That's good to know. I didn't want to make a mess and used TB cleaner. The gasket is brand new, and it is not deformed. I thought it was dislodged when I put the intake manifold on the first time, but it looked fine. I took it out and washed it with dish soap and cleaned the intake manifold. I didn't see any visible cracks either.
Last night I made sure to be extra careful and started off hand tightening the bolts in specific order. Then started tightening at 5 ft-lb. I did the test, and the same side bogged the engine, but it seem to idle a bit lower before hunting. Then near 7-8 ft-lb before reaching the "clicking" point, things seem to improve a little bit. While all the bolts are very tight, and I'm carefully turning by 30 deg at a time, #1 hasn't hit the 8 ft-lb limit of the wrench. That's the same side where the possible leak is at. I sprayed the driver side, and it didn't seem to bother. Bolts on the driver side is hitting the limit on the wrench. #7 and #8 was already very tight a bit earlier on. I'm just a little nervous continuing to tighten bolt #1. Before tightening once more and calling it a night, idle was a bit lower and hunting range was probably close to 50 RPM or less. It was less likely affected when I pressed the brakes. So hopefully there's some progress.
I'm going to take a look at it again tonight after replacing the brake booster hose.
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