Another odd 1971 only 340 detail. I was going through some of my used production line 1971 340 parts and came across this carburetor gasket (used under all 4972s and 4973s Thermo-Quads). It is pretty well known that these used a unique carb gasket combo; two foil/asbestos gaskets which sandwiched a thicker aluminum spacer plate/ The combo raised the carb up about 1/4" above the intake and the materials likely added some decent insulating properties.

What I wanted to call out on this post is a small easily overlooked detail of these gaskets. The 3 pieces were STAPLED together! That's right, the staples go through both the asbestos gaskets AND the thick solid aluminum plate! Pretty impressive staple power there! One staple in the front, one staple in the rear, likely to keep them as a set and for ease of assembly during production. I have never seen this on anything but production line examples.