[Nsgrn]

I will try and keep this fairly short. I have my intake and valley pan off again. To resolve oil leak issues. I have tried the thin aluminum valley cover twice now with ultra grey sealer, and cannot get it to seal right. Giving up, so I purchased a Tomahawk pan from BOP.

I am running a 400 with #48 heads and a Winters street dominator intake. Problems I am having are-

1. The intake ports on these heads were ported. Not by me. And opened quite a bit. Example vertical port measurements range 2.360-2.400

So, to get the effectiveness of the port job, I am use the E series intake gasket with larger opening. Which have to be trimmed to fit between the valve cover and valley pan.

The new valley pan fits well. However the intake port were taken (ported) low on the bottom, so there little to no gasket surface between the lower intake ports and valley pan lip.

I am thinking my only option is to notch the new Valley pan. To have a proper gasket surface.
Also on the underside this intake has 4 square flat surfaces that reside above the valley pan lip. The rear side will not let the manifold go low enough without shaving those pads down.

Looking for some other opinions, before I start cutting and shaving. Maybe someone on here has had similar issues.
Thanks, Chad

[78w72]

very common to have issues with intake to v/p clearance. i'm not sure about your head porting issues aligning with the intake gaskets, but the v/p to head issue is something i had to address on my recent build...

what i did was notch the v/p a little bit to clear the areas that are hitting the intake, much easier to notch the v/p compared to grinding on the intake. if you look close at most v/p gaskets (felpro) there are 4 small notches, 2 on each side that are for some engines than have clearance issues. if you lay the gasket on the v/p you can mark those areas with a marker & easily grind out the area with a bench grinder or angle grinder. only take a little bit & test fit as too much will affect the sealing of the v/p. if you need to take a little off the bottom of the intake thats ok too, just do little bits at a time & test fit. also be sure you are test fitting with the intake gaskets in place as they will raise the intake up about 1/16".

some guys dont use a v/p gasket & they say it seals ok using a good bead of ultra black or grey. that will help the v/p sit a little lower.

[ELKHORNAOG7]

I had the same problem with my intake and v/p but I did not have the head port problem and I took off the flats with a hand file and it fit ok for me----BOB

[Formula8]

Originally I didn't have a vp gasket around so I just sealed it with a bead of RTV black. It never leaked a drop and I bent the valley pan trying to get it off. Well I straightened out the pan and reinstalled the pan with gasket and had to trim my intake gaskets to get it all to fit. So, you might wanna try taking out the gasket and just use a bead of RTV so the vp drops down a bit

[Don 79 TA]

try the valley pan from Darrin at nightmare performance
super low profile, nicely notched
i use it with some RTV gray
i used ARP dominator style carb studs to mount it
so far, so good

[chrisp]

Use the Permatex right stuff gasket maker

[Tim Corcoran]

The main problem is the after market intake manifold. The Tomahawk valley pan fits pretty much the same as a factory unit. You can trim some from the valley pan around the port areas but not too much as stated above. Trimming the manifold is also in order to solve this interference issue. With a factory intake manifold you wouldn't have this issue unless the heads were machined to reduce the combustion chamber size and an equal amount was not removed from the intake surface of the heads. This is a very common issue and careful trimming and fitting should take care of it.

[pippintook]

I just installed a Tomahawk valley pan on a 78 400. I bought the Fel-Pro PS50045C gasket from Napa. With the gasket, I was getting a tiny bit of interference between the intake runners and the Tomahawk valley pan..so, I did some light grinding of the intake runners. I later had to pull the intake (stock 78 400 egr)...when I reinstalled, I just used a hi temp grey silicone with no gasket. I had my engine on a test stand during this.

When installing the valley pan, I think it is important to check your seal. Either way, if you use a gasket or silicone, I would recommend first test fit the pan. See how the pan sits on block and intake sealing surfaces. I used a flashlight and feeler gauges. Sometimes the valley pan sealing surfaces are not flat and may require a light tweak to get nice and straight/flat. If using gasket lay gasket and pan down. Put intake on and again check for interference. Install front timing cover/intake bolt - that bolts pull intake slightly toward foward..again, check for any interference between intake and valley pan.

When installing the pan, I used feeler gauges and torqued down. I would use feeler gauges around the outside of the sealing area and check the clearance...this was alot easier to do on engine test stand...I was able to use feeler gauges and get a good idea when I had torqued enough to get a good seal (ie. almost zero clearance). I liked the silicone with no gasket for my install, as I found it it gave me a little better control of the seal and was a bit easier to measure/verify the seal. My block had been decked and heads shaved and I was using an aftermarket valley pan. With silicone, I think it is real important to make sure you dont use too much and make sure none gets inside the engine.