NHRA blueprint guide-part crossover?

[Robert Swartz]

Ok, it's cold outside and I'm sort of shut in for now. After beating around the idea of building a combination for one organization versus another in a previous thread. I decided to do some looking myself. I'm pretty committed money and parts wise to building this car for the IHRA crate motor class. If I desire to move the car to NHRA, I want to leave my options open.

I was beating around the classification guide looking up a SBC combination for my 1979 Firebird to run NHRA. Some months back, I bought some shocks off Steve Ficacci. We traded a few emails and he suggested I look at the Chevy 350/165hp engine. This emgine was an option for the Firebird. I was looking for part casting numbers and stumbled across something I found interesting.

This particular engine was also offered in the 1979 Malibu station wagons and as well in all versions of the 1979 Nova. The casting numbers for the heads, #462624 and 376450 show up on both Chevy and Pontiac parts of the guide. Carburetors also appear to have the same numbers. A discrepency I see is the intake manifold, for the Pontiac, it only lists the #1400376. In the Chevy portion of the guide, it lists an alternate intake, #346249. All things being equal, if an item is legal for one combination (the Chevy's), why wouldn't it be legal for another (the Pontiac)? I'm sure a call to a tech director would set this straight. Want to see what those with experience in these matters have to say.