How do you seal your small block intake?
In your top photo, right where the harness loom / hose? goes down past the corner (lower left) SOME intakes (Ed?) have a gap there in the corner of the head / intake / block. Make CERTAIN you get that full of RTV. Like others I don't use the end gaskets.
You have to be aware in this used day and age, of whether the block / heads have been milled, and that affects how the intake "sits." Evidently there is now a QC problem even with Ed and other 'murican intakes fitting correctly.