Well, I did not pay enough attention as I was taking this engine apart. I cleaned, blasted and painted the intake tubes and the "intake distributor" (please correct me if I have mis-named). Anyway, I am a good 1/4" off center on the #3 cylinder intake tube, left tube. This can't be good or right, can it? I can get the short rubber hose on,
this kind of offset will leak right?
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the 1/2 side lines up nicely

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Could you have the tubes on the wrong side?

Is the air distribution box in the correct location? How are the other 2 j tubes?
Are left and right j tubes connected in the right place?
Did you mix 1.8 and 2.0 components?

Looking at the pictures again, I see 2.0 runners and 1.8 box.
If you replace the heads to 3 studs, just drill the 1.8 runners.

I have tried the tubes on both sides, same result. These are 1.8 heads. 1 came off the car, Len gave me the other one. Both have 4 studs and the tubes have 4 holes and they came off of this engine....so the head end is fine, and I have the spacers on the heads. maybe I could get me a longer rubber hose?

The box really won't go on any other way. the distance from the box pipes to the J-pipes is the same on both sides, 1 is just off center. German welder must have been in a hurry to go to lunch when he welded this one.

From your posts you seem to be in the know. Question, would it be worth while to polish and match the intake system?
Thanks Wes

The attachment point near the flywheel ison the wrong side.

But he thinks I would put a 3 hole tube on a 4 stud head and not notice?

wouldn't all four be off center if I move the mount to the other side? here is a picture of everything together.

the plenum tubes are about 2-1/4" center to center. the tubes on 1/2 side are the same. the 3/4 jtubes are only 2". Am I crazy?
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My rear mount is on the same side as yours. Could the pipe have been tweaked/bent?

My setup here
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looks to be welded at the wrong angle. no signs of a hit. question is: LEAK or not?

Here's a couple of pics of my 1.8L engine showing the runners. The plenum on yours looks to be mounted like mine.

all the tubes on yours looks to be lined up with the plenum tubes. Your plenum is smaller than mine tho....("not what she said!") mine is an early 75, made 10/74. I bet your car is older. Wonder if there are different length tubes?

I think that you may be using thicker intake gasket, where did you get them from?

I had the same problem with mine, and it is an early 75, made 11/74. I did not change any hardware, just took it down to a longblock, replaced all seals and gaskets, and when I went to put it all together, I could not get the runners to line up no matter how I tried. I could not see a way to make it better, no matter how I mounted the plenum or the runners.

I ended up just getting them as close as I could and put the runner hoses on hoping that I had a good seal.

Of course, I came home on a flatbed last Thursday, but I don't think that it was due to this....

Is it possible to loosen the bolts on the plenum to see if there is any play in the mounting? Perhaps even apply some pressure to bend the mounting tabs to align the tubes first, then tighten?

Did you replace the cylinders?
If so, can you check they are the same length as the old ones?

Facts:
The plenum is installed correctly.
There are right and left intake runners.
The runners in your pics are not for a 2.0 (they wouldn't bolt to the heads and they would be way short).

Conjecture:
Your first pic shows the passenger side plenum tubes the same length. The tubes on the runners are not the same length.

On a 1.7 plenum, the #3 tube is about a half inch longer than #4.

In post #10 it "appears" the #4 tube is sticking inside the plenum? It also appears that #3 runner is touching the plenum.

I don't have a 1.8 plenum to compare with physically, but comparing the two visualy, it looks like the 1/2 side of the two plenums are about the same while the 3/4 sides are much different. The 1.8 plenum is much "fatter" than the 1.7 on the 3/4 side.

More conjecture: At least one of your intake runners is from a 1.7.

Gasket set came from Type 4 store. They are the same on both sides and 1/2 fits nicely. It may look a bit different in the picture, cause I don't have the intake tubes bolted down on the off center side.

My main question here is will this leak? If so, is that an issue? And then of course, how do I fix?

The picture in post 10 is angled such that the 3/4 tubes look different, plus the 3/4 tubes are not bolted so they are lying under the plenuem tubes....Basically the tubes are exactly the same with the expection of the one tube that will not line-up with a plenum tube when mounted on either side. They came off of this engine and were formerly bolted to 1.8 liter heads. Question will this leak, will it be a problem?

The parts you posted apear to be 1.7 parts, not 1.8

I never looked that close, but James is correct. That is a 1.7 plenum. The last pic on that post shows the difference i'm talking about.

Malcom, I don't doubt those are the parts you took off but still does not mean they are correct.

To answer your question, if you can get the sleeves on and clamp them, then they probably won't leak.

I've tried to use the 1.8 runners on the 1.7 plenum. They just dont fit.

Correct. The FI is from a 71 1.7L bolted onto a 1.8L engine.