440 engine question

[carolina charger]

I found this under my intake.It looks like the small port in the center is nearly plugged. Doesn't look like it should be there. Any ideas what caused it? It needs to be cleaned out right?

[FLG]

Its the heat crossover. Leave it plugged. It just heats up the intake manifold, this usually causes vapor lock on our old cars with the gas we have now. Also just unnecessary heat.

[hemigeno]

... unless, of course, this is driven in cold weather conditions with a stock/automatic choke requiring at least some heat to come through the crossover to deactivate the choke.

For the most part FLG, you're right.  There's just that slight chance an unplugged crossover could still be useful.

[GreenMachine]

   I think that's caused by oil getting in there and getting cooked by the exhaust. It looks like that engine needs to be torn down anyway, might as well clean it out. It just takes a hammer and a screwdriver to cean it out. Then if you decide to plug the crossover, you can buy the valleypan that has it blocked.

[TylerCharger69]

I had a problem with my 383 starting after it was warmed up. I blocked those off and the problem ceased. Excessive heat.  Fuel should be as cool as possible anyway.  It now fires right up with just a bump of the key.  What was happening when the engine was shut off, the heat in there was causing the fuel in my carb to evaporate.   Once it was blocked off.  The troubles were gone.

[b5blue]

The term is "heat soak". Any aluminum intake probably needs that blocked, he should check the butterfly in the exhaust manifold also. (make sure it is not stuck closed)