Rebuilt my brother in laws carb on his new to him boat. And its a good thing i did. Jetting was way off, and had dirt in it (80 primary 68 secondary)

Put it back on and it runs okay but has a massive vacuum leak from this super thick gasket on the manifold that i had to re-use. I tried using just a normal base gasket but it wasnt enough for the fuel line to clear the intake

Its one of these



Can i just replace it with a 1" spacer to get the clearance i need? The intake is the stock ford one like this one



To be honest, even with the thick gasket, the fuel line still hits the runner and is a pain in the ass. I think a spacer would work better if i can use one on this intake?