I just purchased a 1975 21ft Eliminator with a slightly modified 454 spinning a Berkley 12JC-A and I noticed on the maiden voyage that there was a small hole drilled into the heatriser plate (just to the left of the carb)on the intake manifold. The problem with the hole is that it lets a lot of the lifter valley noise through. I'm hesitant to plug it incase it's protecting me from some type of pressure build-up, but it's annoying to hear tick tick tick tick coming from the engine all day. Is this a "marine thing" or a mickey mouse way to fix a bigger problem?
All feedback is welcome. Thanks
75 Elim