in an attempt to cure vapour lock I'm looking to purchase a phenolic spacer for my 390 2bbl.
Any old 4 hole spacer made for Holley/Carter/AFB will work?

 

No, a 4 bbl spacer will not fit a 2 bbl intake. You could also try thicker gaskets between the stock spacer and manifold and the carb, to try to further isolate the carb from engine heat.

 

Well, found one for the stock 2bbl.
For anyone that is interested... Canton Racing Products, they are on the web.

 

Also you might consider the original Ford spacer that has coolant flowing through it. The last time I went to the junkyard I picked one up out of the dirt.

 

It might have coolant flowing thru it, but it certainly ain't "cool" by the time it runs thru that spacer.

 

What?????

 

The 2 bbl carb spacer with the coolant running thru it, gets this coolant from the heater hose outlet on the front of the intake. This is not "cool" water ( or coolant) He wanted something to help isolate the carb from the engine's heat to prevent vapor lock, not something that will just keep the carb the same temperature as the rest of the motor.

 

Just use the spacer for a SPACER. Do not run coolant thru it. Simple huh, and pretty cheap if you find one laying in the dirt.

Right WB3?

Anything to raise the carb off the manifold will help isolate it from the heat.

Larry

 

I know how the heated spacer works but engine coolant helps maintain a steady temperature also. Just like an inter cooler on a diesel actually runs engine coolant through it and calls it a cooler. Besides I don't think the engine coolant would ever get hot enough to cause vapor lock, I've never seen a Ford with the heated spacer vapor lock because of the carb being too hot. The few I have seen do it was because of the fuel line routing and it would heatsoak when you shut it off hot and then when you restart it would stall after the fuel in the carb was used up. My 300-6 used to do that and I would have to loosen the fuel line and let the pressure off. I cured that one with a fuel pressure regulator at the fuel pump. I had a 360 that did it too, on real hot days. I never kept it long enough to fix it.

 

The intercoolers on a diesel, use the cooler water coming from the radiator, not hot water from the motor. Same thing on my 95 E150 van, it's got an oil to water oil cooler, but it's plumbed into the lower radiator hose, not the hotter upper. A better idea to keep a carb cooler is to block off the exhaust passage thru the intake and reroute the heater hose directly to the heater, not thru the carb spacer.

 

So when I refer to coolant it isn't actually cool but now it is? Do you know how much difference in temperature there is from the hot side of a radiator to the cool side? Not much, maybe 10-15 degrees. I don't want to bump heads with you over every thing I offer here and then have to explain what my point was or defend myself. Did you come to FTE to help people or just to find someone to prove you were smarter than. All I did was mention the heated spacer to the guy and you have to start contradicting everything I say. I wasn't talking in absolutes. just offering another alternative. Your smarter, ok feel better now.

 

When your dealing with vapor lock in 110 degree weather, the last thing you want to do is, introduce the carb to more heat than it's already exposed to. I can speak from experience that, it ain't fun sitting in a vehicle on the side of the road in that kind of heat. If you have problems with me, helping other's,with their problems then you have a problem, not I.

 

Did you look at where the guy asking came from? Have you ever drove in the winter without the hot air stove or with the E.F.E. crossover blocked off? He had a 2bbl. 390, not a hotrod. Apparently one with the original spacer gone. And you are right I am the one with a problem, I have a problem being talked down to by someone. I have been wrong about several things since I joined here and always humble accept being corrected, but you just rub me the wrong way for some reason.
And it wasn't just this thread, you did it on another one too.

 

 

Yea, I did see where he was, and it wasn't in Canada, it says he's in Phoenix, Arizona. Nobody was talking down to you, you just assumed that someone was.