Click on image for the lowdown. 
====
| | | Forums66 Topics128,068 Posts1,055,880 Members48,428 | | Most Online14,466
Apr 26th, 2026 | | AD Chevy Trucks  Over 6,000 pictures Brad Allen has an awesome collection of Chevrolet factory pictures that he has set up from film strips. Check them out!
Lots of work on Brad's part ... pure enjoyment (and references) for you!
| | THANKS!
For helping keep this great
old truck web site
on the Internet for over 30 years! and not clogged down
with Ads!  Again, thanks!
| | | | Joined: Jul 2011 Posts: 28 New Guy | | New Guy Joined: Jul 2011 Posts: 28 | Is there a gasket that goes between the carb and the black plastic piece under the carb (sorry, don't know the name?) Here is a pic: Carb Pic
-Troy
| | | | | Joined: Dec 2003 Posts: 2,733 Shop Shark | | Shop Shark Joined: Dec 2003 Posts: 2,733 | | | | | | Joined: Oct 2006 Posts: 9,671 'Bolter | | 'Bolter Joined: Oct 2006 Posts: 9,671 | That's an insulator Troy, acts as a thermal break between
the carb base and the intake manifold.
Denny G
Denny G
Sandwich, IL
| | | | | Joined: Oct 2010 Posts: 1,232 'Bolter | | 'Bolter Joined: Oct 2010 Posts: 1,232 | FWIW - neither my '54 Assembly Manual nor my '54 Shop Manual shows a gasket on either side of the insulator. I have an original Bakelite insulator on my '54 235 w/Rochester B and I don't use any gaskets. No leaks.
I tried using a gasket on each side of the insulator but it raised the carb up enough to make the carb linkage too short. The throttle wouldn't open completely.
My Bakelite insulator has a soft coating on both sides (maybe old gas). It seals it at the carb base and at the manifold. Reproduction plastic insulators probably don't seal as well - even if you lapped the two surfaces of the insulator. Note: Chevs of the 40s advertises a "Bakelite" insulator, but it's really just plastic like all the other reproductions.
- Lonnie My '54 3104Photos that I have shared on Stovebolt via PhotoBucket are no longer available. Please contact me if you want a photo from an old post. lonniecook [at] aol [dot] com. I sold my '54 3104 12/12/2017, but I still visit Stovebolt. OLD STUFF ... houses, furniture, cars, wine ... I love it all | | | | | Joined: Sep 2001 Posts: 29,269 Bubba - Curmudgeon | | Bubba - Curmudgeon Joined: Sep 2001 Posts: 29,269 | Lonnie,
You are, of course, correct about no gaskets being mentioned in the Shop Manual.
In the purist's tradition, I have tried it with no gaskets. Usually, I have had leaks between the carb and the insulator, so I now always use a gasket there. Most of the time I get away with no gasket between the bottom of a smooth insulator and the top of a smooth intake manifold.
Just in case someone reading this does not know, there are notches in the gasket, one of which should line up with a vacuum hole/port in the base of the carburetor - this notch must line up with that hole in the base of the carburetor.
The original phenolic spacers/insulators had notches in them. Some replacement insulators do not have the notches in them - a correctly orientated gasket must be used with this type of reproduction insulator.
| | |
|
|
