"unleashed" tapered qjet .5" spacer.

https://stores.unleashedcustommachining.com/5-inch-tapered-blend-quadrajet-carburetor-spacer/
Has anyone tried this or tested it?

 

Had one similar to it (maybe Wilson?) run with in 1 hp of my $15 plywood open spacer when we dynoed the motor in Mandys GS.

 

For the most part spacers are a waste of time/funds for most of these applications.

A 1/2" spacer isn't increasing plenum area enough to make one more ounce of power for 99 percent of the engines it would get added to.

With spacers raising the carburetor is involved. With early divorced choke set-ups this requires a longer rod up form the choke coil on the intake.

When you raise the carb high enough to require a shorter air cleaner element, drop base air cleaner or move the air cleaner lid closer to the carb you are going to loose more power than you ever hoped to gain more times than not. No one selling any of that stuff tells you any of this. In contrast to get you to buy into those sort of parts you are promised that your car will then leap taller buildings, walk on more water, do burnouts 200 more feet, wake you up and cook breakfast for you in the morning and tuck you in gently at night........in other words "propaganda" instead of real World results......

 

I totally agree with Cliff...but...on Mandy's GS with a cast iron intake with the divider cut half way down, Q-Jet, stock air cleaner with a 1/2 taller element a 1/2 spacer is worth a tenth, 4 hole 60ft a lil better, open MPH better with the same ET. Did back to back to back test back in the 90's when it was a 12.50 car, since then always ran the open spacer. That spacer has been on her car for 25 years now, next time I'm at a tnt night I'll pull it see if anything changes now that its faster.

I know of a Buick that had one of those fancy spacers on it that was mistakenly put on upside down, car ran really really good but was found after the rain started so no back to back comparison, this was with a Holly and a Cool Runner intake.

 

Cliff, I sent you a PM, could you have a look please.

 

Spacer testing for those who take a look at this thread.

I've tested all sorts of spacers, dyno and at the track.

The last time I had a private track rental I took 4 spacers along to test. The testing was done on my "modified" factor cast iron intake which BTW outran an Edelbrock RPM on the dyno by 6HP.

The spacers tested were the common "four hole", fully open, fully divided and semi-open (open between the secondaries). Prior to the actual drag strip testing I installed each one and did some street testing to get a "feel" for how they worked and any potential improvements there. The 4 hole showed a very slight improvement in "feel" right off idle and in the "normal" driving range. The fully open felt "soft" off idle and below about 2500rpm's, couldn't see much difference in the others.

To effectively test them I had to obtain a 1" shorter Shaker assembly to get the hood to close. At first I tried a 1" shorter air filter but it moved the lid 1" closer to the carb and induced all sorts of "issues" that I couldn't sort out. So I ended up making a custom air filter set-up for the Shaker opening and running no air filter or lid on top of the air cleaner base.

Anyhow, the "four hole" spacer was a complete TURD everyplace at the track. I lost ET and MPH at every point on the run.

The fully divided did OK but I lost some 60' and it ran less ET but about the same MPH as no spacer at all.

The fully open was a complete DISASTER. It induced a stumble/hesitation/bog that would NOT tune out. Once past the initial "stumble" it did pull really hard, but drag strip testing was not possible.

The semi-open spacer showed some real promise. It lost some 60' but picked up nearly almost 2 mph on top end. Sadly however, with the lost in 60' it got bested out slightly in ET by no spacer at all.

So at the end of the day when the smoke cleared and dust settled NO SPACER at all was the overall winner in ET. The semi-open spacer was the winner in MPH.

So about all I saw for my troubles (consider here the "cobbling" to use them, including raising the throttle bracket because the cable ended up a tad short and poor geometry, plus NOT being able to use my air filter and lid) was that no spacer at all produced the best drag strip runs.

Also consider that the test engine was 455cid, 11.3 to 1 compression, 236/245/112 roller cam with .630" lift, and custom CNC ported 298cfm aluminum heads.

IF I didn't pick up at the track with that much going on what are you doing to your little 350 with 9 to 1 compression and tiny little Comp XE262 cam in it?

The ONLY time I've seen SOLID improvements with spacers is on single plane intakes. They pretty much require one IMHO, especially if you are going to use a spread bore carb that sticks the huge rear throttle plates deeper into the plenum areas. Even with square flange carbs on the dyno a 1" well blended open spacer is typically worth 20-30hp. It can be worth double those numbers with a Q-jet or TQ and on one dyno test we did about 15 years ago we saw nearly 100hp improvement adding a 1" spacer to a BIG single plane intake trying to use a Q-jet on it. Yes, not a typo, almost 100hp difference back to back pulls!

Without writing a book here I'll add that raising the carb 1" then having to use a drop-base air cleaner, shorter air filter, or anything that moves the air cleaner lid closer to the carb with cost you a LOT of power. The folks selling all these parts woln't tell you that, and the same thing happens when you but a "high rise" intake manifold and find yourself doing the same things.......FWIW.......

 

Cliff can you post an example of a well blended open spacer for spread bore?

 

Don't have any here to take pics......

 

Any recommendations online?

They seem to be all over the map as far as blending goes