[miker98038]

If it’s running nice, i don’t understand “ major leaks” but that’s an aside. If the block has been decked and the heads milled, the intake may not be seating properly between the heads. I’ve seen Ted Eaton post some info on how much and what angle to mill the intake for those circumstances.

Sometimes an aluminum intake will deform enough to make that up, but a stock cast iron probably not. It’s visible sitting in place with no gaskets.

Early carbs (or replacement carbs) sometimes don’t line up quite right with the usual late model gaskets. So it might be a simple as just the gasket on the carb/maniflod. That’s easier to check. Given hood clearance, a phenolic carb spacer helps with fuel percolation, but check both gaskets on that too.