I couldn't wait until morning to see how the spacer fit, so shortly after midnight I ventured out to the garage. As it was, the side linkage on the Holley Ultra Dominator interfered with the intake, just barely. A couple knicks on each side with a die grinder would have allowed for enough clearance, but I really hated to grind on a new intake, especially if the recommended 1" spacer solved the problem. Thankfully, the spacer solved the interference issue.
My dad surprised me by arriving early morning to babysit, when he didn't need to be here until 3. This allowed me time in the garage to start getting my car buttoned up. I started by replacing the intake bolts. I had installed about 8 of the 12 intake bolts I had previously, though realized they were too short, I figured they were good enough to allow the RTV to setup and allow the adhesive to hold the gaskets in place. As I began replacing the bolts one by one, I soon realized that one of the threads had got cross threaded, possibly from installing the shorter bolts and torquing it a tad too much. With no other option to clean up the thread in a hole with the least amount of space, due to the intake runner, I had no choice but to pull the intake.
Word of advise, after several attempts, I found the best/easiest way to break loose the intake is to run a razor blade through the RTV at the front, then find a spot to pry up on the intake, and it popped loose. Just take great care not to break off the blade, as it could find it's way down the lifter valley. Luckily, no blade broke. With the intake free, I cleaned up all the mounting surfaces. The adhesive on the gaskets worked much better than I thought, and made cleaning the gasket off the heads a real pain in the ass.
Luckily, so I thought, I had an extra set of BBC intake gaskets hanging on the peg board. I was hoping to get the intake back on top of the engine, only to discover that the intake gaskets weren't the same thickness as the AFR gaskets, and the design was slightly different around the ports, creating a situation where a good seal would not have been made had I installed them. Another order to Summit Racing was made, this time for a set of intake gaskets and a fuel block off plate.
With nothing accomplished thus far, I decided to at least install the carb studs and spacer on the intake. It made me feel only remotely better, knowing at least one thing was completed for the day. I sat the carb on top, for nothing more than my own satisfaction.
As I went back into the house, I began looking at Craftsman tap and die kits. Then it hit me, while I don't have a tap and die set, I do have a thread chasing (or re-thread) kit which may fix my threads. After some digging in the top of the tool box, I found my set and proceeded to fix my bad threads, and clean up all the other threads as well. While the day was pretty much a wash, once the intake gaskets arrive, everything should start going a bit more smoothly!
Was nice while it lasted, but soon it came back off.
Off it goes!
I really thought my collection of gaskets were going to come in handy today.
Studs installed.
Spacer installed.
Carb sitting on top.
I can't wait to have this combo atop my engine. It's much more intimidating than the combo it replaces. I will have to get a new/shorter air cleaner assembly to keep from interfering with my hood.
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