If I can ever get dry weather and time to get it all together and it works I'll owe the Rover gods a pyre and roasted meat offering .

 

the Rover Gods would probably also be thrilled with scantily clad women dancing around the pyre......

 

Hi my name is Mike. I was wondering if you ever completed your job? I am having the same issue, and was wondering if you found a solution?

 

Mponce,

I not done, but it is getting closer. What point are you at and what is the problem?

 

I just placed the gasket in last night. Had trouble lining it up. I am using the same brand. I placed sealant on heads, pressed down hard and placed bolts in. Hopefully I didn't do any damage to it. I will check later this afternoon. If I still run into issues I will more than likely use a different brand. I hear a lot of negativity regarding the VR brand.

 

When I did mine, I used the Cannibal V8 method that Buzz referenced earlier in this thread to install the end seals and valley gasket. Then used the procedure in the RAVE to install the end seal holders and lower intake.
I did not have any alignment issues, but I did use an allmakes brand gasket.

 

I got a new VR gasket today, inserts, and 5/16 bolts. So another pitiful attempt begins tomorrow. At this point, I think that the heads may have been skimmed twice (before I bought it and my own), which shoved the 3/8 bolts to one side. This helped me strip the bolts. When I went to 7/16, that just pushed more against the gasket. Hoping that 5/16 and new gasket will be the charm, along with some RTV to match the Beluga Black paint job.

 

if you use the clay you can see if the manifold is bottoming out against the heads, if it is it will never seat right.
The manifold should lay on the heads not butt up against it.
if it does not lay in with the new gasket, have the manifold milled to match the heads.
This is exactly the problem you will have with heads that have been milled too much. All the bolts striping may not have been your fault completely either if the manifold was bottoming against the head it would not have seat correctly to begin with.

 

See attached. I make the dimension "B" as between 62 and 63 mm. The resurface limit is .5 mm, so I should be OK? I know heads were skimmed once by my shop, and could have been (shoulda been) skimmed by PO when he replaced heads.

Have seen clay for valve mods on a head. Please educate on application for intake.

 

pm sent