383 2BBL Carb Gasket "Q"

[ALRUI]

OK guys, just finishing the rebuild on the 67 Carter Ball & Ball BBD 2 BBL, the carb to manifold gasket is super thin compared to the original and nobody in town has one in stock. Should I try the thin one or make one out of thicker gasket material? Please chime in if you would.

Thanks!
ALR

 

[HWYCRZR]

With the thin one, all your linkages will be out of whack. It has been so long, I am not sure where I got the thick one.

 

[ALRUI]

With the thin one, all your linkages will be out of whack. It has been so long, I am not sure where I got the thick one.

Yeah that was one of my concerns, I see a Fel Pro 8632 which appears to be correct though the Fel Pro site fails to state the thickness.

 

[CBODY67]

For right now, you can use the supplied thin gasket. Be aware that it will affect the thermostat for the automatic choke as the carb will physically be sitting a bit lower than with the thick gasket, which the choke settings are calibrated for. Probably a minor thing in these warmer times of the year?

When I replaced the Stromberg WWC 2bbl on my '66 Newport with the later Holley 2210 2bbl, Holley supplied a thin gasket with it. I used it and things worked pretty well. But after a few weeks, it got a bit shakier idle. One of the base plate nuts had gotten loose. I re-torqued it and it lasted a few weeks before it needed it again. This was in '73, so I went down to the dealer and ordered the correct, OEM gasket, which was "thick" with bushings in the stud holes. END of problems. The Stromberg WWC and 383-sized Carter BBD go in the same place, so their gaskets probably would interchange, too, as well as the later Holley 2210/2245 base gaskets.

DO NOT use gasket mat3erial to make a carb base gasket and also DO NOT use layers to make it thicker! Reason? Even if you use careful cross-pattern procedures to torque the retaining nuts down, you CAN easily crack the baseplate of the carb. Use the thin one and THEN ORDER the correct thicker OEM-type base gasket.

You might contact Woodruff Carb, usually an ad on these pages, who is a member here.

Keep us posted,
CBODY67

 

[ALRUI]

For right now, you can use the supplied thin gasket. Be aware that it will affect the thermostat for the automatic choke as the carb will physically be sitting a bit lower than with the thick gasket, which the choke settings are calibrated for. Probably a minor thing in these warmer times of the year?

When I replaced the Stromberg WWC 2bbl on my '66 Newport with the later Holley 2210 2bbl, Holley supplied a thin gasket with it. I used it and things worked pretty well. But after a few weeks, it got a bit shakier idle. One of the base plate nuts had gotten loose. I re-torqued it and it lasted a few weeks before it needed it again. This was in '73, so I went down to the dealer and ordered the correct, OEM gasket, which was "thick" with bushings in the stud holes. END of problems. The Stromberg WWC and 383-sized Carter BBD go in the same place, so their gaskets probably would interchange, too, as well as the later Holley 2210/2245 base gaskets.

DO NOT use gasket mat3erial to make a carb base gasket and also DO NOT use layers to make it thicker! Reason? Even if you use careful cross-pattern procedures to torque the retaining nuts down, you CAN easily crack the baseplate of the carb. Use the thin one and THEN ORDER the correct thicker OEM-type base gasket.

You might contact Woodruff Carb, usually an ad on these pages, who is a member here.

Keep us posted,
CBODY67

Good tip on breaking the ear off the carb (I think I did that at one point in my youth - lesson learned!). I went ahead & ordered the Fel-Pro since the car has been sitting so many years I wanted to change the oil & fog the cylinders to. My 16 year old son pulled the plugs and wiped out one of the plug boots, arghhh those wires only have like 2K miles on them! Then he had issue with the back plug so I just went down & got that in, he had me worried he may have stripped it - not sure why he had such an issue, its not nearly as bad as the 440 I had in a 69 Charger when I was his age! OK, so new Taylor wires ordered along with the gasket - should arrive Thursday.

 

[James Romano]

Although I have a 4bbl AFB, the thought process is the same. I agree with CBody67, use the thin one, but look into a phenolic gasket as well. The big issue these motors have is heat. The gas line just doesn't have time or enough air around it to stay cool so you pump hot fuel into an already hot fuel bowl. The thin gasket is not the end all fix for you as it won't hold back the heat. I did the same as you for a short while until I got it set up right. I used red locktight on my carb nuts as well.

I chose to use a phenolic gasket under my carb and I removed all the noise dampening crap from under the intake manifold to give the heat somewhere to go.

Helped a lot.