My 440-6 motor for my Cuda was assembeled on Jan 5 1970. When I bought the car in 1988 it had a aluminum intake. Was that the correct origional?

At that point, I would think all 6 pack cars had iron intakes. My recollection was that the aluminum ones were phased out by the latter part of Oct or early November.

MB

There more opinions on this subject than there are people on Moparts I have heard of a few that were put on into 70. There are a few guys on here that know more than I do for sure. My Superbird was assembled on Nov 30 and it is a cast iron piece. I think Chrysler may have slipping in a few just to help out the stock and super stock guys. By the way, I assume you are the Don Little of Stocker Fame? If so, welcome to the board. I figured you know more about these cars than most of us will ever will.

I have owned quite a few original 70 Six Pak Cars and the earliest I have owned was a F8 Challenger R/T Sept 13th build date. It had a cast iorn intake. The cast date on the intake was July 27 69. I also had a 70 Six Pak Cuda Built at the LA plant on Oct 69. Red On Red. It was cast iorn too. It is on Ebay right now. You know talking to Al Nichols who is since departed us he was Chryslers carb engineer and tuning guru. RIP Al. He told me that on the 69 1/2 cars. Edelbrock and Holley could not make enough Intakes and carbs. I have TCB Bulletins stating that Holley was rushing these out so fast that the metering block air passages were not drilled all the way thru thus cars not idling and hard starts. If you want My Honest Opinion with all my experience parting out a zillion of these cars dating back to 1976 and owning a ton of these cars back then and had the pleasure of dealing with a lot of Chrysler inside guys over these years. BOB McCurry,Gerry Blake, Al Nichols, Dean Nicopolis, And so on. I would have to say no. They were ready to go into the 70 production year full tilt ahead. The Huber foundry worked all summer long. A lot of guys put these on when they were only around $80.00 that were serious racers to save weight over the cast iorn. The pic is a FC7 Shaker 4 speed 100% Survivor Taken back in the day.

Thanks for the info. Your telling me what I expected all along. I guess I'm looking for a iron intake cast in late 1969. Thanks to Dartman for the photo...my car is now FC7 again. It was yellow when raced in NHRA stock class.

Hi Don,I sent you a PM

I bought my 440 6PAK Roadrunner in May of 1975. Scheduled build date was 12/9/1969; date first sold was 12/23/1969. Nice Christmas present, huh?

Now, a lot can happen in 5 years, but it had an aluminum manifold, with the Chrysler part number, and the manifold was painted the same orange color as the engine.

Until someone comes up with proof otherwise, the aluminum manifold stays on.

Bob

Years ago I had heard that there was a problem with casting porosity on a batch of iron 6bbl manifolds. It appears this affected some (not all) cars built early-November to early-December. Right when the bulk of the Superbirds were being assembled. Aluminium manifolds were used to keep the engine assembly line moving.

My former C02 (12/2/69) Fury GT has an iron manifold. (it was built about 2 weeks later)

rftroy, What plant was your RR assembled at? I'd bet Lynch Rd.

I used to own both a 1970 six pack runner back in the early 80's, and it had an aluminum manifold. Thankfully,,,,as I think I had to r+r that thing like a hundred trimes for carb issues.but thats another story

Although the car is still semi-local I haven't seen it in years. so no idea on a SBD

I have one of my Early complete 440 6 Intakes. It has a cast date of 7/31/69. It is Cast Iorn.

Can anyone shed any light as to why two different (at least the casting # is different) cast iron 6 barrel intakes were made?

Sorry, dont have the #s in front of me, but I seem to recall the #s were sequential. One ending with 5 and another with 6.

Too bad there seems to be no documentation of '70 aluminum intakes. I can see doubt that some '70 cars came with Edelbrocks if the motor had been modified over the years. But what about original untouched and unmodified motors? Why change intakes and modify nothing else on the motor?
My '70 Cuda with an A12 SPD has an aluminum intake. I bought it from the original owner in '89. It was 46,000 mile car with an unmodified untouched motor. I noticed the Eldebrock intake and asked about "the aluminum intake", he said it was cast iron. He never knew it was aluminum. Everything he had known about the '70 440-6 was it came with an iron intake and he thought the one on his car was iron cast by Edlebrock!
I know of a '70 RR with an aluminum intake, also with an unmodified untouched motor and a one owner car till '87. SPD was about a week before my Cuda.
There is a Moparts member that has a Cuda with a SPD a few months into '70 that was aluminum equipped.
How or when did a 440-6 motor get the aluminum intake?. My guess is hit or miss, and it was mostly miss. My '70 Super Bee with a SPD of 930 came with an iron intake.

As far as certain assembly plants using Eldebrocks, it wouldn't matter. Aren't motors are assembled elsewhere?
I have heard the pin hole problem theory before, also two other speculations, surplus intakes being used up and low supply of iron intakes (there were a lot of Six Pack motors being built in Aug-Nov '69).
I don't think the issue is if they were used, it's how to prove which cars got them. This of course is most likely impossible.

The engine in my 70 Cuda was built in mid December and received the aluminum manifold, again WHO KNOWS..