1955 carb gasket leaking

[mattstbird]

I have been trying to stop a vacuum leak at the baseplate of the carb. when i pulled it off originally to have it rebuilt it had 5 gaskets stacked. is this normal?

 

[zeroroadkill]

Not normal but some people do stack the gaskets to help prevent vapor lock. They sell a thicker gasket or a plastic base plate that isolates the heat from the intake manifold to the carburetor. Just make sure that the air cleaner still clears the hood!
P.s. use new gaskets and if you stack them don’t over tighten the bolts as you can warp the carburetor base. Been there, done that on another car? With the old stacked gaskets you might want to set the carb base on a flat surface to insure it’s perfectly flat.

 

[Ward 57]

Yes several gaskets were used as an insulator. In '57 they no longer used the teapot style carb which was taller than the carb used in '57 so there was enough room to use the phenolic insulating spacer.

 

[doug7740]

I have been trying to stop a vacuum leak at the baseplate of the carb. when i pulled it off originally to have it rebuilt it had 5 gaskets stacked. is this normal?

Yes, this is normal. In 1955 a stack of five thick gaskets were used.

doug7740
1955 Thunderbird Blue

 

[zeroroadkill]

People do stack the gaskets to help prevent vapor lock. They sell a thicker gasket or a plastic base plate that isolates the heat from the intake manifold to the carburetor. Just make sure that the air cleaner still clears the hood!
P.s. use new gaskets and if you stack them don’t over tighten the bolts as you can warp the carburetor base. Been there, done that on another car? With the old stacked gaskets you might want to set the carb base on a flat surface to insure it’s perfectly flat.

Interesting, Mine only had one.

 

[Ward 57]

Interesting, Mine only had one.

Most likely whomever removed or rebuilt the carb didn't understand why there were so many gaskets and just used one as that was most common. Probably thinking 'Why did they do that, Never have seen that before?' .

 

[zeroroadkill]

Most likely whomever removed or rebuilt the carb didn't understand why there were so many gaskets and just used one as that was most common. Probably thinking 'Why did they do that, Never have seen that before?' .

I'm sure that's correct.

 

[mattstbird]

I actually removed the carb, so the rebuilder never seen the stack of gaskets. you are right though i was perplexed by the stack.

 

[paul5456]

55's used a stack of gaskets. 56 used a thick single gasket.