That was four years ago!
When you upgrade to an electric choke, switch to manually operated, or just eliminate the carb choke completely, you can remove the heating element that is part of the plate bolted to the right side of the manifold under the carburetor since it no longer serves a purpose.
Mine looked awful and it was time to finally take care of it.
All I needed was a 1¼" by 2¼" piece of flat 1/8-thick aluminum bar plus gasket material.
If you don't have a scrap piece of aluminum handy, most hardware stores sell steel and aluminum stock in different sizes and you can usually find flat 1¼" aluminum in 2-feet lengths for around $5.
After removing the choke plate and heating element, I used the old gasket (or what was left of it), to trace the location of the bolt holes onto the flat 1¼- wide aluminum bar.
Not the prettiest choice for plugging the hot-air choke heating element and maybe not even necessary. A block-off plate eliminates the chance of a vacuum leak and it looks so much neater.
The original hot-air choke plate and stainless steel tube element.
After tracing the bolt hole location, I drilled and deburred the holes, rounded off the edges with a file, and polished it with Mothers Mag & Aluminum Polish.
I then made a gasket with a piece of leftover rubber-fiber gasket material and used a 5/16" punch to make the bolt holes.
The original bolts looked the worse for wear so I used a couple of Grade-8 bolts and washers instead.
The results were great and my new block-off plate and gasket should work fine.
My original idea was to paint the plate either Chevy Orange or silver, but since aluminum polishes to a nice finish, I decided to go that route. Of course, it will tarnish over time but it can be polished again.
By the way, I did not use any adhesive or sealer for the gasket so the plate can be easily removed if necessary.
This is a very easy DIY project that can be done in a couple of hours or less, provided you have all the necessary components handy.
Also, as the photos show, I removed the carburetor since I am working on another project. I do not believe you have to remove the carb to remove the choke manifold plate. Needless to say, having the carburetor out of the way makes the job a lot easier.
Alternatively, if you don't feel like fabricating one, you can always buy a hot-air choke block-off plate from most online auto parts vendors.
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Product Links... (#sponsored)
• High-Temperature Gasket Material 12" x 20" x 1/16"
• Choke Block-Off Plate for Small-Block Chevy
