So I've got this question, and i seriously tried searching this time. I've heard that blocking the coolant passages to the intake manifold with freeze plugs (were the 20mm?) can help the carb in cold starts and from excessive heat once the engine gets going. However my concern is with the bee hive as I have no idea where that thing actually pulls its coolant source from and, from my understanding, the beehive wont perform well enough on air alone. So looking at my engine, it looks like the manifold could feed back into the engine then into the beehive but I'm not sure. Anyone else have any ideas as I'm about to have a carb built and I figure while its off I may as well as block those coolant ports off while I'm at it. Thanks in advance.

 

The coolant from the beehive oil cooler comes from the engine block (little t fitting on the driverside of the engine, and goes into the bottom of the radiator hose) or vise versa. Wich has nothing to do with using freeze plugs on your intake manifold. You use freeze plugs on your intake manifold to keep intake temps down and prevent the pesky o rings from leaking.

Im really confused as to how you mixed your intake up with your oil cooler but meh.

 

I could never figure where that hose went to so I just assumed it hooked to the back of the block somewhere. Would blocking the manifold flow impede cooling to the engine though?

 

Nope.

 

Installing freeze plugs does 2 things:

1. As mentioned, stops the pesky leaks that happen over time from the intake manifold oring going bad.

2. Prevent coolant from going into the intake manifold (stock) and heating up the
intake charge further. The original intent of the design having hot coolant flowing
into the manifold was to warm up the intake charge which helps warm starts.
By plugging it up on a stock nikki intake manifold, the intake charge will no longer be
warmed up and you may see some minor warm start issues but nothing serious.

When using 3rd party intake manifold its almost a mandatory mod so you can switch
it in and out with out fussing with coolant draining and refilling.

 

Just for the sake of arguement, would not the coolant, at some point, begin to COOL the manifold rather than heat it? Especially considering the intake manifold's proximety to the exhausts manifold.

Having said that, my coolant passeges have been plugged for years!

 

Plug passages, insert heat shield, no more questions lol

 

Time to put my IR thermometer on the intake!

 

On a stock intake, maybe. On an aftermarket like the RB one I use for the Dell
there is no coolant passages in the intake. Not sure about your dual DCD intake.

 

it probably makes the intake temp more stable. i can't say the stock intake does this, but the PP is really sensitive to intake temp. when its too cold the carb doesn't work very well, and when its hot it feels like it looses about 40hp. the PP intake IS closer to the exhaust though, and the port is pickier...