Slant Six 225

Brad13, welcome to the world of Slant Sickness.The 67 to 72 Valiants are my favorites.A service manual for 1969 will be your friend in the long run.As many of us will be willing and try to help the best we can,without standing there and hearing it first hand,we are doing our best to help you. Kinda tough over the internet.Do ONE thing at a time.krazykuda has a good point as the Slant engines tend to actually wear out the intake gasket.The combo intake/exhaust,and the attachment of the manifold to the head,you will see that it has special washers and arrangement.The manifolds, due to heat cycles move everytime you run the engine and over time the gasket wears away.When I did my 63 Valiant there was hardly any gasket after 50 years.You are lucky being in Az so rusty bolts won't be much of a problem.But that is just ONE area to check. As stated above check the carb attachment bolts and the carb airhorn to base screws too.Everyone above made valid points that need to be looked at.Welcome aboard and keep asking questions.Remember there are no dumb questions.