As I was replacing my carb on my 502 last weekend I noticed that 3 of the intake manifold bolts (port side middle to front) were loose. Could not see any signs of leakage.
Can I just retighten to spec or should I loosen all of them and then re-torque. *******What is the correct torque spec for a aluminum intake to iron heads on a 502? Thanks...

I would be curious as to why they are loose. Are the bolts too long and did not properly seat? Are they the right length but the threads in the head need chased?

Real good question, I recently tore down my 540, it has a highly modified 502 mpi intake on it bolted to aluminum heads. I am using the .120 thick intake gaskets and after 120 hours of run time or so I had several bolts that were loose but no signs of the gaskets leaking at all. I do run a high as 14 psi boost but again the gaskets were still sealing. I used anti seize on the bolts and torqued them correctly when it was assembled, the holes had perfectly clean threads, bolts are not too long, the gaskets are compressed a little though. I will start re torquing the intake between rebuilds as a precaution in the future, Smitty

I did mine in sequence at 15lbs, then 20lbs, and finally 25 or 30lbs(I can't remember which but I wrote it down).

I would just torque them down and then check the rest of the bolts.

The only way I have found to stop that from happening is by using lock tite.
It has happened to me many times.

OK...thanks to all for the help. I do appreciate it.