I had .030" ground from my stock 2bbl heads on a rebuilt 400. I believe I am having a vaccum loss under the intake on one or more of the ports due to a "improper alignment". are there any other gaskets that can be used for this? or can I modify one of those "valley pan" gaskets? I have been all through the vaccum lines, modulator, carb, etc , and there is no other place to look except the intake gasket.
it was pointed out to me that the gasket may not be lining up properly because i had the heads ground .030"
PLEASE HELP!

 

I had a problem with my 351c intake sealing to the heads, and it had one of those sheetmetal gaskets also. Part of the reason I was having trouble is because the edelbrock manifold wouldn't fit the valley pan correctly. After trying different gaskets, I made my own. I went down to the local farm store, where they have gasket material in a roll. I got a roll of cork and using the old gasket as a template, I made a new one, though modifying it some so it covered the ports better at the bottom near the lifter valley. It was easier than it sounds and cured my rough idle.

 

Fel-Pro makes a 2v Cleveland gasket that I have used with good success. The only place I can find them is at the local speed shop. They are 2 seperate gaskets with a blue o-ring on the manifold side. One word of advice though, throw away the cork end gasket and use silicon instead.

 

Yea, using silicon on the ends might help the manifold sit down lower since he shaved the heads.