Intake manifold, port match and cross over

[SoupMan]

 I just pulled my intake to do work on the car but figured I would double check if the intake ports match the heads. On the heads the gasket has no excess. As you can see the gasket is almost flush with the intake ports on the heads. Should I port the intake manifold?  Worth the effort?

Also, any opinions on separating the cross over while I'm there?
The intake manifold is an edelbrock 2156

Head


Intake without gasket. You can see where it's clean


Intake with gasket.

[79T/Aman]

it will do nothing, in fact having the intake port a bit smaller can reduce reversion.

[SoupMan]

Good to know. Opinion on cutting the cross over?

[jonathonar89]

Gasket match the head first, if anything needs matching.  You want the head to be an exact match or slightly larger than the intake and gasket so the flow path is not hitting a wall.

On the intake side, what some of the “pro’s” do is drill a small locating hole through the intake and into the head a small amount to see where the gasket lines up once everything is mounted.  From there, you can pull off the intake, realign the gasket to where it was and locate your exact port location on the intake face for port matching.

Check out Weingartner Racing YouTube channel or Speier Racing Heads on Facebook.  Those guys are always posting content on these subjects. 

[SoupMan]

Jon,

Thanks. I actually watched that exact episode you reference. I might do exactly that. Lots of plans, not enough time.

[nUcLeArEnVoY]

Removing the crossover just makes warm-up take a bit longer, but it's pretty necessary if you plan to continue using the thermostatic auto-choke.