Baffle not included..........

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The more I drove the 73 the more I was sure it "used oil" - I mean like a quart every two or three hundred miles. Oddly, it does NOT smoke a lick, black or blue, and the plugs look white and clean save for one that's a bit tan and there's no oily look to them. In fact, several of them looked like new, the rest simply looked lightly used and I saw no red flags. But last time I had to add oil it took over a quart and that was about a hundred miles ago and it's already down almost a half quart.
I knew it leaked. Heck, I have to keep cardboard under it to keep the oil off the floor and I found one of the sources - the front intake seal was slipped out a bit - the ridge in the middle of the "rubber" seal was totally showing and the engine was wet from there down and it appeared that the fan was spreading it back. The corner of the engine was also really grimy.Hey, can't be that much effort and time to pull an aluminum intake and reseal it, right?
Well all that linkage and two carbs does make it a bit more effort, but still I had it off in short order.
I had a feeling I would also find something else - or rather NOT find something else. I redid the PCV hose because it was old and brittle and cracked and it seemed the line was a bit oily inside. Even the line I put in place to replace the old cruddy one, I pulled to reshape it a bit and it seemed oily for no longer than it was in place.
YUP, pulled the intake off and tipped it over on the bench - no baffle at all. 
but wow was it clean in the valley and the bottom of the intake was really clean.

It's a shame they powder coated that intake - powder coating stains really badly with gas over time and this intake was really not very silver and was a lot tan and brown (the crabs are crappy, what can I say)

So now I'm trying to remove the crappy looking powder coating from the intake. 
What a job. I'd have had that intake back on and the car running again in an afternoon if not for finding no baffle and wanting to get that cruddy looking powder coating off.
Why would someone powder coat an intake? It's not gas resistant and stains. It's wonderful - I love powder coating and do i myself and have done a ton of parts but would not do an intake where gas can sit in the low areas and stain it brown. It's bad enough trying to keep bare aluminum intakes clean looking if your carbs dribble at all.

The engine is cleaned up and ready for an intake - the heads all cleaned and wiped down with acetone, the block at the valley is cleaned up and wiped down with acetone to remove all traces of sealer and oil, etc.
Just need to clean that intake up and remove the powder - at least most of it - so the intake looks ok. I may end up pulling it again next winter to do a better job - I have no real time to do it right this time around - never figured on removing powder so I'm already several hours behind for the week (and this is the car I hope I can take to GAD)

Didn't the baffles have some mesh in the PCV area? Neither of the ones I have have any of the mesh in them. (I have one of each shape so was lucky I had one that will fit this intake)

Edited by billd - May/21/2018 at 8:28pm