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From: Hank Dozier
Email: [email protected]
Remote Name: 192.75.238.204
Date: March 05, 2003
Time: 07:34:35
Bob....The "A" poly never had a raised deck version. As for the "LA", the first one was in mid-1964 with the 273 for the Barracuda. If there is a deck height difference, it is detaily different (kind of like the Chevy Truck Mark IV block versus the passenger car, which I think is about 0.100" higher to stabalize the deck for severe duty usage). You can interchange cranks and rods between the two, plus the cam/crank offset centerlines are the same. But when the 273 came out, Chrysler was playing with how to thin out all the water jacketing and reduce the iron content (cost and weight) compared to the 260/289 Ford, which at that time was the industry leader in lightweight casting techniques. So the block was designated "LA" to indicate the goal of leightweight product. As a trivia point, the block even had a dimple in the driver's side for clearance to the power steering head, and can be identified from any other LA block by this feature.
