i'm currently building a 357 for my camaro. the other day i went to put the intake on and it bolted up fine but there is about an eighth to a quarter inch gap between the intake and the block, even with the rubber gaskets, you can look in the front of the engine and see daylight coming through from the back. obviously this can't be good and something needs to be done about it, but i don't know what. it has Dart II heads and an Edelbrock Performer aluminum intake if that helps. my guess is it has something to do with the heads, since the intake was on the engine when i bought it but the heads are different ones then i got with the engine. also i tried another similar intake to see if that was the problem, and there was still a large gap. hopefully someone can help me out, because i would like to get my engine put in before too much longer.

 

nah dude dont worry about everything is fine...you lay a nice bead of RTV black across the deck at the front and rear of the intake.

Lay the intake gaskets on the heads and then lay the bead of silicone across the deck between the intake gaskets..make sure the ends of the bead touch the intake gaskets...

lay on the intake and youll essentially seal the intake at the heads and the deck...

 

actually, i tried silicon, but when tightened down, it didn't squeeze out like it should, besides, its a pretty big gap

 

how much did you lay down and did you leave it beaded up or did u spread it out...

were the heads milled>?

 

Lay a THICK bead. I had quite a bit of a gap when I put my 355 together, but lay a thick bead. I left probably a 1/2 thick BEAD on there, and it has sealed fine ever since...

 

My BBC block was modified by a previous owner for some strange intake manifold. When I put the heads on, there a gap under the end or the heads where the front and rear of the block wall is. With the manifold on, the gap was about 1/2". I fabricated strips of 1/4" thick aluminum and screwed them down on top of the block wall. This makes the wall roughly the same height of the heads. Now there's only a 1/4" gap to fill with silicone. It's not pretty but it works.

 

i guess i could do that, but what about other problems such as the distributor that would no longer go down as far as it should??