Coolant Blockoff?

[DanF]

Alright well I have an 87 Monte Carlo SS that I'm in the process of restoring and getting running right. It only has 2 real problems for me to pass inspection/emissions, the cat is missing which is no big deal but the other problem is one that I have a question about.

I had a coolant leak from the fitting in back of the intake manifold, it had cracked and actually broken off. The bottom of the fitting was still in the manifold and I couldn't get it off so I had to remove it from the car. When I did this I noticed that the 2 rear coolant ports in the head are actually blocked off by metal plates and I asked around and this is normal for some of the SBC chevys. I've been looking for the replacment fitting for the manifold in junk yards around my area and I couldn't find any of the same fitting so I was wondering if it would matter if I just plugged where the fitting went and just get rid of the coolant line alltogether... Since the heads had the coolant ports already blocked off would it matter if didn't have any coolant going in?

[MagicRat]

Coolant flowing through the intake manifold of this engine is important to its proper operation.
The coolant warms the manifold intake passages and helps keep the atomized fuel in suspension in the air stream. A 'cold' passage would result in an uneven fuel mixutre, pooling fuel in the intake manifold, slightly less power (with stock jetting), less fuel economy and slightly higher emissions.

[jveik]

so just how many coolant ports are there? two in each head? ive heard about the factory setups using restrictor plates before, but i dont know the reason why they would do so

[TheMan5952]

They have restritor plates for different engine combinations. Some motors will require different amounts of collant to keep the mixture flowing.