Under the heading of first contact...
Not sure if you're looking for a way fire a last stand/hail mary pass to still save the dodgfective intake manifold...however...if you use the spray on permatex copper gasket maker, it worked for me. I think the problem is that the intake plenum gaskets, I don't care who makes them, are a poor design n just plain suck, pardon the punn!!! These gaskets are akin to designing a ship with holes drilled in the bottom of the hull so that any water that comes in can drain out. But I digress, that stuff is nasty n sticks to just about anything. The only reason I'musin' spray on is 'cause I'm lazy. Spray down the gasket on both sides n just try to pulling that bad boy back apart after first contact.

 

BTW, love the dayglo, lime green block. Sure makes leaks easy to spot.

 

Ima gonna paint mine pink then.........

 

Sorry its so late but for anyone in future dealing with this issue TTY fasteners or torque to yield one time use fasteners were the problem. My intake bolts loosened up after being installed because they are one time use and they were fairly corroded. Not sure what I was thinking reusing them but anyway, the intake was just sitting on the block really loose and oil was getting sucked up along the sides. The Hughes replacement piece was working 100% so make sure everything is torqued down good and use new bolts. I replaced the head gasket but that was probably fine. Once I had the intake off I could see it was just running along it from the back side.

 

What is interesting about that is, NOWHERE in the service manual does it flatly state that you CANNOT re-use the intake bolts...... It was a running debate for a while... When I did mine, I broke two of them, and the rest were really crappy, so, I just replaced them anyway.....