70 Dart S6 to 383BB conversion - Cast Iron Manifolds

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rebuilder67

rebuilder67

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Guys,

My motor build will be mild. Purple cam, mild compression, roller rockers, tunnel ram with holley 400's. Headers that will fit are well over $1000+ additional parts. My engine builder says I can just use stock manifolds with no performance sacrifice. My issue is the manifold set I have I don't know what model car they came out of. My 383 is a date coded May 1970 but I think it may have come from a monoco or something larger than an a body. I'll post pics. The pass side turns straight down to the ground and I think that will work fine on that side. The driver side flares out 30 to 40 degrees maybe? Towards the drivers side frame. We all know with the z-bar linkage and the torsion bar the drivers side is challenging.

Can anyone tell from the picks if these might work for me. I don't have the engine right now. It's with the builder. I'll have it back in the spring and I'm trying to stay ahead of slow downs/challenges. Appreciate anything you can offer other than $1000 to $1500 in headers. My budget is very low. Thanks, again!

IMG_0094.JPG
 
2951861 C body 383 / 400 / 440 70-73

2899876 B&C body 400 / 440 1972

...from Galen's casting # book.
 
I don't have the numbers, but I believe you'd be much better off with the factory hi-po manifolds from a 69/70 C body
 
Does anyone know the casting # for a stock drivers side manifold? Like what might have been on a 68' 383 Dart GTS? Not sure if 4 speed is different? Mines a 4 spd. Thanks Guys.
 
How about this one for the left side?
And I do have 2899879 for the right..
20210124_221835.jpg
20210124_221848.jpg
 
We used big block B body manifolds (way cheaper than big block A body manifolds) on Dad's 69 Barracuda. All we had to do was cut a couple inches off the bottom of the steering column outer housing where it comes through the firewall. Cut the tube and slide the end bushing/bearing up closer and reattach. This gave plenty of room for the Bbody manifolds with manual steering.
 
This is my opinion and my opinion only.
If your engine builder says that using stock log cast iron manifolds isn't going to hurt performance on a tunnel rammed big block with a cam in an A-Body, it's time to find another engine builder.
You will lose at least 50 or more horsepower alone using them with your set up.
Now, if the engine was dead stock, the hit wouldn't be so bad.

If I were you, I would look on BigBlockDart.com and do some reading, there is a lot of info on there about using stock manifolds versus headers (both cheap and expensive) and the fitment issues with all of them.

My brother back in the early '80s bought a '71 Duster with a mild 440 in it that had the exact manifolds that you pictured on it.
We swapped out them for some Hedman B-Body headers, and the difference was astonishing.
Sure, they were a pain to install, but the difference was night and day.
 
If you can find them go with shumacher headers, might find some that someone is selling to go to full length headers.
 
Fenderwell headers are nice and can often find used sets cheap. I got mine for $250 with nice paint on them still.

A body big block manifolds...
 
thesiren74 said:
Holy hell!!
Click to expand...

That is just a local ad. The only set I have seen in a long time. Not many out there for factory big block A Bodies. Personally, I love the fenderwells but you need to cut the car, mine wasn't an issue there. If doing a clean install, I would use B body hp manifolds and cut the column like I mention...or headers.
 
You could angle-mill the exhaust to head flanges of that C body manifold to gain clearance past obstacles on the drivers side.
 
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