Edelbrock 1405 Setup

[nathantaylor200]

I've got a 65 Coupe with a 302, Edelbrock 1405, T5 trans, and HEI distributor. I recently replaced my clutch and noticed some oil dripping from the separator plate so I assumed it was a bad rear main seal and went ahead and replaced it while I had it all apart. Got it all put back together and the leak seemed to have worsened... thought I messed something up but then noticed a pool of oil on top of the engine in the back just behind the intake manifold. After some research I thought it might be due to excessive crank case pressure since I discovered my PCV hose was plugged into the wrong port (back port on carb). Moved the pcv hose to the proper front port and blocked off the back one but now I get sporadic small backfires from the tailpipes on idle and backfiring from the carb when I hit the throttle. The leak seems to have gone away which is good... Rechecked timing and retuned the carb but doesn't seem to be fixing anything. I sprayed carb cleaner all over to see if there was a vacuum leak, especially on the intake manifold, but didn't notice any idle variations. Any ideas? What am I missing?

 

[Noobz347]

When you install aftermarket aluminum heads on a 302, there is a small gap between the deck surface and the head surface in the center/rear, just outboard of where the cork gaskets would sit.

You can actually slide a credit card through that slot with the heads installed.


So, remove the intake (upper and lower), remove the cork gasket(s) if used, apply new sealant, and ensure you spread that sealant in that gap from the [inside]. Again, those gaps are [just] outboard of where the cork goes (whether you use the cork gaskets or not).

 

[nathantaylor200]

Thanks for the tip! I'll keep an eye out for that but I am using rubber Fel-Pro gaskets and I'm not seeing any leak now that I have relocated the PCV hose to the front of my carb

 

[nathantaylor200]

In case anyone else runs into this issue... I was an idiot and accidentally swapped spark plug wires 3 and 4 when I was moving the valve covers around. Backfire is no more now we'll see if changing the PCV hose to the correct port fixes my oil leak.