Custer County Mud Draggers Forum

Anyone ever had a problem getting the Edelbrock Intake to seal up on the water ports on the heads?? What is the easyest and cheapest way you found to fix this?? This is my first build and I torqued all to specs....but water still snuck by into the oil valley. Edelbrock says to torque at 30ftp. Is that enuff?? didn't seem like much to me. Any info would help. I am thinking of just pulling the intake off, cleaning everything up, putting new gaskets in again, silicone around the water ports and then skip the torque wrench and tighten all the bolts with a wrench and make sure they are all good and tight...And yes I tightened them in a circular patern working from the middle out. It is on a sbc 350

That is a good idea to toss out the end rubber gaskets and it is a good idea to use silicone around the water ports. You need to look at your head and intake to see how rough they are. Sometimes electrolis eats small amounts of the metal away. I would not put silicone around intake ports unless you keep it a distant away from the port. You do not want it to suck the silicone into a valve later on. I would just put a little around the water ports (and this should help hold gasket in place) and maybe thicker if it is rough- you need to fill in all voids. And like the Dawg said a good bead in the ends where the rubber gaskets were is good too- lets intake fall into place.
http://www.edelbrock.com/automotive_new/misc/tech_center/install/2000/2101.pdf
you can copy and paste to read the instructions for you manifold

if you over tighten bolts they will snap off- You also need to use the right length of bolts too- If you use too long the will bottom out and feel tight- as a matter of fact some bolt holes line up with the pushrods so if you use a long bolt you will damage pushrod and cause all kinds of damage. Make sure you have the right bolts and tighten to spec- you will be fine.- IF you over do it- You will have problems- The spec is where the bolt is starting to strech but not break- IF you pass it will break.

As they said and also use silicone on the bolt threads to prevent oil leak.

if the heads have ever been planed, you will also need to have the intake planed. this can run you into sealing problems and bolt alignment problems