Custom Cometic head gasket pics

At the back of the manifold where you drilled and tapped it did you weld bungs there to screw fittings into to run the hoses up to the thermostat housing?
No, in fact I had to grind the ribs off that were in that area before tapping. Some intakes have it there and some don`t. If I remember , it was a victor jr. I used 1/8" x 3/8" brass fitting that was drilled out as far as possible, it doesn`t take much to improve the flow and let the air out of them in that area.