Carb Spacer, Super Sucker Gain 10 HP, does this thing work?
 

Hi,

Just picked up the latest Family & Performance Boating magazine. And there is an article about a 1" carb spacer called a Super Sucker, they claim a 10 HP gain.

Has anybody used this, or know much about how effective this thing is?

What performance gains (if any) did you get?

And if it does work, why not put two or three etc... spacers??

I do remamber years ago, the muscle cars had the really high Tunnel Rams, but don't know how they, or if they work.


I have a 454 Magnum with CMI headers, motor is exposed, so height is a non-issue.

Thanks in advance

10hp may get you .5 mph ;)

Do a search on carb spacers! or just try spacer. I asked this question and have determined that same day dyno testing may be the only answer. A lot depends on different engine combo's like carb,intake,heads,cam and just about anything else that you can think of. After your search you will find out the difference between open hole and 4 hole spacers. This seems to be important with torque and rpm ranges. What I liked about the article or should I say infomercial that you read in the magazine is that this spacer is designed to combine both type of spacers to give you the best of both. Do they work? I have no clue!!!
I was thinking about trying them but not sure if it's worth the hastle changing the fuel lines,mine have quite a few twists and bends in them. There ya go just my .02:D

I just read your post again if you take the time to do this search you will learn a lot on why the tunnel ram type intake may not be the best application in a boat engine and stacking those spacers would be a huge mistake they are designed to flow a certain way look at the picture again!!

There is no cheap way out if you want to gofast then you have to pay, especialy for reliability wich in most of our cases is more important than a couple of HP. Just my .02 again:rolleyes: and of course way too much coffee this morning:crazy:

10hp ???? I run a 1: spacer on mine. I have a Merlin intake and Holly 830 cfm carb.The real reason I have the spacer was so I would have a place to hook up a vaccum guage. I had to drill & tap the spacer so I could put a fitting in it to attach a guage to....
Maybe when I get some dyno time in I can put it to the test..
2Slow,you can't just stack spacers on top of each other. 1st I don't know where you would find stud bolts & second I believe you would most lik;y be creating a area for a vavvum leak...
They do make different size spacers though.
I do not get Family and Performance so I don't know what they were charging,but you can get the 1"aluminum spacer for around 20 bucks.

He is not talking about a 20.00 spacer. The spacers that are in this article are machined to start out open then act like a 4 hole at the end. They also have a couple of other tricks. They want 100.00 for them!

Dennis,
If you read this it may make a interesting article for the mag.
I know you have to be carefull without trying to biased with the advertisers but it would be nice to see actuall facts instead of a bunch of guessing or if nothing else look at the article on this piece and give your opinion over here. Thanks Scott


I Know this is trivial stuff but hey it's winter and a great time to tweak!

There is no magic in a spacer !!! A spacer is a great tuning tool to help optimize your induction system. The only spacer that will always add power are the one with spray bars in them for nitrous. You can use spacers to help move your power band up or down, or to help with distrabution problems.

As a rule of thumb a 4-hole designed spacer will increase the air velocity through the engine, moving your power band down (a little) and increasing your torque. While an open spacer will increase your plenum volume, move your power band up, and increase your top end power.

I've watched a spacer increase power on an engine 27hp, we then removed that engine and ran the same spacer on another engine (on the same dyno within 2 hours) that was 57hp better nat., but the spacer made no power changes on that motor at all.

Spacers are something you need to try on your combination, there is no magic answer.


Doug

Tech @ Barry Grant, Inc.

You tell 'em RumRunner!!!
Some setups can benefit from a spacer, some not. Consult your builder or maybe the intake manufacturer. I have never tried one of these spacers. Tried for fuel ecenomy once and made a spacer that fit the carb bores and radiused into the plenum, about 1" tick.
We LOST mileage, NO power gain. An open spacer or a 4 hole made more mileage than the hard-to-make radiused one, the same power. This was a stock 305 car engine. My experience with spacers has been just like RumRunner's.
I would save the money.

If your induction is of a design that benefits from a spacer then you might get 10 HP, but I doubt that extra groove they machined in the bore does anything different than every other spacer.

Open spacers are cool (sometimes).
 

An open spacer is used to double the size of the carburetion on a dual plane intake manifold. Because a dual plane intake manifold has a divider in the plenum each cylinder can only pull air/fuel from two barrels. Example; each cylinder will only see 400 cfm of a 800 cfm carburetor.

Add an open spacer and you effectively eliminate the divider allowing each cylinder to pull from all four barrels (all 800 cfm). If the engine is undercarburated in the first place, doubling the size of the carburetor with a spacer or open plenum may show a 10 horsepower increase (easy).

Adding an open spacer to a single plane intake manifold that already has an open plenum (that already flows full carb cfm to all of the cylinders) will not result in such a dramatic horsepower increase.

Single plane intake manifolds and open spacers became popular in NHRA drag racing in the super stock classes that required a stock (small) carburetor. The open plenum would effectively double the size of the small carburetor.

Single plane intake manifolds and open spacers are not a good setup if you have the luxury of a large carburetor on a good dual plane intake manifold.

Hope this makes sense to somebody!
Sincerely
Dennis Moore

Does that mean you can run a 425cfm if you divide the plenum or add a spacer when you had an 850?