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Carburetor Gaskets

727TT

Member
Should a gasket be located between the carburetor bottom and the air cleaner box?

Thanks,

Steven
727tt
 
Gasket

Short answer is yes.

An air leak there would not affect mixture...
An air leak there would allow unflitered air in.......
 
This comes up from time to time and you will get varying answers if you search including Van?s standard respsonse of ?it?s not necessary?. This is why they have historically never supplied one and don?t sell one unless they have changed their mind recently.
Many of us don?t use a gasket between the airbox and carb or servo. It can?t hurt, but there is little value to using one in my opinion. My opinion is always subject to change however.
Whatever you do, do not use any type of paste or other sealant. If you feel you must seal this joint, most definitely use only a gasket made of suitable material.

In flight, ram air is going to overcome any kind of leak here. I would be curious to see if at idle, air can get sucked in. To find out, you could do an ether or stater fluid check, but I am not that brave!
 
Thermal Insulation

I was having trouble with my carburetor getting too hot in warm weather and causing my engine to die at idle - usually on the runway just about to take off. After about a year of floundering around, I solved the problem by adding a 1/16" phenolic "gasket" between the sump and the carb, sandwiched on either side with a soft gasket from AutoZone. Problem solved.
 
I was having trouble with my carburetor getting too hot in warm weather and causing my engine to die at idle - usually on the runway just about to take off. After about a year of floundering around, I solved the problem by adding a 1/16" phenolic "gasket" between the sump and the carb, sandwiched on either side with a soft gasket from AutoZone. Problem solved.

This was a common problem in my hot rod days. Adding a plate to thermally isolate the carb to the manifold was mandatory or there would be carb problems. They came as aluminum plates and phenolic spacers. And they worked.
 
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