Moparts
Cool Carb Heat Shields?
Posted By: YO7_A66
Cool Carb Heat Shields? - 03/02/12 04:29 PM
Has anyone used the Cool Carb heat sheilds? I am considering one and I was curious if there is any feedback on them.
http://www.coolcarb.com/photos.html Thanks
Posted By: racealittle
Re: Cool Carb Heat Shields? - 03/02/12 05:37 PM
I used that kind of thing 30 years ago, except mine was a 4 hole version. Mine used something like 6 gaskets.
I only used it for a couple of years. I eventually felt that there was too much of a chance for vacuum leaks since I was learning about carbs and was always removing/reinstalling while trying ideas that were new to me.
Kind of looks like a cool idea, but I learned that I really didn't need it.
Posted By: YO7_A66
Re: Cool Carb Heat Shields? - 03/02/12 06:05 PM
I made three different heat shield versions last year and my last version was long like the one shown in the picture. It did help keep the heat off of the bowls while at idle speeds and after the engine was shut off. I know the idea works and now I want to buy one for a permanent setup. I like the idea of having the layers of aluminum with the other material in between them. The aluminum would make the piece stiff enough and not crack while the other material will help with heat transfer.
Thanks for your response.
Posted By: topside
Re: Cool Carb Heat Shields? - 03/02/12 07:00 PM
They work, especially with Holleys, which seem to get more heat-soak than Carters. You can find them on Ebay, at Summit or Jeg's, or in the Holley catalog. They don't need more than one paper gasket on each side, which I lightly grease for easy removal and to prevent any tiny air/vacuum leaks.
Posted By: Jeremiah
Re: Cool Carb Heat Shields? - 03/02/12 07:27 PM
I would be interested in seeing what the difference in temp at the carb main body with and without this type of gasket. It would be measured with an IR temp probe to some degree of accuracy. I would imagine that something like would be beneficial, especially with the quality of gasoline these days.
Posted By: YO7_A66
Re: Cool Carb Heat Shields? - 03/02/12 08:07 PM
The three home-made-units that I tested last year (during Spring/Summer/Fall) were long and wide, similar to the one in the picture. I do not have an actual temperature for your reference, but I did drive my car around and then raise the hood to find the carb cool to touch while it was idling. Keep in mind that my Challenger dual snorkle hood has the two vents open so the outside air is coming into the hood while driving (50 deg minimum outside temp) which could have had some affect on the temp of the carb. But I was surprised to find such a temperature difference between the carb and the motor though. Even after a while of driving, the carb was warm but definately not close to being hot. Then after the engine had been shut off and it started to heat soak, my fuel bowls (glass sights) only raised about 1/8". This was enough proof for me to try and have a permanent shield in place by this coming Spring.
Note: I just checked Summit and the three that they show are not as wide or as wide/long as the one that Cool Carb is showing. I found that when the shield is stretched beyond the front/rear of the bowls is when they seemed worked the best. This makes the hot air from the intake go out and then up around the carb when rising instead if going straight up under the bowls.
I attached a picture showing my second revision. It may be a little hard to see because it is clear.
Posted By: Dixie
Re: Cool Carb Heat Shields? - 03/02/12 08:48 PM
Just be careful, I had the heat sink material in one melt. I'll try and post pics later. In all fairness, I guess my engine did get hot, but hot enough to melt the heat sink? I don't know......
Posted By: dart1962_440
Re: Cool Carb Heat Shields? - 03/02/12 11:19 PM
I put a 1/4" thick one on my 69 GTX & it fit and worked well for me.
Posted By: GO_Fish
Re: Cool Carb Heat Shields? - 03/03/12 03:11 AM
I think your best bet is to use a material that is not heat conductive. Aluminum is very temperature sensitive, and ATTRACTS heat just as fast as it draws heat away. When you park hot, the plate will draw heat towards the carb if the carb is cooler than the engine when you stop. Not what you want. There is some "heat sink" effect with the large surface area, but I'd bet your plexiglass shield is better than aluminum.
Posted By: YO7_A66
Re: Cool Carb Heat Shields? - 03/03/12 06:06 PM
The plexiglass worked well but it kept cracking. All three cracked between the mounting holes and the inside thoat cutout. I used radii in all corners but it still cracked.
The Cool Carb design in multi layered. I assume that that the middle layer is a heat sink. I have stayed away from aluminum in the past due to the heat conductivity, and this is why the CC got my attention. I would love to use a phenolic piece but I have not found one made of phenolic that is the shape of the CC unit which I know works.
Posted By: GO_Fish
Re: Cool Carb Heat Shields? - 03/03/12 11:46 PM
Okay, I didn't look at the link in your first post. With the insulation in between the aluminum layers, it should block heat transfer pretty good.
Posted By: YO7_A66
Re: Cool Carb Heat Shields? - 03/07/12 02:37 AM
I called and talked to the guy at Cool Carb today. He has a thicker heat shield that is not shown on his websight. I bought it plus a spacer to go under my QF carb. I will show pictures once I have it installed.
He had a cool history behind the material that he uses. In a short version, he is a machinist and a buddy needed him to make him a heat sheild and he did not have any aluminum sitting around so he used some of the material that his company created for heat sink material. He machined one out of this material (aluminum/heat sink/aluminum) and it worked to keep the heat off of the carb for his buddy's race car. So he started making the sheilds and spacers for other racing buddies then then after he retired, he started making spacers for all kinds of carbs and now he sells them on his websight. He was very nice and explained to me about the above and about the parts that were not on his site.
I will give an update and pictures next week after they are installed. This picture shows the set that I bought but this one shows the thinner shield. The thicker ones are bronze colored. My goal is to just keep this crapty gas cooler for my street car.
Posted By: Dixie
Re: Cool Carb Heat Shields? - 03/10/12 09:28 PM
Here's a pic of mine.
Posted By: Dixie
Re: Cool Carb Heat Shields? - 03/10/12 09:29 PM
another
Posted By: YO7_A66
Re: Cool Carb Heat Shields? - 03/11/12 12:12 AM
Dixie,
How hot did that thing get? That material is supposed to be good to 300 degrees.
How long ago did this happen?
Thanks
Posted By: Dixie
Re: Cool Carb Heat Shields? - 03/11/12 03:03 AM
I installed it in Aug of 2011, and removed it in November of 2011.
Don't know how hot it got, but the gauge never pegged. Could the gauge be off? Maybe, I bought a restored set and put it in, but I guess it could be wrong. The car did get hot, I found this because I tore it down to rebuild it for other reasons. I just happened to find this while taking it apart.
I spoke to the guy at cool carb and he said he had this happen only once before, and it was also with a BB Mopar. My reason for posting about it is to recommend you keep an eye on it. If you don't overheat, you'll probably be fine.
Posted By: YO7_A66
Re: Cool Carb Heat Shields? - 03/11/12 03:48 AM
Dixie,
Thanks for the heads up. I will keep an eye on it.
Posted By: YO7_A66
Re: Cool Carb Heat Shields? - 03/11/12 09:19 PM
I installed my set today. I opted for the extra thick shield and the standard spacer.
Posted By: YO7_A66
Re: Cool Carb Heat Shields? - 03/11/12 09:24 PM
I had been tuning my carb and ignition right after I installed the set and after I was done tuning (apx 20 minutes) the carb was "cool" to the touch while the engine was to temp with a 195 thermostat. It was weird when the bowls were cold and the engine had been idling for that long.
After I shut it down, I kept watching the fuel levels in the bowls to see how high they would go while the engine was heating up. Both bowls only raised about 1/16". After about 15 minutes of heat soak when I knew the carb was getting warmer (1/16" of fuel rise), I touched both of the bowls and the shield and they were finally warm but definately not hot. I restarted the car about an hour later with no issues.
Posted By: enbro
Re: Cool Carb Heat Shields? - 07/09/12 04:42 PM
I bought one for $25 at Carlisle. An hour into my drive home here's what it looked like (my friend bought one too...his melted so bad it stuck his carb open and we had to stop and his looked like mine too)
Posted By: enbro
Re: Cool Carb Heat Shields? - 07/09/12 04:43 PM
Here's another shot...
Posted By: YO7_A66
Re: Cool Carb Heat Shields? - 07/09/12 05:10 PM
Man, that is ugly! Have you contacted Cool Carb?
I have not had any reason to pull mine off, but the next time I get a chance, I might just to make sure.
Note: Another member had one do the same thing but he knew that he overheated his engine. They are supposed to be good to 300 degrees before melting.
Posted By: Challenger 1
Re: Cool Carb Heat Shields? - 07/09/12 05:17 PM
Why would they use aluminum on a item that supposed to isolate heat?
Posted By: enbro
Re: Cool Carb Heat Shields? - 07/09/12 06:18 PM
Mine was in my A100 van, guess it's hotter then 300 under there...and my buddy's too.
As far as I'm concerned, they're junk.
Posted By: pushbutton
Re: Cool Carb Heat Shields? - 07/09/12 06:29 PM
Quote:
I installed it in Aug of 2011, and removed it in November of 2011.
Don't know how hot it got, but the gauge never pegged. Could the gauge be off? Maybe, I bought a restored set and put it in, but I guess it could be wrong. The car did get hot, I found this because I tore it down to rebuild it for other reasons. I just happened to find this while taking it apart.
Is this the same product the guy was selling in the swap meet area at the Mopar Nats last year?
If so I think i'll be taking mine off,as my heat crossover isn't blocked off.
Posted By: pacifica
Re: Cool Carb Heat Shields? - 07/10/12 04:27 AM
Do any of you that melted your cool carb spacers have your choke heater passages open? or blocked off? Alot of heat goes under the carb if they are not blocked off.
That may be why it melted?
Posted By: enbro
Re: Cool Carb Heat Shields? - 07/10/12 04:50 AM
My friend and I both installed them (his is a two-barrel, mine is a one) and about an hour on the highway his trottle was stuck. So we pulled over and noticed his spacer melting, keeping his carb butterflies wide open! We both took them off and that's what mine looked like. His was similar. No choke things open or anything.
I will admit the engine bay in an A100 gets really hot, but neither of us was overheating...just regular heat as expected. Nothing else has ever melted in there....never melted any wires or hoses or anything. The cool carb thing is junk.
Posted By: YO7_A66
Re: Cool Carb Heat Shields? - 07/11/12 03:31 AM
You had me worried so I pulled my carb tonight andI found my Cool Carb spacers/heat shield looking brand new. I have been running this combo since March and this is the first time that I pulled the carb since adding these pieces. So far they are looking good.
Posted By: Stanton
Re: Cool Carb Heat Shields? - 07/11/12 03:41 AM
I spoke to that Cool Carb guy at length at Carlisle last year. Turns out that he makes these out of "end of run" material which he buys for a song. I got the impression that the whole business was built on the premise of "what can I make with this stuff?" as opposed to "what would make a good carb heat shield?". After reading the posts I think I'll stick with a phenolic spacer if I need one.
Posted By: Challenger 1
Re: Cool Carb Heat Shields? - 07/11/12 11:53 AM
I don't care what kind of space age junk is between those layers of aluminum, because I would never use aluminum to isolate heat from my carb.
Posted By: YO7_A66
Re: Cool Carb Heat Shields? - 07/11/12 11:54 AM
I talked with him too before I bought my setup. The material that he uses was designed by the company that he used to work for and retired from. The material is a heat sink material that is used in and around electrical transformers. He is a racer and he started making these for his buddies and found the carb to be much cooler on the engine with this material underneath. The material should work but once again, it has a maximum heat specification of 300 degrees.
I was a skeptic when I first put these spacers on, and I used a heat gun on the bowls after I drove the car and I found a substantial heat difference from the intake to the carb bowls. I took some more readings over this past weekend in the 92 degree heat and after shutting off the car, I found the intake in the 225 range and my bowls in the low 100's (113-120 range if I remember correctly).
All I know is that the product works on my car and it has now for five months.
I do have my hood vents open on my rallye hood and my A/F NEVER GETS LEANER than 14.4-14.6 and that is only at 45-50mph. All other cruise A/F readings (30mph to 70mph) show 13.8-14.2.
Don't get me wrong, I am not trying to argue with you. It appears that something was either wrong with the material or your engine is hotter than the material can handle. I just don't think that his carb spacers are JUNK which was written in a previous statement above. He tested the material at the track and found it to work on the race cars. He then put out the effort to provide a wide range of heat shields for many types of carbs. He even put his engine in a video and showed people what the temperature differences were that he found.
I would suggest finding out how hot that intake is before going on the net and saying that someone's hard work is JUNK before you know for sure that your application meets his product specifications.
Posted By: Challenger 1
Re: Cool Carb Heat Shields? - 07/11/12 11:57 AM
Since they melted on more than one customers engines, I'd say there junk imo, sorry.
Posted By: YO7_A66
Re: Cool Carb Heat Shields? - 07/11/12 12:24 PM
I tried to keep this thread from being a bash-fest but it appears that even those who have not even used the product are jumping on this guy.
We don't know if this is a product failure, or if it is a tuning issue, or if it is just the wrong application.
I feel bad for the three customers that have had their issues with this product. But for those of us that have been actually using the product and have not had any issues, how can the product be "proven" to be JUNK?
I checked mine last night and my three pieces (two spacers and a heat shield) looked brand new after five months of driving.
Sometimes, it is much easier to blame someone then it is to apply effort to solve the actual problem.
Posted By: Challenger 1
Re: Cool Carb Heat Shields? - 07/11/12 01:07 PM
Quote:
I tried to keep this thread from being a bash-fest but it appears that even those who have not even used the product are jumping on this guy.
We don't know if this is a product failure, or if it is a tuning issue, or if it is just the wrong application.
I feel bad for the three customers that have had their issues with this product. But for those of us that have been actually using the product and have not had any issues, how can the product be "proven" to be JUNK?
I checked mine last night and my three pieces (two spacers and a heat shield) looked brand new after five months of driving.
Sometimes, it is much easier to blame someone then it is to apply effort to solve the actual problem.
Why should someone have to "apply the effort to solve the actual problem" when the product is defective. It's supposed to solve a problem not create one.
Posted By: YO7_A66
Re: Cool Carb Heat Shields? - 07/11/12 01:14 PM
""Why should someone have to "apply the effort to solve the actual problem" when the product is defective. It's supposed to solve a problem not create one.""
Why did the persons buy the carb spacer in the first place? To cure an existing heat problem?
Posted By: vandude
Re: Cool Carb Heat Shields? - 07/11/12 03:01 PM
what about wood? Would a denser "hardwood" like oak be better, or would a softer one like pine transfer less heat?
I guess the stainless "heat shields" above my exhaust manifolds shouldn't work, but they did make a huge difference with vapor-lock tendencies.
Posted By: 1980volare
Re: Cool Carb Heat Shields? - 07/11/12 06:16 PM
yep there completly junk, i will be talking to the cool carb guy at the nats this year, and will be attempting to get my money back. both of mine on two seperate vehicles melted/de-bonded from the aluminum. both engines have never been ran hot, and were only on there for 4 months before the melted.
Posted By: Stanton
Re: Cool Carb Heat Shields? - 07/11/12 06:23 PM
The plastic sandwiched in the middle of these is undoubtably a common low-end compound - a polyethylene of sorts (hence the relatively low cost!). Unless you get into REALLY expensive, exotic compounds, most only have a continuous operating temperature of around 200*. That's why those few melted. On a race car they likely wouldn't be an issue but on a street car they'd eventually become heat soaked and subsequently melt.
Posted By: YO7_A66
Re: Cool Carb Heat Shields? - 07/12/12 12:47 PM
Last night I was testing some secondary jetting which allowed the car to get nice and warm. It was 85 degrees outside and my engine was up to temp (I use a 195 degree thermostat) and my tranny temp was right around the 190-200 mark after allot of spirited driving and a hand full of cruise to WOT runs. When I got the car home, I thought that this would be a good opportunity to take some temperature readings on the intake and the carb fuel bowls while the car was going thru the heat soak process. I took the temperature readings at the same two places from the time that I got out of the car until about 20 minutes later. All eight readings were taken in the same location which was about one inch down from the carb mounting flange on the intake and the other was on the rear fuel bowl (hotter of the two bowls). The first number is the intake temp and the second number is the rear bowl:
215/122, 213/118, 206/118, 206/117, 200/125, 194/122, 188/119, 177/118
The highest temperature of the intake was 215 degrees and highest temperature of the fuel bowl was 125 which was during heat soak. The temperature difference between the intake and the bowl was 95-59 degrees difference. The only material between the intake and the mounting surface of the carb is the Cool Carb spacers (2) and the Cool Carb heat shield.
I know that some of you are having problems with the melting of the material, but I am not. I have shown that my intake temperature is 85 degrees below the material specification from Cool Carb which is 300 degrees. The temperature numbers alone show that the material works to keep the heat from going up to the bowls. I understand the concern about these parts melting on your intakes but I am going to continue to run mine. Since I just checked mine two nights ago and I show no signs of melting, I will continue to run mine but I will also be aware of what can happen and I will keep an eye on the spacers. The material is great as a heat insulator! But the problem is that we don't know how hot these other motors are getting to create the melting issue. If those of you that have melted one of these spacers can show that your intake temperatures are below 220 degrees or so, then I would be worried about running these spacers in the future. But I have given an example of the temperatures that my spacers are sitting upon and I am not seeing the melting issue.
Posted By: pushbutton
Re: Cool Carb Heat Shields? - 07/12/12 06:51 PM
Quote:
The plastic sandwiched in the middle of these is undoubtably a common low-end compound - a polyethylene of sorts (hence the relatively low cost!). Unless you get into REALLY expensive, exotic compounds, most only have a continuous operating temperature of around 200*. That's why those few melted. On a race car they likely wouldn't be an issue but on a street car they'd eventually become heat soaked and subsequently melt.
Just finished checking mine,it had started melting. I do not have the heat crossover blocked. I know that made matters worse. Glad I saw this thread and checked,it was just before causing a problem. I bought it last year at the Nats from the guy selling them in the swap meet area. Not bashing anyone,just the way it was.
Posted By: pacifica
Re: Cool Carb Heat Shields? - 07/12/12 09:16 PM
My opinion is the heat crossover is the cause.....
Also it shouldn't be installed on a "egr valve" type intake manifold either as there is alot of heat from the egr