Gasket matching porting,

[surfsup]

I’m install GT 40 heads with intake ports of 1.28 x 2.10. I bought an air gap manifold and with out doing my home work the intake ports measure 1.05 x 1.85,, looks like it'a about a 1/4 inch of material showing, this seem like an awful lot of material to remove to match the intake ports on the heads, is this ok to do? Or is this really too much material to remove? Plus, how do I know if the gasket is sitting right on the intake before matching the ports in relationship to when I bolt the intake and heads together?