Carburetor Gaskets

While it may look relatively simple, a carburetor base plate gasket does a few very important jobs. For starters, a good carb mounting gasket will ensure an airtight seal between the carburetor body and the intake manifold. A proper seal is very important here, because even a small leak can greatly affect the way your carbureted engine performs. A leaky carb seal also makes it really difficult to properly tune your carburetor and can contribute to a ton of other engine issues, including things like a poor idle, hesitation upon acceleration, and a loss of top-end power.

A carb mounting gasket can also act as a thermal barrier between a baking-hot intake manifold and the carburetor flange. By creating more isolation between those two mating surfaces, a good carb base plate gasket can mitigate a lot of heat soak coming from the engine—which can go a long way to prevent nagging fuel delivery problems like vapor lock.

And while carb mounting gasket thickness is often associated with its ability to block heat, there are a few other factors that need to be considered when selecting the thickness of your carburetor gasket. For instance, you may need to raise your carburetor body up a bit to provide room for vacuum ports or, conversely, opt for a thinner gasket to ensure proper hood clearance.

There are plenty of carburetor base plate gasket options available. To determine which one is right for your engine and carburetor, first determine the type of carburetor flange you’ve got. Common flange designs include square bore and spread bore, but there are several other flange layouts depending on the carburetor model you’re running.

Once you’ve determined the type of carburetor flange you’ve got (spread bore, square bore, etc.), then you can choose the overall carburetor base gasket thickness you need, followed by the type of material you want your carburetor gasket made from. Carb mounting gaskets are commonly made from paper, yet several nitrile rubber and other composite materials are popular as well. Each material has its pros and cons, so you may want to do a quick bit of research before selecting the best carburetor gasket material for your engine.

Spread bore or square bore, two barrel or four, when you’re ready to start shopping for carburetor base plate gaskets, use the intuitive filters on SummitRacing.com to pinpoint the precise one you need.