'70 Chevelle intake manifold
 

This is something that I've been wondering for a long time. Why did Chevy use a short intake manifold on the '70 Chevelle 454 and 396 and then put a spacer between the carb and air cleaner? Wouldn't it have been better to use the '69 style intake without a spacer on top of the carb?

My understanding has always been something to do with fitting under the Corvette's hood, but don't take that to the bank...

I’ll bet that the low intake is a 20-30hp loss vs the 69 style intake. I believe it was so the engines would fit under a lower corvette hood in 1970 even though the L78 and LS6 were not installed in the corvette.

Originally the LS6 was supposed to be available in the new bodied Camaro (SS) whose hood had a lower profile than the 1969. In an effort to save money the low rise intake was used for that application (which never happened) and for the Vette (which had to wait until 1971) and of course the Chevelle SS which did get the LS6.

20 HP loss versus the 1969 HiPo intake.

They still did use both the aluminum and cast iron low rise intake on the Camaro that year for the L78 and L34 so Chevrolet figured to keep them low for all the models of 1970 just so it would clear the new 1970 Camaro, we all know Corvette was not the reason as the 69 hood had no problem clearing High Rise Intakes and the 1970 hood was the same for a Big Block

Same thing I heard!! The low profile intake was more for the all new second gen. Camaro...

I put a 1 inch spacer on my 71 and it did clear the BB hood, but was real tight.I remember in high school and the fastest car around was a 70 LS6 chevelle, it had 4 mufflers and 2 air filters,one on top of the other with no spacer. All 4 mufflers ended before the rear end, it was real loud and fast

Thanks. I hadn't thought of the Camaro using the same intake. Too bad they didn't go ahead and use the '69 intake for the Chevelle. I bet the L78 Camaro production numbers were way less than the Chevelle L78 and LS6 numbers.

The low-rise pancake manifold has proven itself to be quite effective. Yeah, I know it’s an ugly intake but there was an NHRA Stock Eliminator LS6 car in the ‘70’s that compared it to the high-rise manifold and the car owner said there was no difference between them. It’s a great manifold for building a sleeper if you want to retain a flat hood on a car! I was actually VERY close to welding a 4500 carb pad to my #569 for the ultimate sleeper manifold just a couple years ago.

4475~1970 LS-6 Chevelles
2144~1970 L-78 Chevelles
600~1970 L-78 Camaros