Hello everyone I'm pretty new here and was wondering if anybody has some insight for me.

I'm currently in the process of doing a engine rebuild in our 79 F250 Ranger 4x4 with a 400. I've got some questions about the intake and carb but i'll fill you in on were I'm at first. I had originaly planned on getting the motor bored over and doing the rebuild myself but upon teardown i found it was already bored .040 over. I didn't like the idea of going to .060 over so I just decided to get a long block.

Were I'm having trouble is with the aluminum carb spacer. When I took the carb off I found that the EGR or what I'm guessing it to be was removed and blocked off with a piece of metal. The spacer itself is shot on the exhaust side and its ate its way through in about 4 spots.

Basically what I'm wondering is if anyone has just replaced this with a regular spacer or have found a set up that works better. I'm still going to run the original 2 bbl carb for now. I don't figure I'm out much since its been unhooked like this for all these years. I should mention my grandpa bought this pickup new and it had a reman engine put in 80000 miles in 1984. I'm guessing this is when this was all unhooked.

Thanks in advance!