Changing intake gasket on a 170, any tips?

I remember when I had an intake leak on my 73 Charger with a 400 and it was causing all kinds of problems starting and idling. I was working on the Valiant last weekend and I reset the timing to 2.5 degrees BTC and did the mixture adjustment for smoothest idle just as the Plymouth service manual says. I got the idle at around 550-600 and it's smooth. It takes a few turns and pumps to get the engine to light up. Before I did all that you could be in park and rev the engine up full throttle and it would pop through the carb or drive it around and full throttle it and it would pop. Now it doesn't do it as much and it didn't seem to die when I did it, it took off with a lot of power. I was amazed at the power increase after I did the mixture adjustment and reset the timing to specs. I knew how much trouble an intake leak caused on my Charger so I checked this little 170 and sure enough it was leaking at the manifold to head enough to raise the idle up. I am shocked to see how much power this little 170 has with just a little 1bbl.