340 6-Pak Manifold Plate Question

[cwestra]

There is a stamped plate attached to the underside of my aluminum 6-pak manifold.  When I tore the engine apart I noticed one of the screws was missing, which I eventually found in the oil pan.  I would perfer to just keep this plate off rather than worry if a fastener is going to come loose again and cause serious damage, but I'm not sure if it is needed or not.  Any advice would be appreciated.

[Chryco Psycho]

it keeps the oil from coking on the hot crossover passage under the intake , you can get away without it if the crossover is blocked off otherwise I would rcommend you re-attach it . The factory used a spiral rivit to hold the plate in place , possibly epoxy like JB weld would keep the fasteners in place

[cwestra]

it keeps the oil from coking on the hot crossover passage under the intake , you can get away without it if the crossover is blocked off otherwise I would rcommend you re-attach it . The factory used a spiral rivit to hold the plate in place , possibly epoxy like JB weld would keep the fasteners in place

Ok.  Thanks.

[Changin Gears]

You know I've never seen one of these plate on an aftermarket intake (Edelbrock, Holley etc.).  It always seemed like a bad idea subjecting your oil to that kind of heat, would probably make it break down pretty fast.
 
On small-blocks (big blocks don't need them because if the bath tub intake gasket), that I don't block the exhaust cross-over, I always fabricate my own heat shield.  I weld some-stand offs on the bottom of the intake to attach it.  You have to be careful about pushrod clearance though.

I've only done this on daily driver type engines, becauseI normally I just block the crossover by welding it up.

[dodge freak 2]

There is a valley tray that goes under the intake--its aftermarket. You do need to remove all the pushrods. It is under $30 last I knew.

Besides keeping the oil off the intake the tray keeps more oil around the camshaft and keeps the lifters in the bores in case of a rocker arm failure.

All SM should run one, I can't think of any negatives about it...well if you do a cam swap with the intake still on, you do need to pry the tray up while removing the lifters...makes a semi tricky job a bit tricker but can still be done.