HonestDave

Finished working beside the house today, so I unwrapped the 442 and warmed it up. Went to see if I could idle it down a bit and got looking at the carb. Still pondering over my vacuum leak, as of then, not found. Looking at the gasket and wondering if the mounting bolts are loose I notice it's sitting on a nice fat plastic insulator with no paper or metal gasket, just plastic. Very warm intake manifold has likely melted the plastic insulator.
Guess I'll be pulling that off and hope I don't have to scrape it off the intake.
Also guess I'll be going back to old car school.

don71

Were the carb bolts loose? A little snug on em might help them.

I know the gaskets have the bolt insert in them, but that's pretty common.

ABS has a pretty high melting point.

If its not that, its something else. Warped air horn?

Have you tried carb cleaner or propane gas around the suspected leaks?

HonestDave

They weren't finger tight. Didn't get tools out, as I was in a hurry. At least the car is back under cover.
Anyone know the correct gasket format for a stock Olds carb on an F block 455?
Do they also use a paper (cardboard? asbestos?) gasket against the intake, and then plastic insulator?
Anything else gasket-wise I'm missing? I tried looking it up in my assembly manual, but seemed to be missing pages.

oldcutlass

I'm thinking 2 gaskets, 1 above and 1 below the plastic insulator.

HonestDave

I could see that making sense. Would make for a good seal. I'm sure there's opportunity for leaking with only using the plastic piece.

HonestDave

I decided to take a big step tonight and phone the fellow that sold me the 455 intake last year. He rebuilds Olds engines and was very helpful.
For the carb, he said to just buy a quadrajet carb base gasket. It will be thick enough and work fine. Use nothing else.
For my starter issues, he says get a starter blanket. It'll likely solve the hard cranking problem when hot. If that fails, he likes the new high output mini starters. They sit further from the headers and don't heat up as much.
For the timing, he sets most of his big Oldmobiles at 14 degrees initial timing.

He also has a great 1970 ish 442 in the garage. It's like new. Very cool.

AND.......he says call him anytime to talk about the 442. He could talk Olds all day !!

Koda

I don't believe the phenolic plastic spacer will melt on the intake. It does need gaskets.

z11375ss

The high torque mini starters are great. I run them on all my stuff. They save space and never have a problem with heat soak. Yeah they're pricey, but for reliability you can't beat them.