My old gasket had a plate over the middle holes. Looks like exhaust gas. I bought the felpros and they come with new restrictor plates then I bought these Napa gaskets and thet don't have the plates. What are these for? Can I use the plates from the felpro set on the Napa gaskets? Also, my heads have coolant holes at the rear near the distributor and the gaskets cover these holes up because my intake only has the holes for coolant at the front. What were these rear holes for? And I noticed none of the bolts go into any coolant passages so I don't need any teflon on any of the bolts right? The previous owner had the gaskets covered in orange RTV on both sides as well as rtv on the end seals on both sides. Should I do it this way rather than installing the gaskets dry? (other than rtv around the coolant holes). I have permatex high temp black RTV. Is this good stuff to use?

The plates are for covering the EGR holes inthe intake from the heads to keep the temps down...or if you're running no EGR system.

Don't worry about the restrictors unless you are using the factory exhaust manifolds with the heat riser valve on the passenger side (exhaust).
I preferr a light skim of RTV (black is fine) around all the ports, both sides of the gasket, plus a bead to seal both ends of the intake and block rail.
Just the 4 outer corner bolt holes are blind, the inner 4 bolts on either side go into the lifter valley and can seep oil onto the intake, leaving a puddle. (annoying) Seal up the bolts with silicone.
The heads have coolant ports on either end so the heads can swap side to side. Starting in 1987 some coolant was taken from the passenger rear port to help warm the intake, exhaust was for EGR only.

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Thanks guys you about covered it all, I have headers and no egr, can I use the plates from the felpro on the napa just to keep extra exhaust out my heads to keep temps down? Also, My car didn't have a thermostat so I couldn't see how it went in there, does it go in spring down towards the manifold? It fits in there real nice either way and I don't want to overheat the first time I start it.

[This message has been edited by Z28 4 speed (edited January 18, 2005).]

If you live and drive in very cold country, the exhaust heat circulating through the intake manifold will help cold weather startup and drivability. If your using the divorced choke (that bolts down to the intake manifold) it will be very slow to react with the heat blocked. The tradeoff is heating the intake charge. Hot air carries less oxygen, less oxygen means you can't support combustion of as much fuel, and it takes burning fuel to make power,,, the more fuel you burn, the more power you make. Blocking the heat crossover may make a little more power, at the cost of cold weather drivability.

For the thermostat, yes, spring down.