To these heads. (BPE) Intake ports are 2 1/2" tall and a few thousandths wider than standard gasket opening size. Gaskets hung over the roof and floor too much to leave alone. Looking down the runner through the plenum things line up much better now.
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So (thankfully) this is an older Super Victor without the injector bosses. I am also happy to report that my cool-guy reverse-lip valve covers appear to fit. The previous owner painted it 273 red which eventually will be gone. He told me it fit under his flat hood. We'll see I guess.
At some point prior to my ownership it had been gasket matched by Hughes. It was a pretty nice job and I did feel a bit bummed about going over their work but what can you do. Someone told me their porter retired and they don't do it any more.
Overall, I'm OK with it. Couple flubs here and there but no catastrophic damage. My goal was to avoid bell-mouthing the openings as best as I could but easier said than done. No plenum work save for lightly smoothing a casting line under the carb flange. No other plenum work is planned for now.
It's not perfect but you get the idea. The sanding rolls help me see the final shape a little better but I know a lot of people like a burr finish these days. For what it's worth, Hughes used sanding rolls but I'm guessing they probably did this job more than 10 years ago. The dividers look wavy in these pics but they are not.
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I definitely have some hours into this intake but it feels like I've spent more time trying to cut the gaskets out to the right size cleanly.
-Greg