THAT IS AWESOME NEWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Glad to here all is well. I would find that intake leak first before you change the oil. Just in case you have to pull it off again. 
Well, I found the intake leak.....it was a CARB base gasket leak.
When I installed the 1/2" wood spacer I used the gasket that came with it....wrong move.
Somehow I didnt notice the gap..one on each side of the carb base....
I have a performer manifold like this :
The gaps were towards the rear of the carb base, where the manifold flares out.
The car was running "ok" when warming up but it had a lower idle than it did before....like a vac leak would cause. What was happening was that when Iwas spraying around the intake manifold gasket looking for leaks, the spray was getting into that carb base gasket gap on each side, which I couldnt see, and therefore making the idle go up....
The way I found it was I took the car out this afternoon....it rn worse and worse as it warmed up....wanting to stall when stopped....then when you would pull out it would wheeze and gasp then kick in.....Made a stop at a store to get bolts and as we were pulling into the lot the car puttered out.....retarting was easy enough but as soon as it would go into gear it would stall....then it started backfiring thru the carb and exhaust, etc.
Started looking all over it and in the bright sunshine I saw that one gap, at just the right angle....put some electrical tape over it and it got us home......didn't notice the gap on the other side....drove a couple miles home.....no problem....but then right as we hit the driveway it did it again.....the other gap was still open so all I can figure is that as the car heats up the gap causes it to run leaner and leaner....and by the time I got home it was really leaning out from that second gap. Let her cool a little and got into the garage.
I called edelbrock and they basically said to scrap the wood spacer and reinstall my edelbrock #9266 (asebstos double heat insulator gasket), but this time use the square bore plate #3899 under it which I had not done before....he told me that was likely a source of a vacuum leak.
Basically i cant run the wood spacer with my engine, manifold and hood setup due to height and the manifold itself having that bowled-out design at the back...the spacer isnt wide enough to seal it. I could probably use a #3899 gasket on the manifoldm then the plate, then another gasket, then the wood, then another gasket then the carb, but i wont have the clearance for that.
The car ran fine before (aside from cutting out)....I had installed the wood spacer hoping to eliminate my hot start issues......not a real problem, just annoying and a little embarassing I guess....I am going to leave the asbestos gasket on there until I get the car running right again and not dying on me.
Man, nothing can be easy. LOL
