[olddog]

Well since there is only a couple weeks of driving left, I decided to re-torque the intake bolts and put off changing the gaskets until winter. I cleaned the intake up with carb cleaner and a rag as best I could. I found the throtte body wasn't opening up all the way - the ball the throttle cable snaps onto had threads going through too far - but I digress.

The vacuum is now steady, when rpms are steady. It was (before re-torquing) erratic and jumping to zero, when cold. However the cold idle still wants to drop down to about 200 rpm - where the vacuum is about 2". If I hold the idle up to 900ish (by ear - I could not hold throttle and see tach and vacuum gauge all at the same time) the vacuum cold is about the same as hot - around 14".

So I'm trying to understand is the vacuum being low causing the low idle speed when cold, or is the low rpm when cold causing the low vacuum? The cam at 0.050" lift is 236 intake and 242 exhaust duration, resulting in 19 degrees of overlap. It would seem to me that such a cam would run less vacuum as the rpms go down, but I'm not sure.

Do I still have a vacuum leak?

By the way as soon as the O2 sensors heat up and the ECU goes into closed loop control the idle is perfect.

When I tighten the manifold down, the first time around I got about 1/4 turn on the bolts, second time a little over an 1/8 turn, third time some moved a little, fourth none moved. I set the wrench on 16 ft-lb per Edelbrocks instructions (16-18 ft-lb).