carburetor Spacer

[Dgiblin21]

Hello I have recently acquired a 1964 T-Bird and it need a bit of coolant system love it has a few leaks and one of them seems to be coming from the spacer plate between the carb and the intake manifold. First my question is what is this plate doing / is it necessary? It has 3 coolant lines running to it. Second can anyone help me locate a new one as the fittings coming from the plate are so badly corroded that I'm pretty sure its the cause of my leak. Or can I delete this plate and bypass the coolant lines?

Thanks!

[Cliff Rankin]

It warms up the carb. I kept mine on my 63 and left the heater hoses off hoping to do just the opposite in this
TEXAS heat. I purchased a few rubber caps so no one would make it a home when the car is in the garage.
Cliff

[Terry64HT]

It's most important use is to isolate the engine heat from the carb and keep it at a more uniform temperature. People on this forum that don't have a plate have experienced gas boiling in the carb and vapor lock. When I changed manifolds, the plate would no longer fit properly so I went to a phenolic one. Just bypassing it with the coolant lines will work ok as long as the vacuum port at the rear still functions.
Hope this helps
Terry
64HT

[sseebart]

I don't believe there are aftermarket replacements for the water jacket place, but I've had good luck calling up Bird Nest and having them look through their used inventory for stuff like this.

~Steve

[64ZCODE]

My '64 has the spacer plate and it is hooked up to the coolant lines. I assume the function is to heat up the air/fuel mixture since the engine doesn't have a heat riser. Probably more relevant back east than it is here in California. Anyway, spacer plates insulate the carb from engine heat and also increase engine torque.

[Dgiblin21]

Thanks everyone for your input. I have looked on the birds nest website with no luck might have to give them a call though. I'll probably just bypass it for the time being.

[stubbie]

If you live in a warmer climate you probably don't need it just bypass them. Or if you want to use them just drill out the old pipes and add new ones.