VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - GENERAL Mechanical - Engine, Trans, etc Questionable Casting Number on …54 235 Intake Mani

Got a question that I was hoping Gene might be able to answer. I’ve got several intake manifolds here in the shop, one of which I can’t identify by the casting number. The 8835527 is off an early 50’s 216 and that number is good, the 8835590 is off of a 1955 passenger 235 and that one is good. The one in question has a casting number of 8754844. I can’t find any reference to the 844 casting number but it was on my 1954, 3604 which I bought from the original owner. According to him the truck was always in his posession till last summer when I bought it and the engine was never apart. It has 48k miles on it and I’m tearing it down and all appears to be original.
What I’d like to know is, even though the casing number is not listed in the parts book, which I assume are parts meant for replacement, did they use different castings on the original engines and is there anywhere those factory casting numbers would be posted?
Pics at bottom of page: http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/fuel__exhaust&page=all

Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Ok, I got hung up on something else and that dang timer ran out on me before I could correct my post.
The 88's are 38's and the 3835590 is the one that was on my '54, 3604. The 3835527 is off the 216.
I found the 3854544 in Mark Allen's casting numbers to be a '58-'62 235. That was the one I was told was off a '55 passenger car.
Got it straight now, thanks for the help.
DG

There were only two intake manifolds used on the passengercar and conventional truck 235 engines (from 1950-1962)
The 1950-1958 was 3835590.(casting number)
The 1959-1962 was 3754644 PART NUMBER. The book dosen't show the casting number for this one but the box the carburetor sits on and the runner was lowered a bit so as to make the carburetor lower for the lower hood line on the 1959 and up cars. Thos was also used on trucks as it was cheaper to use one intake for all models.

In between the 3835590 casting and the 3754644 wasn’t there a 3836922 in 1956-58?
DG

All of my books show the 3835590 as fitting 1950-1958 235. Find no record of 3836922.
That includes books from 1950, 1953, 1957, 1959 and 1964.

Well that was my point Gene. The parts books list the universal replacement and the 590 casting was just that, a fits all. But it appears that some of the original castings that came from the factory were not listed in the parts books. The three manifolds that I’m showing in my album are the three that are listed in the parts books.

The other manifold, the 3836922 is on an engine that a friend has. I’m going to try to get some pictures of it for comparison. The engine numbers indicate his engine is a ”˜56 power glide but of course that doesn’t necessarily mean the manifold is original or correct for that engine. How ever as I mentioned, that casting number does show up in Mark Allen's book of “GM Inline 6 Engines” as 1956-58. What would seem logical is a change made when the new body styles came out in the mid 50's. '54-'55 was a pivotal year for Chevy and the horn had been mounted off the engine for some time already especially on the cars. Then again as you pointed out, in the late 50's when the hood lines were dropped on both the cars and the trucks necessitating a lower carb mounting boss on the intake along with the lower off mounted air filters. So I can see a couple of gaps in the production run of intake manifolds in '54 late -'57 then again from '58-'62

Questions often come up about the horn boss which remained on the intake in later years. Even though the Klaxon was replace with the sea shell horn and mounted in locations other than the manifold, the mounting boss was still thru the run of the 590 casting.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

OK - That led me to the "How To Restore Your 1957 Chevrolet" book. They list #3835590 for 1955 and 3838822 for 1956 and 1957.