Hi all, I've been dealing with some heatsoaking issues on my setup. I have a holley 390cfm 4160 carburetor on an Arizona Z car manifold and aftermarket headers (unknown brand) in a '77 280z with the stock L28. I'm not sure who else is running this setup, but I know it at least used to be somewhat popular, so I figure most of the issues have probably been figured out, but I haven't come across much information on solving heatsoaking issues with this setup.
There is no room for a phenolic spacer, as the air cleaner already contacts the hood when closed. It's a 2in air cleaner, and it doesnt look like theres a way to reduce that height to squeeze a spacer in there. I have a heatshield between the headers and manifold, but that only helps for continuous driving. If I ever park for between a couple minutes and an hour or two, it still heatsoaks and I get a super lean AFR.
To mitigate this, the best thing I've found is just running jets that are way too big, but then I'm obviously running too rich when I'm not heatsoaked. Size 62 jets seem to put me at a healthy AFR when I'm heatsoaked, but I really should be running 52 or 53 jets for optimal AFR.
I don't have a fuel recirculation setup, so it dead ends with the carburetor. I'm doubtfull that this would help a ton, since the carburetor itself has no fuel outlet, and by running a lighter 8.5 power valve in the holley, I can lower the AFR under WOT sometimes, leading me to believe most of the vapor lock is in the carburetor metering plate. I'm considering trying this anyway, since I don't think it'll hurt anything.
I'm also hesitant to try a heatshield like this one, as it adds height, even if I skip the smaller plates and only add the main heatshield, and as I mentioned, I'm already contacting the hood at the vent.
How much has this been an issue for other Z owners running a 4-barrel setup? How impactful have fuel recirculation or the Jegs style heatshield been for other setups? What solutions have I not found yet? Thanks