340 exhaust manifold heat shield

Cuda Al said

I just noticed that these have the earlier heatshield like the 273 but are for a 340, it has a different part number 2863599 not 2946105, the 68 parts book has 2946105[] noting a new number. Pages in the parts book get updated as changes happen. So has anyone ever seen one like this?

In another post @S'cuder said he had one with the 2863599 but it looked liked the one with the connecting web.
[WANTED] - 340 Heat Exhaust Shield 68-70

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Alan

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Good catch, Al. The Ebay sale post says the gasket set is for early '68s, so that's probably why it has the 273 style shields, but the 340 port configuration. Maybe the connected shields held together better than the early design. If we could dig up some fall of 1967 road test photos, we might get an answer as to what was what. The only 340 picture in my September 1967 dated sales brochure is cropped so the shields can't be seen.

The numerical index of the parts manuals I have dated March 1969 (superseding April 1968) list both 3004566 (early) and 3004726 (later) gasket packages. But in the application page, it only shows the later one. So clearly, this early one was replaced by then. Maybe there's a TSB? I didn't find one on the Hamtramck site.

I think the stamped number 2863599 is the "engineering" number, similar to what we call casting numbers. Used by Chrysler to deliberately confuse us 50+ years later.

This is kind of fun. I'm glad I'm not stressing over having to have the absolute correct too-expensive unobtanium part for my car.