I'm trying hard to get my '72 Duster running without bucking or hesitating. It was doing OK until I overtightened the carb and cracked the body. The car is hesitating and misfiring no mater how I adjust the remanufactured carb. I'm in the process of rebuilding yet another carb, but I have another issue. I noticed exhaust leaking out behind the choke stove. I went accross the top of the intake manifold with carb cleaner thinking that there may be a vaccuum leak as well, but I didn't find anything. I put a new gasket in about 10 months ago and retorqued all of the bolts in April. Since then, I haven't done anything to it. Worst of all, the very last mounting stud on the top side is broken clean off!! I've been letting it go and hoping that all of the other bolts will hold things together well enough. I just read the great article on manifold gaskets from Doc. Right now it's pretty cold and nasty where I live and I don't have a garage, so I really don't want to get into pulling the manifold for a couple of months. I'm going to go over the bolts again and see if they're loose. I'd like to know if this leak is going to cause me any major problems.? Any advice?

Joel

Believe me the only way to fix this is to pull the manifolds and do it right. Follow the newly posted article exactly and USE copper based sealer, manifolds to gasket. Just live with it until you can do it properly or you'll be asking for headaches.