the spacer and an extra thick gasket because of some strangly placed plate bolted to my intake. Something for the vette it used to belong to I suppose. Tried to take it off, but it had a gasket and holes underneath.?.?. Dunno. AND, I don't think the carb fits properly without the spacer anyway.

 

[sled_dog]

EGR block off plate. It often gets in the way of carbs. No idea why aftermarkets design them in such a stupid way. I was able to modify the one on my Edelbrock Performer intake to clear a carb.

 

[SUBFAN]

I am going to run a spacer on the Performer RPM....One reason is that I need more clearance for the vaccum port for the brakes, and I want both sides of the motor to be able to pull from the common plenum it will create....

 

[Mad-Dog]

Well...lets see here, you have a square bore carb and a spread bore manifold.
Usually the spread bore manifolds will accept a square bore carb but the Weiand may require the spacer/adapter.
There are 3 types of spacers....open, 4-hole and 4-hole tapered depending on the intended purpose.
All of them will raise the carburetor a minimum of 1",
I run a 4-hole tapered version which is specially designed to work with a large cfm carburetor and Edelbrock Performer RPM manifold or the Dart Kool-Kan manifold.
both of these manifolds have a small window cut in the top of the plenum divider wall and the tapered 4-hole spacer greatly improves vacuum signal at the carb with this setup.
generally speaking spacers are used to increase top-end but the engine will let u know if it likes it or not

 

[odoa3]

Thanks for all the replies and info. I rebuilt the carb and put the spacer back on. Seems to be running better. Man, there are a lot of parts to the Performer carbs.