Allan and the others are right- if it's leaking antifreeze it's the gasket between the intake and the head. Your description of "behind the distributor" was probably what got you the advice to just use RTV, since those valley gaskets often can be and are replaced with RTV. But, NEVER use just RTV between the manifold and the head, especially around the intake ports. Gasoline turns RTV to a gell. I always just put a smear of RTV around the waterjacket openings with my fingertip and use nothing around the ports on the gasket. Getting back to your problem, sounds to me like one of two things- either mismatched due to faulty machine work(in which case it "should" leak at other spots too). Lay a straightedge along the machined area of both the head and manifold and check for a low spot...Either that, or else you could possibly have a bad intake manifold casting- either poorly machined from Edelbrock(the straightedge would show that) or even a pourus casting that lets antifreeze "seep" through the aluminum. Another thing, not sure if the Air Gap manifold has it, but some race aluminum intakes have a water outlet port at the rear flange surface to allow external water plumbing. If yours has this(I doubt it) the plug there could be leaking. If it was me and there was nothing visibly wrong, I'd swap on another intake(you probably have the stock one lying around) and see if that cures the problem. One final thought...since these are "redone heads", Check and see if one of the rear intake bolts isn't drilled clear through into the waterjacket...I doubt this is the case too, but ya never know...a dab of sealer on the bolt threads would cure that.
|