Right on, well ou should use a carb spacer made of wood or something else that will not conduct much heat to your carb. It will help millage and performance.
update on my intake heat problems: I installed the mr gasket shield & spacer along with a 160* thermostat, set the timing at 32* advanced (http://v8buick.com/showthread.php?t=63475&page=7) and still no love, its vapor locking and the intake is crazy hot still. so todays project is to install the 20mm plugs into the heads. have a bare sbb on the stand - no slugs/valves/crank/intake - that I pounded 2 of the 20mm plugs into last night to see how it would work out. they are kinda tight, the 3/4" plugs might have been better in hindsight. I can't help but feel that there has to be something else going on here. 1) thinking about the exhaust, is there some way to test that its clear of obstructions and that gas is flowing freely out the tailpipe? 2) intake cooling passages - how can an intake that is flowing coolant become hot to the point that it boils water instantly into vapor when the water is poured on the surface of the intake below the carb? I hesitate to do this since I fear cracking the intake but its the only way to cool things sometimes. water temp guage shows 190-200* when it vapor locks now. I'll know more this morning after I pull the intake, but I feel like I should be looking in other areas for problems too
All things will be revealed... I got the intake off, was reminded yet again how heavy that damn thing is. Looks like I've had a gasket failure, probably due to operator error, around the exhaust ports. Drivers side is the worst: drivers side up close: I don't recall going back in and torquing the bolts on the intake down after putting it back together 5 years ago. we were on the verge of a move at the time, and after moving I don't think I ever went back to it. passenger side: so it looks like I've been pumping exhaust gas into the top end, wonder if it helps account for my really nice vacuum pressures... on the coolant side I've learned that the coolant passages only go across the front of the intake, and not front to back - that would account for my hot center area. off to pound some 20mm slugs into those exhaust pre-heater ports any thoughts in the meanwhile?
20mm plugs went in real nice, used a 8" 3/8 extension, put the female end in the cup, laid the cup/extension into the head and it started to nestle into the hole. hit the male end of the extenstion with the hammer (finishing hammer) and the cup started to seat. took all of about 2 min total to do all 4 holes, just seated the cups till they were flush with the surface. bolted a poston intake back on that I'd had laying around, fired right up but ran horrible, took me some time to find the "hidden" vacuum port that was uncovered. idle smoothed right out. vacuum port is going to be used for th400 shifter vacuum so I'm off to the store to find some port hardware. all went well, we'll see how temps are going fwd, fingers crossed
Looks sort of like mine did but it was my intake ports that leaked, sucking oil out of the valley when on it hard. I coated both sides of my gasket with threebond 1194, so it never leaks again. Semi drying liquid gasket that will keep its seal with heat and time well. Better then the stocker gasket did alone over time.
