What is this noise?

[Poolshark314]

Well now I know why the studs were backing out...the heat shield melted out on one side.
That noise must have been my engine playing the harmonica through the aluminum sandwich pieces. It even blew a nice bubble in the middle of the polycore.

I guess I need to get a valley pan gasket to make sure the crossover is blocked off. I hope that will solve this issue when I put a new one in. Also ordered a fuel line jacket to help on that front.

[Chryco Psycho]

kind of a waste on the cool carb spacer , but we did suggest to use the FelPro 1215 gasket & they are easy to install on big blocks , no water to deal with .

[anlauto]

Certainly makes sense now 

[Poolshark314]

kind of a waste on the cool carb spacer , but we did suggest to use the FelPro 1215 gasket & they are easy to install on big blocks , no water to deal with .

I would imagine that without the heat shield piece, the spacer would have been what melted. I'll try the 1215 if it's easy enough to install but i'm not too confident in the polycore material over phenolic

[7dcuda]

You obviously didn't check to see if the intake heat crossover was blocked prior to installing the cool carb stuff....Cool carb plainly provides a WARNING stating not to install on intakes that have a heat crossover cuz it will melt the polycore material.

[Poolshark314]

You obviously didn't check to see if the intake heat crossover was blocked prior to installing the cool carb stuff....Cool carb plainly provides a WARNING stating not to install on intakes that have a heat crossover cuz it will melt the polycore material.

@7dcuda When you installed the 1215 gasket, did you use the fiber gaskets that come with it or just the valley tin? I am reading that the bolts might not thread with the fiber in on both sides of the tin

[7dcuda]

That's correct, there may not be enough room to install both fiber gaskets on each side.....you'll know by not being able to get all the bolts threaded as you stated.  I tried to use both on each side but only had room to install one on each side so I put it between the bottom side of the valley pan and the heads.

My research conclusions are that if you have stock iron heads and a stock iron intake then the valley pan tin is all that's needed, that's how it came from the factory.  But if you are using aluminum heads and an aluminum intake, or a combination of aluminum and iron, then you need to use the fiber gaskets as well.  This is due to the different metal expansion rates of aluminum and iron.   In my case, I have stock iron heads and an aluminum Edelbrock intake.  I actually wanted to use both of the fiber gaskets on each side but didn't have room for both.  The fiber gaskets that come with the valley pan are .030 thick each so I obviously had .030 clearance in order to install one fiber gasket on each side.  I have since learned that 440 Source sells fiber gaskets that are only .015 thick.  If I would have known that prior I would have used them, that way I could have put 2 fiber gaskets on each side.