Along with the issues I am having with my carb, I had another question about my stock 455 intake manifold. I noticed that when I took my carb off, that there is no separation between the passenger side primary and secondary ports in the manifold. On the driver side, there is a little separation between the primary and secondary ports. it is about an inch or so deep before it seems to open up. Forgive my lack of manifold anatomy. I'm no engineer, it just seems weird that one side would be completely open and clear, and the other side would be more than 50% separated. If it is not supposed to be like that, could that have something to do with my carb/vacuum problems? I am just not having a very good week!

 

Post a picture of it.

 

For this, a picture would definitely help, but...

Does there appear to be any tool marks?
(Like someone was cutting or ground it down)
Or maybe is it a flat machined surface?

Regardless, I don't think it is at all detrimental since I want to say I have seen some newer manifolds that have absolutely no partitioning on the carb opening. Also I recall something about some people cutting out the dividers on manifolds in the hopes of increasing air flow.

But like I said if you can get a good picture some one could probably tell you for sure what is up with a quick glance.

---
Doh! he beat me :-)

 

Here is a stock intake from Ebay. See on the left side, the primary and secondary ports go all the way through as opposed to the right which is blocked up. I guess it is supposed to be that way....? Weird.

 

certainly looks strange...........
Almost looks like the work of mud-dauber wasps...

 

It's a dual plane intake. But I now see what you mean.

 

That is original/correct and hasn't been modified....nothing wrong with it.

 

Alright cool, one less thing I have to be concerned with. I assumed that it was supposed to be like that, because nothing else on my engine has been screwed with too much over the last 30 some years, it is just weird to me that it is like that but hey, that's why I don't design engines for a living.

 

FYI, dual plane means that one side of the carb feeds four cylinders and the other side feeds the other four. The runners are at two different levels so they can cross over one another. Dual plane intakes have less plenum volume to maintain velocity in the intake and thus promote low speed torque.