Honeycomb under a Carburetor

[TrikeKid]

I know most of you guys probably don't have much carburetor knowledge, as they aren't as efficient and just aren't around anymore on cars, but I thought I'd try. I drive an 85 Toyota Pickup with the carbureted 22R. I was googling around looking at vacuum gauges, and came across this article. Gas Saving Gadgets. The author mentions a "honeycomb spacer that fit under the carburetor" as something to atomize fuel and help with economy. Has anyone seen anything like this? I could make something pretty easily on the cheap, but I have things I'd rather do if it would all be for naught.

My truck got all of 18 mpg combined before the transmission broke (5th gear went, have another trans ready to go as soon as I come up with the other parts) I'm looking to improve some. My current goal that i hope to achieve through better driving and the non broken trans is to simply get to the EPA rated mileage. If I can do that, then I'll look farther up the ladder. Right now only having 4 gears I'm estimating that I'm getting 15 mpg, which would be acceptable if I drove a full size truck, but I don't. The old squirrel motor is tired, but I still don't think it's impossible to improve on this.

[justpassntime]

I had a car that had a factory spacer under the carb that had a screen in it. I figured it was there to atomize the fuel. It's probably more the spacer thickness than the honeycomb that has to do with anything. The thicker the spacer the faster the airflow is supposed to be and helps to atomize the fuel better.

You might get better fuel burn with a MSD ignition also. I put one on a Chev 350, didn't do a tune up and never touched the rest of the ignition system. Added the ignition and it did run a lot better and started better too.

I am an old carb guy. I used to rebuild and set up carbs for people at a place I once worked. (Not going to tell you it was an military aircraft hydraulic shop.) Most everyone said they never had to adjust the carb after putting it on the car.

[MetroMPG]

Whenever someone raises the subject of some kind of fuel saving gadget, I always head over to Fuel saving - a professional engineer's view .

Surprisingly, here's what was said about your case:

A device to increase atomisation might provide real benefits on an old carburettor-fuelled vehicle, but not on anything with fuel injection.

(Source)

As to whether the honeycomb actually increases atomization though, that's an entirely different question.

[metroschultz]

Those same parts were used on a lot of the Carbs from the late '80s American trucks.
Most had some sort of heater built into them.
I can tell you from experience that if you take one out (because it is cracked and making a vacuum leak) the truck will run worse,
so, it is easy fro me to see that it would help it to run better.
IMO find one from a reputable supplier with a heater built in and you should be on the money.
S.

[SuperTrooper]

These devices are called carb spacers and are a very common method of tuning carb engines. Here is a very good article from PHR about spacers and what they do:

Best Carb Spacer Cheap Horse Power - Popular Hot Rodding Magazine

[TrikeKid]

Originally Posted by metroschultz

IMO find one from a reputable supplier with a heater built in and you should be on the money.
S.

Good luck with that one, the carb manufacture has been out of business for a while now (Weber) getting replacement parts that are worth a damn is hard enough. I think the closest I'm going to get on this one is to buy a higher quality carb adapter from Trans-Dapt and maybe add a few fins/veins into it ala http://www.scaryfastracing.net/