Well the holes look pretty jacked up, plus the 2nd and 3rd pic looks like a lot of RTV all over it. Personally, I would buy a new gasket. You're a month and a half into a 12hr job, whats another couple days waiting for a gasket?

 

Actually, with only an hour or less a day, and lots of days when I could not work on it rain delay), not too far off. Lots of time spent on "mushroom factor " things like the valve train. RTV comes off. When you think about it, the jacked up part is "up" into the open space of the bolt hole of the intake.

Vendor measured other gaskets and confimred spacing of the bolt hole. So a brand new one will be the same. I guess I had better measure thickness of head to be sure machine shop didn't take off an extra 1/4 inch. Will be out of town for a couple of days. Need to get this puppy back together so offspring can have her wheels back.

 

OK, a brief trip away from the Shade Tree and now back after a stop at Harbor Freight for some new C clamps and a step drill bit. Still more rain. Was able to remove the excess RTV, will coat very thin this time. All holes drilled ,threaded, cleaned out, all chips and rest of heads cleaned up for trash (leaves, lawnmower stuff blown under truck while engine open, and aluminum particles. The black baked oil background makes it easy to see new shiny metal.

Used C clamp to compress the puckered gasket around bolts back to flat, much better than a hammer and patio block. Used step bit to enlarge bolt holes and the slot to allow for the 7/16 bolts. Enlarged to .5 inch. Did not change the holes for the lip seals, figure they will maintain alignment.

More rain, so back on it Monday.

 

dont get down sava...keep plugging away.

 

Thanks. I know there is light at the end of the tunnel, just hope it is not the glow of a credit card mochine at the shop....

 

Buzz I know what you mean but I would rather have your problem but that's just me

 

lol...

 

put some black RTV on it and crank it down, what do you have to lose but a couple of hours and some intake gaskets.
That's what any shop would have done a long time ago, I know you want to be meticulous but sometime we have to settle for mediocre.

 

I disagree. If this were SB's only vehicle and it absolutely HAD to get done ASAP then I'd say slather it with RTV and crank it and maybe mediocre would work. But, that isn't the case. I'm not there is person to assess the condition of the gasket. At some point you have to weigh the cost of a new gasket against the cost of you repeating the job should the slightly tweaked one fail. IDK what the book time on a Valley Pan gasket is but lets just say its 5 hours. How much is a person's time worth?

 

Looking at his pix I think his problem has more to do with just a bad gasket, it doesn't even look like the manifold will sit in the proper location. But if you think all it will take is a new gasket, so be it.