351C Valley Pan w/Aluminum Intake?

IIRC, the valley pans main purpose in life was to keep hot oil from splashing against the bottom of the intake. Add that the factory intakes were cast iron and could handle the sealing charactersitics of the steel gasket better....... For a daily driver, heating the bottom of the intake may even be a good thing depending on climatic conditions but the added heat can affect the intake charge quite dramatically in a performance application.

I'm not familiar with this manifold and would have to ask if it is an 'air gap' style?

Jim Warman snipped-for-privacy@telusplanet.net

Hi, Jim,

Thanks for the info.

This is a "Performer" (Idle - 5500 RPM) made to fit the 2V ports. I looked in Summit's catalog, and definitely is not an air gap.

If heat is the issue, then it might not hurt then to put a 1" phonolic spacer on the carb?

TIA Rick

The phenolic spacer will help reduce the temperature of the fuel in the float bowls..... always a good thing since it helps make the fuel denser. You might even look at the heat shield variety carb spacers.... they include an aluminum heat shield under the carb and I think they look good in the process.

The only word of caution I can think of at the moment is if you are in an area that has frequent periods of moist, cool air. These can increase the incidence of carb icing, especially in the abscenece of any manifold and/or intake air heating devices. If you experience carb icing you can "get by" by allowing the motor to sit long enough for the engine heat to melt the ice in the throttle bore.

Many years ago, I can remember covering 200 miles 20 miles at a time 8^(

Jim