Edelbrock Intake Water Passages

[spd4me]

My Edelbrock AirGap RPM on my 396W stroker is leaking some fluid out of the very rear of intake at the bolt. There is a coolant passage on the rear of the heads that dead end into the intake mainfold. I'm sure the original intake had a passage way from one rear of head to the other side. There are 2 areas on the RPM that look like they could be drilled , tapped and a connection made from one side to the other. Have any of you guys done this? If so, what size hole, fittings, etc. Seems like this would allow for better coolant circulation.
Bob

[spd4me]

Come on guys, somebody has to have a though or two about this.

[RJacobsen]

The heads have water passages front and back so that they can be used on either side of the engine. Only the front passage is used to feed water back to the radiator. Connecting the back will have no advantage

[spd4me]

Rod- Your exactly right. I talked to a guy at themustangshop.com and he said to make a cross connection would creat a stagnant area of water and possabily an air pocket. The water flows from the engine through the heads back to radiator and those openings are there because of the casting process. The problem of my leaking is when I installed the Air Gap manifold, the intake bolts are about 1/8" to long and prevented from sealing the gasket real good.
Bob

[mkassab]

this may seem obvious, but shorting the bolt if 1/8" too long by ~3/16s" should solve your problem??

[spd4me]

Your right. When I changed over from a Victor Jr. to the RPM Air Gap, I noticed my idle was very rough. Put a vacumn gauge on it and was not holding a vacumn. I looked at the intake bolts and saw I could turn the washers which ment the bolts were bottoming out before they tightened. I Took them out one at a time, measured the depth of holes and added another washer (2 total) which is about 1/16" and it worked.
Bob