Technical Flatheads and Aftermarket Heads

I own a ‘41 V12 in a Zephyr with aftermarket Edmunds intake and heads.
I wanted to take the intake off the check the lifters/valve clearance due to a tick and add a crankcase hole for a PCV.
I find out I cannot get the Edmunds two carb intake off without removing one of the Edmunds heads. Cannot twist/slide it far enough to one side to clear the last intake port.
I get these engines had hydraulic lifters so service was minimal, but is this common with finned heads for all flatheads? a Fit and finish issue with early aftermarket parts?
Would like to hear if others experienced this or if I am naive in not knowing to pull a head with the intake?
I guess i’ll have to massage the heads a bit so the intake can slide in and out when I put the solid cam in. . .

 

Stock Ford engines had no adjustment on the valves, they were not adjusted for the life of the engine. So the intake did not have to come off. Same with hydraulic lifters in theory. It is a bit of a nuisance having to take off the head, but it so seldom needs to be done, probably not worth the bother of grinding the heads.
Aftermarket heads are thicker than stockers so it was probably not necessary with stock heads.

 

Thanks Rusty!
So over the history of hot rodding flatheads, folks had to pop a cyl head when ever they needed to pull the intake to adjust the valves on their ISKY and Schneider cams . . . .

 

Not a problem on my 8BA [1952] V8.

 

I have a 48 v12 motor with stock heads and intake and have to tilt the intake and slide it to the drivers side to clear the heads to remove it. I wouldn't grind on the heads, I would grind on the intake edges to solve the problem. Someone did mine years ago to clear the heads, but it looked like they used an axe to remove the flash around the edge. There is only about a 1/16 of an inch of metal lip left past the intake runners at the gasket area. Also you will have to pull the heads to put the cam and lifters in anyway, cause you can't get the valves high enough to get the lifters out.

 

I don't know about that, the V8 may be different from your V12

 

No problem with the V-8s

 

Clearly this is a v12 problem because as a man that both breaks and tinkers with flathead v8s ive never had this problem. Though id like to have it in the future if thats the deal with owning a v12.