Don't feel bad others have done this, and we had one guy who was sold a reverse rotation marine cam. On those multi-keyway advance/ retard timing sets it's easy to make a mistake.
So far as the intake leak, I do not use the front/ rear seals. I clean things really good and put a really thin coat of sealer around the water ports......frontmost and rearmost ports. I lay a "big fat" RTV bead across the front and rear. CAUTION........Some Edelbrock manifolds can leave a big gap in the front make sure you look that over. After putting it down and getting it mostly tightened down, take a towel/ finger and smooth the front and rear silicone beads, then let it sit unfired for at least 24 hours[/QUOTE]
Thanks ! It is an Edelbrock intake and I did exactly that in install with rtv and went back over it last night and sure enough solves both my erratic vacuum and the small leak. I now found it leaking at the oil filter lol. There isn’t supposed to be a gasket there right ?