M10 Carburetor Intake Manifold Vacuum Leak

[jkavulla]

I have been lurking the forums for a while, but this is my first post.

My car is a 1984 318i. I have removed all the fuel injection and installed a Weber 38 DGAS carburetor with a 2002 tii distributor and IE 292 degree cam.

I understand my throttle cable is frayed, I have a new one and will be replacing tonight.

I had symptoms of a vacuum leak and with a can of carb cleaner was quickly able to diagnose it as the base gasket. I pulled everything off to replace the base gasket and found that the previous shop I had work done at glued the phenolic spacer to the intake manifold. I replaced the base gasket on top of the phenolic spacer with hopes they had properly sealed the spacer to the intake manifold. With all back together it runs much better, however it still feels like there is a slight leak (symptoms of running lean) and I have the mixture screws out a bit rich for my tastes.

Is there a way to safely remove the spacer from the intake manifold without damage to the intake manifold? I would like to pop that off and see if I can get things to seal up but don't want to damage my intake manifold.

I am attaching a couple photos, but it can be a bit tough to see the spacer.

[LJ851]

There should be a gasket on the top and bottom of the plastic spacer.

Your jetting could be less than ideal as well.

[jkavulla]

The plastic spacer is glued to the intake manifold with no base gasket. I am trying to remove the plastic spacer so I can properly install the gaskets and solve the leak.

I have run through my jets and have it within tolerances and prior to the leak it was running very well.

[LJ851]

I would try something really thin like a razor blade to separate it from the manifold. The other option is to buy another spacer and start over.

[jkavulla]

yeah, I thought about that. the spacer isn't that big of a deal, I'm more worried about damaging the intake manifold. Perhaps a razor blade and time is the best approach.

thanks,

[TobyB]

How about a nylon chisel? That'd probably kill the spacer, but it wouldn't hurt the manifold.

That said, I use a razor scraper to clean up the manifold sealing surfaces
with no ill effects....

t