Ken,
The coolant hoses running into the manifold are for heating the manifold
for better atomization of the fuel mixture, not just to do it quickly, but
to help in atomizing the fuel during normal operation. Heated manifolds
keep the fuel from forming droplets on the manifold walls causing lean
uneven mixtures at idle and light to medium cruise speeds. At wide open
throttle the air flow (especially through these small bore manifolds) is
probably fast enough to prevent significant condensation without any
heating, and any HP gain from a cooler intake charge (again these would
only be achieved at WOT) would be very slight if even noticeable and, in my
opinion, would not be worth the driveability problems associated with
leaving it disconnected -
And, yes I use the heater. Use it almost every morning in the winter. Top
down (of course, is there any other way?) driving to work at five in the
morning. It can get quite chilly then, in fact I used it this morning -
now in the GT6, the only times I've used that heater is when it started to
overheat :-)
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>I'm about to install a set of dual SU's to replace the Zenith on my '72. Is
>it necessary to run coolant thru the intake manifold ? I assume it's done to
>warm the carb(s) quickly. But this car won't ever be driven in cold weather,
>at least not by me !! So, could the coolant lines be rerouted around the
>intake manifold ? If so, what's the best way ?
>
>Also, does anyone use the heater ? There seems to be plenty of heat in the
>cockpit, could the heater also be eliminated ? Just trying to simplify...
Barry Schwartz (San Diego) bschwart@pacbell.net
72 PI, V6 Spitfire (daily driver)
70 GT6+ (when I don't drive the Spit)
70 Spitfire (long term project)
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