Wilson called to say the intake for my 541 was on the fab bench this week. While we were on the phone they complimented my intake port template and said it was one of the best hand crafted pieces they'd seen. That took me by surprise. It was functional but not pretty in my eyes. I guess they were just happy to see that I marked the sides of the template for head and intake surfaces.

Anyway, that got me to thinking....

I used a factory style valley pan on the old standard port tunnel ram because it was a touch larger than the runner window. Now that I'll have port matched runners I'm going to need a more accommodating gasket.

What are you guys using?

I could open up the pan but it would require cutting into the embossed areas around the port. Potential vacuum leaks.

The old Indy valley plate from the TT440 is still under my bench but that thing leaves a big gap requiring a fat bead of pookie and a bucket of hopes and dreams to not leak. If I could keep it sealed it would allow use of easily ported paper gaskets.

Then, there's the option of a half breed where the port windows are cut out of the valley pan and paper gaskets are used around the ports. There's a problem of dissimilar crush height leading to possible leaks. I have never had any luck stacking paper gaskets on the metal pan. The increased thickness leaves the intake misaligned.

The ports are still smaller than Max Wedge openings but I might be able to get away with those if I don't mind the gasket thick gap for the incoming air to jump. It still leaves the issue of an unsealed valley.


Thoughts?

I've been using different brand valley pans with gaskets only between the heads and manifold on all my M.W. head builds for a lot of years now with good luck. That started with the cast aluminum Indy brand valley pans and now I have used several other stamp steel pans like 440 Source with good success also: up: scope:

Back in 1990 on my 446ci Cuda we blew the top part off on the Pro stock scoop with an N20 backfire (one time only) which sucked the stock valley pan in, as we didn't have a spare and were in competition we did exactly what you mention, cut the intake part out which was useless and used paper gskts., no probs at all, no leaks, car ran hard, the manifold was a Team G dom flange.

For a lot of years I used the standard pan and 0.015" gaskets on both sides. Sizing the pan ports to the proper opening size is a small labor of love. I flattened the embossed portion and cut into them as needed. After detailing the alignment, I glued the paper to the pan making a paper/pan/paper sandwich. They sealed fine.

This last time, I just used the Hughes Max Wedge pan and gaskets.

I've thought about your hybrid approach with 0.030 gaskets on both sides. I'm sure it would work.

Someone else has used the pan gasket with the ports cut off and bent/tabbed the pan under the heads and used silicone sealer like you would for your Indy plate.

I think what you're describing is a perfect use case for AndyF's batwings, especially since you already have the Indy valley plate.

https://arengineering.com/products/batwing-gasket-holders/

What about something fabed up like Andy F's "batwing gasket holders" and a Indy style valley plate? Use gaskets on both sides of the gasket holders and sealer to the plate.

Brian

I looked at his site first. Somehow, I missed that stuff. After posting I went back and found them.
I've already pestered him about the bat wing thing.