Intake leak issues - I found by dumb luck that the fancy ARP intake bolts were actually bottoming out ever so slightly. The threads were running into the tops of the ports, and the TM7 and Torker intakes I tried were not as thick at the bolt holes on the inner 4 bolts as the outer 4, so the issue was worse on the inside bolts. The new RPM intake MAY have been OK, but once I realized this I ground the heads a bit and ran a tap through them. When I put the engine together with the TM7 the first time the engine didn't appear to pull oil from the bottom of the intake, but I ran two .030 gaskets on either side of the valley pan. Port alignment was good, so I just ground the bolt holes to get it all together. I thought the gaskets were sealing it up but in reality they were keeping the bolts from bottoming out, or at least bottoming out less. MAN I really did not pay attention to a few critical sealing details when I built this motor, NOOB. I was happy as a clam with the knowledge my intake would finally seal up, I cut the RPM to fit right, put it all together. And nope, she still pulls oil from the bottom, not right away, but after a few miles it starts. I know when it starts leaking because when it does the engine starts to run on when I shut it off, then the idle becomes inconsistent and the engine starts to loose its edge a bit. I resealed, this time with a .030 paper gasket instead of .015. All good for a bit, now leaking again. Even though I ground a ton off the edges of the intake to keep them off the end rails one corner appears to be touching just a bit still. Going to grind more, massage the valley pan a bit more, and try again. Ugh.
