In any clamping interface, there needs to be ONE sacrificial fastener. As noted, better to strip or break a fastener than to ruin a casting (which will require a HeliCoil or similar to fix correctly rather than scrapping it).
My orientation toward the carb studs is that I DID break one of the silver ones, which came with the manifold. I then got a small drill bit and put a hole as nearly in the center of the broken stud (in the manifold base flange). Didn't get it centered just right, as it was still on the motor (383 in this case). I then got the requisite E-Z-Out and tried that, but due to the small size, it broke too. Bought another manifold and put the one with the "installed" stud in my stash. Got the black oxide studs, put some sealer on the bottom threads (that went into the manifold flange), carefully installed them fully, and completed the carb installation. Just use finger-strength. If you might used a short wrench to install them, use ONLY the minimum amount of torque to do it--period! IF any resistance is met before it bottoms-out in the hole, remove it and re-check the hole with a bolt and your fingers (for torque). Once in securely, then continue from there. Key word is "discretion" in doing the final torque on the carb base.
CBODY67
that is 9/32" thick, too thick to fit the studs. I made a gasket with thin material from O'Reilly's, but just realized its leaking. So, anyone know if there is a carb gasket that'll fit an original setup? I looked through the nantional auto parts stores, jegs, summit, and yearone. they all either have the felpro one or nothing, as far as I see. Thanks for helping, Bob
