New intake manifold???

[terrible one]

That lightly crumpled foil was the best of all of the suggestions.  I just tried it.  It took very little pressure to collapse it  and it didn't spring back very much if any at all. Unfortunately, my original measurements were spot on and I will only have 1/4 inch of clearance.   Now, any guesses as to how much upward twist/lift there will be when I romp on the motor assuming I don't rip the motor mount?   I'll do Ron's suggested fix for that.

I've done the reinforcement on the motor mount and can say that I literally have about 1/16" or less of clearance between the air cleaner and the hood skin and it does not make contact under load. With an insulation pad there would be no chance though. I don't think you will have a problem with 1/4" if you do the motor mount mod. Now the whole car lurches to the side when you romp on it instead of just the engine  

[myk]

Christ man I guess I'll just stick with a CH4B...

[68charger440]

That lightly crumpled foil was the best of all of the suggestions.  I just tried it.  It took very little pressure to collapse it  and it didn't spring back very much if any at all. Unfortunately, my original measurements were spot on and I will only have 1/4 inch of clearance.   Now, any guesses as to how much upward twist/lift there will be when I romp on the motor assuming I don't rip the motor mount?   I'll do Ron's suggested fix for that.

I've done the reinforcement on the motor mount and can say that I literally have about 1/16" or less of clearance between the air cleaner and the hood skin and it does not make contact under load. With an insulation pad there would be no chance though. I don't think you will have a problem with 1/4" if you do the motor mount mod. Now the whole car lurches to the side when you romp on it instead of just the engine  

That's great to hear.  My insulation pad is long gone and not at the top on the list of things I care about, so this is a good excuse to turn down the dial on my give-a-sh#%ter even more on the insulation pad.

[68charger440]

Well I installed the spacer and gaskets, and the air cleaner did hit the hood just barely.  So I broke out the high speed cutter and cut 1/2" off of the base of the air cleaner.  Filed off any burs and put it back on.  The high speed cutter and file worked so well that you can't even tell that it had anything cut off.  It works great and now I can breath a little easier concerning the clearance.  Mine was an aftermarket low profile Edelbrock air cleaner so it may not work on other air cleaners.