Hello ,and thanks for all the responses for my earlier posts. I have the motor back together and while it started up on the 1st crank it still was running rough at idle, the vac gauge read a little erattic and water seemed to be running thru the engine ,i removed the carb and found the coolant passage in the manifold is exposed to the bottom of the gasket and has been pulling coolant into the intake. the carb is a new motorcraft 2 barrel and fits the manifold .the carb gasket is the only thing beween the base of the carb and the coolant. should this have a metal spacer with a gasket on both sides to keep the coolant out? or will a thick base gasket (like GM Qjet) insulator gasket work i do not have any info for the 2barrel set up and any info at all will help Thanks

My MEL project is many moons ago and I can't recall every detail. Dunno how the carb surface on the intake looks like. It's hard to imagine that there is a coolant channel exposed and opened. Old FE engines used to have an aluminum spacer that had coolant flowing through its' body fitted by incoming and outgoing coolant hoses.
However if the carb gasket is the only thing to seal thze coolant, then you might consider a spacer w. two gaskets. Hmm strange, do you have photos? maybe someone else w. a current project can be of more help.
Good luck.

DjGriff,

What kind of carb was on there before you put the new motorcraft on there? I am looking to replace the carburetor on my 430 as well, and want something new that will fit the current intake manifold. Did the motorcraft fit the 2 bbl manifold? what model motorcraft carb is it? and how has the performance been? thanks for the help!