need opinions on intake manifold fitment (Barry R I am following your book maybe

[westcoastgalaxie]

I am using Barry's book to mock up my intake. I had a coolant leak so I pulled the intake and wanted to finish port matching the intake and figured now was a good time to check proper fitment according to Barry's book.

First question is in the book it tells to check the china wall gap and then level the intake using a stack of feeler gauges. To me this means left to right but I was unsure if that was suppose to be front to back as well. I took the larger measurement at the front and made two stacks of feeler gauges and leveled the front. I then repeated the rear using the larger measurement at the rear. So I used two stacks of .105" at the front and .115" at the rear. Is this the correct way to do this or should I have used .115" at the front and rear at all four corners?

Assuming this was the correct way to do this here is what I came up with.



Certainly not happy with this intake, a used Edelbrock RPM that previous owner claimed was uncut but now I am not so sure. My heads, C1AE's, were cut to reduce chamber cc's down to 68cc's. Shop also cut the intake to compensate for this to avoid cutting the intake. Problem is when this was done I did the reassembly and did not check intake fitment like this. In fact I was dumb enough to port match the intake using intake gaskets as a template and not the method that Barry prescribes in his book.

Here you can see how far off the tops of the ports are, as well as some other pictures of fitment problems I see. I am wondering at this point if this intake can be saved or if it is better off selling to someone with uncut heads and bigger ports. Your thoughts? Am I going to have to run two intake gaskets stacked to get this manifold back up into position after the necessary cuts?












<img src="http://i420.photobucket.com/albums/pp286/westcoastgalaxie/IMG_1338.jpg" alt="[linked image]">

Also while I ran it this way for 8 years no leaks the mismatch on this tube really concerns me too. Do different makes/vintages of water pumps have different heights on this tube?

[jayb]

I've made intakes worse than that fit during my dyno tests, with my old PSE intake adapter requiring 2 gaskets on one side and 3 on the other to get the valve cover rails close.  I wouldn't give up on that intake, just space it up with a double gasket on one side.  One thing though is that looking at the pictures, it almost appears as if the intake is not square with the head flanges; kind oflike the intake is installed at a bit of an angle.  How is the fit of the distributor?  Is it centered in the hole, or is it towards one side of the hole or the other?

As far as the alignment of the water bypass tube, I've seen that plenty of times too, and as long as the connecting hose isn't old and cracked I don't think you'll have a problem.

[Drew Pojedinec]

Do you have a lifter splash plate installed? 
If so make 100% sure that it is knocked down, preferably held down by knocking the edges of the head gasket to hold it down.

[westcoastgalaxie]

Jay that is correct the dist is biased to the passenger side, or to say another way the gap in the dizzy hole is smaller on the passenger side than the driver's side. And I can't get that left right bias out of there. I will have to order another set of flat gaskets (no sealing boss) to mock it up. I also dug out my streetmaster and F427 and will have to mock those up.

While I am not a fan of stacking gaskets I can deal with it. What I still have major concerns over is the fact that as it sits the intake port ceilings are higher than the head's. This means to me if I raise the intake further that the intake port ceilings will only go higher. This kind of mismatch is no good. Makes me think this intake is a no go on this engine stupid me for port matching with gaskets.

Drew, no splash shield installed, but I will look closer at the head gasket tabs. Thanks

[ToddK]

I had to bend down the head gasket tabs on 2 engines to get the intake manifold to sit properly.

[machoneman]

One must check for no dowel in the front china wall (know you did this before) AND I'd cut off the intake gasket alignment tabs that protrude from the head gasket into the valley! 

[Lenz]

Might as well comment on sealant too, Motorcraft TA-31 gray silicone is the best stuff I've ever used when it comes to sealing up where some fitment problems are noted.

[westcoastgalaxie]

Okay so I finally got another set of gaskets and an afternoon to mock it back up. I think I am getting closer here is what measured this time with two gaskets on the on driver's side and one on the passenger side.



Biggest problem now is the majority of the bolts won't thread in without moving the manifold around. So it looks like I need a cut. I will take it to the shop to see what they think. What your guys' thoughts? Where does it need cut and how much? Thanks

[westcoastgalaxie]

Talked to the machine shop about this and they pointed out leveling with a stack of feeler gauges on the China wall is a bad idea. Block is of unknown condition and likely no one took the time to make those square. So we shall see what they say after measuring again without leveling it.