I'm in the middle of an intake swap on my Pond 482, right now! I hate it when poop doesn't go right . I'm replacing the old B/T 427MR 1x4 with a Dove 2x4 Tunnel Wedge. I'll be running the 750 carbs that I special ordered through Barry (He's got a thread on them in F/S section). As most here know, you have the ability for a direct line of sight at all intake/head mating surfaces through the carb openings in the Tunnel Wedge. With the old pre-crushed, untorn intake gaskets in place and the manifold "snugged" down the manifold's sitting a little high, slightly more in the rear. All the angles (gasket face to head face) and china wall clearances (0.105" front, 0.110" rear) are as they should be. It just sits high, between 1/16" in the front and 3/32" in the rear. I can tell as I can see the top of the head port between 1/16" and 3/32". It's a tad higher in the rear, not much though. The intake was port matched to the K/C CNC'd heads and the K/C supplied matching intake gaskets. I can afford to go down a liitle with the valve cover rails too, so that won't hurt me there if I have it cut. The bolts are a little snug on the top side of the intake manifold bolt holes. I don't want to cut the manifold too much and run into bolt hole problems. I've already reamed the manifold bolt holes a tad to get the bolts started in the first place so I could test fit everything. If the manifold had been a little lower in the first place I wouldn't have had to ream the holes.

The distributor drops in just fine..

Questions are:

1. I think I need to drop the manifold ride height by 1/16". How much should I cut off each side to
do this?

2. Should I even cut it, just leave it as is and torque it down?

3. What's everone's thoughts??

The engine should make around 620 horse so I'd like the keep the best flow possible.. The mis-match just bugs the snot out of me too..

Thanks for any help!!

DaveU

I've seen intakes come down quite a bit when they are bolted in place, and in fact that is really the only way to get a true indication of how far away you are from a perfect match. Measure the port mismatch afterwards and post the results, and I or many others can tell you how much to take off the intake face.

Also, the Dove tunnel wedge intakes that I've seen have an enlarged water jacket opening in the front of the manifold, as compared to the stock tunnel wedge manifolds. If you are using a gasket with a leak slot around the front water jacket opening, the Dove manifold will cause a leak there. See the photo below. Match up your gasket to the intake to make sure you don't have this problem. Nothing more frustrating than water coming out of the front of the motor when you fill it.



Jay Brown
1968 Shelby GT 500 Convertible, 492" 667 HP FE
1969 R code Mach 1, 490" supercharged FE, 9.35 @ 151.20, 2007 Drag Week Runner Up, Power Adder Big Block
2005 Ford GT, 2006 Drag Week Winner, 12.0 Daily Driver
1969 Ford Galaxie XL, 460 (Ho Hum....)
1964 Ford Galaxie 500, 510" SOHC

Jay, what brand name and model # intake manifold gaskets are shown in your post, thanks-Oliver.

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Jay Brown
1968 Shelby GT 500 Convertible, 492" 667 HP FE
1969 R code Mach 1, 490" supercharged FE, 9.35 @ 151.20, 2007 Drag Week Runner Up, Power Adder Big Block
2005 Ford GT, 2006 Drag Week Winner, 12.0 Daily Driver
1969 Ford Galaxie XL, 460 (Ho Hum....)
1964 Ford Galaxie 500, 510" SOHC

There's no leak slot in the gasket. I should be fine there.



The old gasket is in place and pre-crushed, matching the Dove's intake imprint well. I ran all of my intake studs down and tightened all the nuts down to around 10 ft lbs to make sure everything is seated. It was after this that I eye-balled clearances. I honestly don't think the manifold's going to drop much more. Anyway, I'm still allowing for a tad of manifold drop too in my calcs. The mean gap between the ceiling of the intake port versus the ceiling of the head port is right around 5/64", just a smidgin' under 0.080".

The intake's cut on a 45 deg angle, so to drop it 0.080" you'd have to cut 0.040" of each face. Allowing for crush, variance and just plain ol' bad luck I'm thinking of taking around 0.025" off each side. What do you think? If I'm going to get this thing back together in time before I head out of state on vacation I need to get it to my machinst in an hour or so..



BTW.. thanks to BarryR for the intake geometry math lesson.



DaveU

Difficult to measure unless you have the right tools, but you should be able to measure the underside edges of the manifolds and compare...

66 Fairlane GT Silver Blue "BRUTE" Genesis 496/C4
66 Fairlane GT Nightmist Blue 428/TKO600
66 F250 Camper Special Rangoon Red 428/4-speed
2000 Lincoln LS Sport 5-speed

I was under the impression that you hadn't installed the bolts. I agree that it won't change much if they are already tight.

I think cutting the head mating surfaces .025" is a good plan. You can always cut more if you don't like the fit after doing that.

Jay Brown
1968 Shelby GT 500 Convertible, 492" 667 HP FE
1969 R code Mach 1, 490" supercharged FE, 9.35 @ 151.20, 2007 Drag Week Runner Up, Power Adder Big Block
2005 Ford GT, 2006 Drag Week Winner, 12.0 Daily Driver
1969 Ford Galaxie XL, 460 (Ho Hum....)
1964 Ford Galaxie 500, 510" SOHC

I dropped it off at the shop with instructions to cut each side 0.025". They called me about an half hour later and told me that the manifold was a little warped. The two inner ports on the passenger side were inset about 0.015". I told them to true that side up and cut it an additional 0.020". He called me up and said the other side was fine, he just did a clean-up cut. I told him to take that side an additional 0.025". By the time I got back to their shop they had it done.

I brought it home an bolted it down. The studs went in easier this time, better centered than before. With 15 ft lbs torque the manifold ports were just a RCH high and the valve cover rails are about perfectly level. I'll let her sit till tomorrow and torque it down the rest of the way. Port allignment should be about dead on after the final torque.

BTW.. I don't use bolts. I bought a couple 3' lengths of tempered 304 stainless 3/8" x 18 all-thread. I cut a full set of studs and slotted one in for installation with a screw driver. I run them all the way down to the base of the threaded hole so I get full thread contact. I don't pull out my aluminum head threads anymore due to too short "intake bolt sets". Total investment was about $15 for the studs 'n nuts.

DaveU

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Mickey Thompson's 63 1/2 #997 S/S Hi-Rise 427 Lgt/Wgt Galaxie,
1957 C-600 Cab-over carhauler w/390-4V, 2-speed rear-end
FGCofA member #4908
MCGC member #75

"There will ALWAYS be an FE in my LiFE"

machine shop charge to mill the intake? Just curious. That is pretty fast service! Around here it might get done in a month or two.

I milled my heads intake flanges .040 because that is what I milled off the decks. My intake manifold fit perfect before (I milled the heads) and after. I didn't touch the manifold.

Being that your intake was warped, you did the right thing.

68 Cougar XR7 street and strip car, 428 4-speed, 3560# of fun, new best 10.43@131.2 1.47 60 ft

The shop foreman is a personal friend..


Everything's torqued to specs and the port match is perfect. The valve cover rails are dead on too.

DaveU

If other intakes fit fine, I would not hesitate cutting the intake. That is where the problem is. I had one like that also. It was a little high with any gaskets at all. I removed the gasket thickness and in the end it was still a little high but close enough. John