North American Turbocoupe Organization



Phenolic or wood spacer...
Kuch Offline
Senior Member
#1
I searched on here and didn't see anyone post about any phenolic spacer for the intakes on our cars. The turboford site has some talking about it and they say it does keep the intake cooler than not using one. I now that wood is the best at insulating and should work fine in our cars as we have only air blowing through the intakes. Has anyone tried making one, either wood or phenolic and had any luck with it? I was thinking of trying one out between the lower and upper.
1988 Turbo Coupe, Black/Black, 5 Speed, Moonroof,  T3/T4, ported E6, 255LPH, Kirban, Stinger Exhaust, MGW shifter, K&N, Gillis valve, BP1.5, PIMPx, Koni's
1964 Ford Galaxie 500XL, 390 6V, Big Solid cam, Headers,3.89's, 4 Speed, Vast and fast
1960 Ford Starliner, 292 Y Block, 312 4bbl intake, headers, 3 Speed, slow and low
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anasazi4st Offline
Senior Member
#2
(04-21-2020, 11:51 PM)Kuch Wrote: I searched on here and didn't see anyone post about any phenolic spacer for the intakes on our cars. The turboford site has some talking about it and they say it does keep the intake cooler than not using one. I now that wood is the best at insulating and should work fine in our cars as we have only air blowing through the intakes. Has anyone tried making one, either wood or phenolic and had any luck with it? I was thinking of trying one out between the lower and upper.

Just to be clear: do you mean between the two halves—the upper and lower intake manifolds?

Interesting thought. I don’t have a spacer, nor did I consider one before.

Looking at the Ford Shop Manual, there doesn’t appear to be a gasket or spacer between the two halves. None that I see mentioned, anyway.

Anyone else have any thoughts on this?
Another proud dues-paying member.

1987 Turbo Coupe w/T5OD, 8.8 axle, grey smoke; most options. Got it in 1991 with 41K miles: 3 turbos, 2 heater cores, 3 T5OD full rebuilds, 6 clutches, 1 head gasket, 2 Teves II ABS units, etc. later....
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Jeff K Offline
Administrator
#3
I have had a phenolic spacer between the upper and lower intakes on my Tbird 5.0 for years. I am pretty sure it keeps the incoming air cooler, but didnt really notice much if any performance difference. One thing the spacer did to is allow me to put on some taller polished aluminum really nice looking taller valve covers.
Jeff Korn

88 Turbo Coupe: Intake and exhaust mods, T3 turbo at 24 psi, forced air IC, water injection, BPV, Ranger cam, subframes, etc., etc.
86 Tbird 5.0 (original owner): intake, exhaust, valvetrain mods, 100 HP N2O, ignition, gears, suspension, etc., etc.
11 Crown Vic Interceptor
14 Toyota Camry (wifes car)
95 Taurus GL Vulcan winter beater
67 Honda 450 Super Sport - completely customized
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Mikey97D Offline
Senior Member
#4
When I took mine apart last month there were gaskets between the upper and lower (head and throttle body too). I replaced them all when reinstalling.

If you have a fmic I could see adding a phelonic spacer being beneficial although I am not sure how much you would gain. It would be nice to take temperatures of both with a laser temp gun before and after (don't forget to record ambient).

Is there enough room under the hood to use a spacer?
1988 TC, 5 spd, Stinger 3" Exhaust, Schneider Roller Cam, -4° Cam Pulley, Cone Filter, Gilles Boost Control Valve set at 17 psi, Walbro 255 lph, CHE Rear Lower and Upper Control Arms, Braided Brake Lines, Hawk HPS 5.0 Front and HPS (F) Rear, CRES Inserts in front calipers, and '93 Cobra Wheels with General 235/50R17 Tires.   
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Kuch Offline
Senior Member
#5
Yeah, this is just something I wanted to mess around with and see. The Turboford guys have used them on a few different cars. One was an autocrosser and he found his times got more consistent while using one as the intake didn't get heat soaked as much. Some used one between the head and the lower, thus also giving the option of eliminating the water passage to the intake. If doing this, one would have to move the ECT sensor somewhere else, but they did say it worked at keeping the whole intake cooler. I know, this is trivial, but you know how we can't leave well enough alone on these cars. I have a FMIC going on this summer as well, so the stock TMIC will get removed and give me more room without the duct work.
1988 Turbo Coupe, Black/Black, 5 Speed, Moonroof,  T3/T4, ported E6, 255LPH, Kirban, Stinger Exhaust, MGW shifter, K&N, Gillis valve, BP1.5, PIMPx, Koni's
1964 Ford Galaxie 500XL, 390 6V, Big Solid cam, Headers,3.89's, 4 Speed, Vast and fast
1960 Ford Starliner, 292 Y Block, 312 4bbl intake, headers, 3 Speed, slow and low
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