Milling Intake
 

My intake sits a little high with .062 gaskets making it so the thin area on the bottom of the port doesn't pinch down on the gasket. The intake is a ported Victor.

How do you determine exactly how much to mill off each intake flange?

What's it look like without the gasket on?
I've used a thin paper gasket before.


:confused:

With no gasket it sits pretty good. Intake is slightly lower than the head ports.

This pic is from the first time I took it apart after buying it. Looks like it has always sat like this. See how the bottom is barely pinching the gasket.

Without the .062 gaskets making it fit decent then I would mill .050/.055". (.062 would put it at where it is with no gasket)


Might need little more but hard to put material back on.


:D

Can you post a better pic of the bottom of the intake runners. It doesn't look like there is much sealing area. I would test fit the intake without the valley pan in your way for starters to see where it lines up.
Also, The holes for mounting on the intake need to be ob-longed so the intake once mounted can kinda find it position on the heads. It's hard to tell what's going on with the washers in place on the bolts. When mounting the intake, take a rubber head hammer and tap on the carb base area to seat the intake. You can test fit with and without the gaskets see where the intake lines up.

Milling Intake
 

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Its about little less than 1/8” wide at the bottom of runner opening. I looked through port with my bore scope and all the ports match good with no gasket. I think I need to wack off about .050 a side

Have the heads been milled?
If so, maybe they didn't mill the intake side?


:confused:

In this case wouldn't it require an angle mill ? Just adding or removing gasket thickness moves the intake up or down.

stated problem is less clamp load on port bottom as in incorrect angle or mechanical interference with valley cover

If you remove material off the runners, the intake will sit a bit lower. You still should be ok as there's space from the valley pan.
Well, you know the gasket are .060 thick. You could try installing the intake with only one gasket see where your at. I guess if you take too much off they make thicker gaskets. Tin Indian I think has them. Those are really good pics you posted.
My intake I cut at the bottom like yours to accommodate the valley pan. If you take .030 a side off that's like one whole gasket. I wouldn't do .050 a side. That's seems like alot. Another thing I did was use the feeler gauge between the heads and intake as I would snug the bolts up a bit to see if there was contact. Tedious process but tells you what's happening.

Another thing I was thinking, leave you gaskets hit the valley pan when you install them. You might have to cut a bit off to line up the posts, But I find it help hold the gaskets in place.

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Heres 2 pics with and without gaskets. I do need the intake to “fall” down more.

With his gaskets off, and it fits good, that would be equivalent to what it needs to be milled off each side of intake. (best would be the intake side of heads but they are still attached I believe)


As to the tray hitting, he could chamfer the intake bottom some if need be to keep it from sitting all the way down. (or even trim the tray some in the ares of the intake ports, which is what I did on mine)


:)

Can anyone measure how thick the intake flange is on a un cut edelbrock victor dominator? I am just wondering for peace of mind to see if this one was never cut.

I have 2 victor intakes here that are new and the flange is roughly .500 thick or 1/2".

Thanks Chuckie this one measures that also. Looks like either the intake was port matched to the heads with no gasket taken account for or somewhere down the line it was mated to a different block.

It's odd here that there's a gap difference between the top and bottom side with a gasket in place, this leads me to question weather the heads have been not just Milled, but angle Milled?

Your welcome. I was thinking you might want to separate the water cross-over from the intake. It helps to align the intake with the ports alot better. I realize you know that. Just thrown ideas your way.
The other thing I noticed in your pics was that the top part of the flange has alot more material than the bottom suggesting that maybe who ever ported it moved the openings downward. So cutting a-bit off each side will lower the intake to the port opening. And then the angle that has been mentioned comes into play.

I wouldn't separate the water cross over until after the milling process, the machine shop may charge extra for setting up the 2 pieces. (Ask me how I know..lol)

I bought a new Victor several years ago and it sat too high with a Felpro .040 gasket. I checked the port alignment without the gasket and it looked perfect. So I put a small amount of silicone around the ports and water cross over and ran it liked that for many years and it never leaked. Currently I am building a new engine and if it fits the same on the new engine I won't bother to mill the intake I will use the same process. Besides, gaskets are over rated.

Maybe I'm missing something.
From what I see the gasket looks compressed to match the intake flange.
Top of the flange is much thicker than the bottom. If I'm seeing correctly the bottom edge is also backcut.

Was there a vacuum leak?

I set up the intake and cut .045 off a side. It lined up much nicer. The bottom was crushing the gasket a little harder than the top. So I set it back up today and took a couple thousandths more off the bottom than the top, .005 total more.

Machine shop told me this: Get some shim stock. Can be brass shim stock or even thin cardboard, 12 pack cartons, doughnut box, this stuff like that. Put a caliper on the cardboard and measure and write it down.
Put your intake on the engine with the gasket you will use. Then experiment, shim it on 4 corners, play with it until it aligns.
Whatever shim stack makes it right, take that amount off the intake flange.
I milled my Victor .035 to align on my High Ports doing this.

I bought my intake without crossover. I did not mill it and it sealed just fine. Used the KRE crossover for the High Ports so the rubber gaskets aligns up in the front. Actually bought the very first one available from KRE.

I used no gasket on my oil pan except for the cork one on the rear main. Silicone sealed up just fine, no leaks.

I start with no gasket, then a gasket, then use feeler gauges for shims with or without a gasket. Then knowing what thickness gasket you will use you can give machinist specs. SCE can make .120 thickness gaskets various port size.

You can buy rolled gasket material different thicknesses, make your own