phenolic spacer

[chriswells78]

I think you have the idea. Personally I would try to use an inch and a half piece or so, welding a seem perfect is difficult. Give yourself a 1/4 inch overlap to lay your weld on.

There won't be any torquing between the header and the upper intake, the two torque together as they are both bolted to the block.

I wouldn't be as worried about cracking the exhaust manifold as I would be getting the EGR tube off without damaging it. I broke mine when removing it.

 

[Turdle]

I mentioned the header cracking, because, if the egr tube is corroded or seized on there-the severe force to free it may cause a crack. If you look at the picture you can see what I mean--the area in the red circle will take all of the force when you "hercules" the flange nut off.

you will need to remove the heat shields to see this area--in fact It is not uncommon to have a leak here---

 

[chriswells78]

I see. The nut didn't want to spin on the pipe so I ended up twisting the pipe all to poop when I took mine off.