First, I'd like to thank everybody who responded for their interest.
Now, on to the current state of things...
Every source I checked with (including TRF, Aurora, and several
responses from this list) indicated that the intake manifold swap
would work fine. Aurora, being the professional kind of guys they
are, said they'd swap my old manifold for a used one of the proper
type, no charge :-). So today I headed over to the yard with old
manifold in hand to do the swap, hoping to put it back together this
weekend. Well, it's not quite a single-part swap. The depth of the
manifolds is different (by that I mean the dimension between the carb
faces and the head). The newer style is about 2 inches larger,
probably to help straighten the intake ports. The problem is that
would move the physical location of the carbs, requiring different
throttle linkage (at least).
So I'm standing there at the counter, staring at the two manifolds,
wondering how much throttle linkage I should take home with me when
Rich (the owner?) proposes a most admirable solution. He says that
they'll find a head in the yard that is the right year, send it out to
their favorite machine shop for a rebuild, and swap me for the one I
just got rebuilt. That way the $285 I have invested doesn't change,
and I magically swap the wrong rebuilt head for the right one.
:-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-)
Boy these guys have class for a junkyard! So I'll have to wait a few
more days, but I'll end up with the right head (including the high
compression that I didn't look forward to losing) and I won't have to
change the manifold, linkage, and whatever else would have turned out
to be wrong (there would have been something).
I'll let y'all know when I get it together and back on the road.
...and thank you for your support...
Tim
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