1955 1956 Buick Carburetor Question

[Airy Cat]

On the '55 and '56 Buick Century's with the WCFB carburetors there is a steel plate and a gasket that go between the intake manifold and the carburetor.

Which one goes next to the manifold; the steel plate or the gasket?

[old-tank]

The only late 55 and 56 cars I have seen had the Rochester 4gc that had a matching exhaust track in the base, and that only required the gasket that was cut out for the track.  For yours, I would think that you would use the gasket that is cut out for the track against the manifold, then the plate and finally the carb.

Even though I am all for putting these cars back together 'as designed', the highly volatile available fuel means that added heat below the carb is not needed.  I would just plug the manifold and use the non cut out gasket.

Willie

[Airy Cat]

My steel plate is burned out and I have a friend with a CNC to cut a new one out for me.

[Airy Cat]

I have produced the carburetor base plates for '55 and '56 Buicks with 4 barrel carburetors. They are 16 gauge steel about twice as thick as the stock ones. I will sell them for $25.00 each plus shipping.

[buick man]

As Willie said, the plate was part of the deal even when new but had the manifold access holes and tunnel folds to accommodate the heat transfer up into the carb for winter startups.  Back in the day with real gas, as has been noted before on these forums, winter gas was made purposely more volatile to accommodate easier starting conditions.  Methanol or Gas-o-hol accomplishes the same thing, but unfortunately is now a year round problem for the hobby in general.  Some folks to address this, block the manifold to head gasket area by using complete gaskets without the holes as Willie stated, still others install small thin plates inset into the manifold gasket to block off the holes at the head / manifold juncture as well as tapping and plugging the holes at the manifold / carb matting surface area ( 1957 - 62 ) 4 barrel jobs.  Still others pre 56 and post 57 alike, fill the manifold groove area with something like JB Weld or similar stuff to fill this voided area in the manifold while also making sure to install the heat plate with any application because if you do not use the plate the structural area around the base of the carb near the secondaries will be literally baked and corroded away thereby destroying the carb body.  This reaction is especially acute for Carter aluminum bodied AFB 4's .   Just a few words ….