Hi there,
I've been up to my eyeballs in work and stuff so haven't had a chance to check back in here. As luck would have it, I've now actually got two. Wendell down in TN was kind enough to let me get his spare. At the same time Gary Hebling also found one in his warehouse. According to him I've bought the last spare he had, at this point he's only got complete manifold systems to sell.
So at this point I've cleaned everything up and put it back together with new gaskets and rings for the cast pieces. Putting it back on was another example of my stupidity. I basically got all the way through the job on after church but before Easter Sunday dinner only to realize at the end the there were two hex head bolts on the intake manifold that I should have put in the casting before assembling the exhaust portion. Yes, once again you can laugh at my distress.
That's what happens when several weeks go between when you take something apart and when you put it back together. In the intervening time I had forgotten about the placement of those bolts. I was rather angry to say the least. Since then however I've taken it back off, put in the bolts and reassembled it. Hopefully this weekend I'm going to put the carb back on and light this engine off. With my luck I'll find out that I didn't torque down the nuts correctly and blow another hole in my manifold gasket. I'm a gluten for punishment.
Regards,
Chris
