I have the stock intake and carb...nothing special. I did torque the intake using the bolt pattern from the chilton's manual. I used a valley pan gasket. I checked all along the base of the carb and the top edges of the intake manifold for vac leaks by spraying WD40 over the seams. I had the vac guage hooked up and didn't see a change or hear the rpms change at all. Is there a better way to check for vac. leaks?

Whey you suggest to re-torque everything, i'm not sure what ya mean. do you mean just go over all the bolts and make sure there torqued properly, or to actually torque them down even more. I followed the bold pattern...first torqued down to 15 and then to 25 ft pounds.

 

It is wise to retorque to 25 ft-lbs after the motor has been run and heated. You might be surprised by how much you have to turn the bolts to get them back up to 25 ft-lbs.

On a intake manifold, I usually torque them several times even before starting.

Did you use new bolts, or at least clean the old bolts with a wire brush, and spray with WD40 before reusing the old bolts?

I anm not fond of the valley pans, but they do seal, and they are necessary with a stock intake manifold.

 

OK...thanks for the tip...i'll re-check the torque. I did clean the old bolts before reinstalling them, and they went in without a problem.

 

BTW, use carb cleaner to check for vacuum leaks instead of WD40, it is more volitile.

 

Check your timing.

Also if the engine has more than 80,000 miles replace the timing chain set. The OEM engines had a nylon timing gear that failed at 80-120K. Go thru the service manual and check timing chain wear also.

 

**UPDATE ON VAC PROBLEM** Well, after checking all the seams with carb cleaner i wasn't able to locate any leaks. I re-torqued all manifold bolts and they are good and tight. I decided to disconnect each vac line to see if i could find a problem. Sure enough after disconnecting the vac resivour and pluging the line i have a solid reading of 19 on my guage. All i need to do is replace the canister and i should be good to go. I'm sure i'll have more questions, but thanks for all the help you guys have given me so far!