You guys made me curious about fuel & air temperatures.

Does anyone know the temperature range of air going into a stovebolt carburetor with an original style air filter?
How much higher than ambient?

Has anyone tried a cold air intake?

Here are calculator sheets i just made for estimating carburetor temperature, and another one for fuel temperature with a return line:
SMath worksheets

A return line should keep the lines and the tank at about equal temperature, but the carb runs substantially hotter than the rest of the fuel.
It looks like running a return system makes the supply side of the pump pretty much impervious to vapor lock (not sure about underbody temperatures though?). But depending on the air intake temperature, there is still potential for vapor lock temperatures in the carb itself. I found this link saying there's a high risk of vapor once the fuel get ~130-40F.


It would be interesting to input any temperature estimates you guys have, to see if this calculator is in the right ballpark or not.

Last edited by Ott3r; 02/22/2020 12:40 AM.
'59 Chevy Suburban, NAPCO