Making progress! The vibration of the vacuum gage although it may not be ideal, could be the gage itself, and not necessarily an engine problem.

I wonder if the blow-by is less now that the exhaust restriction has been removed?

Where are you drawing the vacuum for the gauge from? If you are drawing it of the vacum tree on the #6 runner you will see a flutter. You need to use one of the non-ported vacuum sources on the carb (like the vacuum choke pulloff source) to get a steady and accurate reading.

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Casually looking for a Clifford hyperpak intake for cheap.

The flutter is the gauge. I am pulling vacuum from the source directly next to the choke pull off at the base of the carb. My vacuum gauge on my pump shows a very solid 20 at idle. Apparently if you leave the gauge on the intake manifold it will over heat and make it act and sound funny if you turn it on it's side. Blow by from what I can tell is gone via the gauge. I tested my booster and it has a tiny bit of a leak. Sorry this was a bit hard to follow as I made alot of adjustments quickly due to my lack of time allowed to work on it. It is not my preferred method. I have about 11 hours into this with the head repair spread over about 35 individual days. I drove it 90 miles today. It sure was a good feeling. Once I fine tune this I will be on to servicing the transmission. It needs adjustment of the bands and possibly check on the govenor from what I can feel.

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