Help! Intake manifold won't fit!

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I got lucky with the Fel-Pro 1243 gaskets. Blocked exhaust crossover to intake, though. My factory iron intake and head flanges were fitted together for steel shim gaskets when the heads where milled, so my street dominator was tight with them, but no alignment problems with those gaskets. The bottom at the intake to head flange is nearly a Leggo snap fitment before putting the gaskets in place.
Fel-Pro Performance Intake Manifold Gasket Sets 1243
 
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I milled the heads on my 273 and after bolting them on found that the intake wouldn't fit. Instead of using up another set of head gaskets, I had the intake milled. No problem other than the heads and intake should stay together as a matched set.
A easy way to see how far off your intake is, line up one side, finger tighten the bolts and look at the other side bolt holes.
 
Interesting, I looked up gaskets for my 66 273 and Fel Pro only lists the steel shim. I looked up for my 70 Swinger (318) and they only listed the PermaTorque blue gaskets.
 
yellow rose said:
That means pick the gaskets you want, measure them, and tell the shop to get the manifold flat and THEN remove the thickness of the gasket. If they just put the intake in the mill and remove the gasket thickness, it won’t be quite enough.

Don’t use end rail gaskets. Get some right stuff or similar and lay a bead on the china rails and go.

Edit: there is no such thing as a flat manifold surface. Not even on new manifolds.
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Measured the new gasket. I think this means .065 thickness (?). Looks like I am off the the machine shop.

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69FBCuda said:
Still no pictures!
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Sorry these took so long to post:
One is with gaskets in place. 2 of the bolt holes with manifold as low as I can get it (damn holes are right there!) , and one with the manifold overall.

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That looks close enough. Delete the front and rear gaskets and use gasket maker instead that should get you low enough to get the bolts started. Get one side started and force the other side down. The intake has to "wedge" in your working with a V shaped opening. If all the holes lined up perfectly just setting there it would never seal correctly and you would end up drawing the intake sides to the heads and something would either bend or break. You're gong to have to force it down some.
 
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I always keep some of the later big block intake bolts around-the ones with the unthreaded nipples on the end. They are much easier to start, get all 12 started, then start replacing them with the small block bolts. I think the big block bolts are too long to run all the way in-they could run into the pushrods, I'm not sure. It looks like it might not work for you though.
 
69FBCuda said:
That looks close enough. Delete the front and rear gaskets and use gasket maker instead that should get you low enough to get the bolts started. Get one side stated and force the other side down. The intake has to "wedge" in your working with a V shaped opening. If all the holes lined up perfectly just setting there it would never seal correctly and you would end up drawing the intake sides to the heads and something would either bend or break. You're gong to have to force it down some.
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I have never forced an intake down in my life. That’s cRaZy.
 
yellow rose said:
I have never forced an intake down in my life. That’s cRaZy.
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So you're saying that the bolt holes in post # 35 are nOt close enough to work with, you're saying that you would'nt run it like that?
 
69FBCuda said:
So you're saying that the bolt holes in post # 35 are nOt close enough to work with, you're saying that you would'nt run it like that?
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That’s exactly what I’m saying. The intake manifold needs to be machined to fit. No self respecting engine builder would put something together that had to be forced into place.
 
Just noticed a new problem. The throttle cable mount is too short. Is there a fix or should I just go with a new unit. This is my first intake swap so I am finding things as I go along. It is a stock Commando mount and the Performer is at least an inch taller.
 
drewmac said:
Just noticed a new problem. The throttle cable mount is too short. Is there a fix or should I just go with a new unit. This is my first intake swap so I am finding things as I go along. It is a stock Commando mount and the Performer is at least an inch taller.
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You need a 340 cable bracket for a aftermarket aluminum intake. I have a link to a therad here somewhere.
 
Marcohotrod said:
I jacked my cable bracket up with washers and longer bolts
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Being creative is what the hobby is all about. I mounted my cable bracket to the heat shield plate I use. No need to reinvent the wheel when I swap to a different carb.
 
OP, have you tried cleaning the threads in the heads with a tap & a die on the bolts? From there, get all of the bolts started & then run them down slowly to see if the interference is from the gasket thickness, of if you will have to angle mill the intake faces. It's just an idea, I thought I had the same trouble & that's what I did. Everything worked out for me, yours might be a different outcome.
 
Demonracer said:
OP, have you tried cleaning the threads in the heads with a tap & a die on the bolts? From there, get all of the bolts started & then run them down slowly to see if the interference is from the gasket thickness, of if you will have to angle mill the intake faces. It's just an idea, I thought I had the same trouble & that's what I did. Everything worked out for me, yours might be a different outcome.
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Good call I will try. Any tips on getting the center 4 bolts torqued down? When I mocked it up without gaskets they seemed hard to get to.
 
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