Offenhauser 5489 Intake Install

... You seem to have overcome all of your issues.
Unfortunatley, issues have grown. I fixed the water pump stripped hole easy with a thread insert ($27 kit at Ace). But, when I held an intake gasket against the manifold, I find where they drilled the bypass hole is off and partly overlaps the gasket sealing surface. I wonder if that is why that intake was sold affordably on ebay, perhaps others noticed the oops or the seller stated it and I missed it. Someone skrewed the pooch on that mod. Sometimes you will drill a starting hole fine, then expand it and find the later drills changed the centerline. Best to have parts clamped in a drill press or milling machine to avoid that, but takes a lot of setup time on an angled part like this. Not sure why they thought they needed such a large hole anyway, greatly overthinking the engine designers.

I epoxied a brass NPT bushing in there and about to cut it flush, then fill w/ epoxy to try to make a smooth surface to seal the gasket. A bushing instead of a plug so I can install a Holley temp sensor there for later EFI. I'll report back w/ photos, but won't know if it seals until I run the engine. Worst-case is if there are coolant leaks into the crankcase where you can't see them until you find your oil turned milky.