I just bought a 74 that was being "rodded" by the previous owner. According to the seller of the vehicle (the PO's brother) it has a professionally built 383. I can see the Edelbrock Intake, Carb, Air Cleaner, Valve Covers, and Oil Breather. I can tell it has aluminum heads, but I have not run numbers on them to see any details on them. Unfortunately, the PO is now dead - hence the Vette being sold.

The car used to have out-of-state collectors plates, so of course he had to keep those after the sale, leaving me with no plates. To make the string of bad luck complete - I live in California. I am fully expecting that to get plates I will have to go see a California Smog Referee and verify the smog legality of the car. To this end I have been attempting to research what came standard on the 74s. So far it seems that it just had the PCV and EGR pieces. If there is something else I am missing, would you mind filling me in?

Of course, being a fully built race engine, I didn't expect any of it to be present. But it turns out that I do have 1 PCV and there is a block off plate under the carb, on the passenger side of the intake, that I would assume is where the stock EGR Valve was? Assuming this is the case, I am pleasently surprised since I expected to have to buy a whole new intake system for smog purposes. Now it seems I will only need the EGR valve, no? The Edelbrock Oil Breather vents to atmosphere, which is illegal the last I knew (if that changed, please tell me?). So where does the stock oil breather port back into?

If someone can take pictures of the stock EGR setup that would REALLY help out. I am expecting the shop manuals soon, but I have an appointment with the DMV on Thursday.

Any other tidbits of info would also be greatly appreciated. It's been 11 years since I worked on SBCs (hence my handle denotes DSMs) but I am excited to be getting back to the stuff I learned on in the first place.

You will need the PCV, and the EGR. The EGR is fed from a ported vacuum through a Thermo vacuum switch to prevent operation when cold.

The intake may not meet CARB standards. It may not be a problem if they don't check the part numbers. I'm not sure how far California goes during inspection.
It may or may not have had an air pump. My guess is for CA you will need it, but check with an inspection station first. They should be able to tell you what is required for your vehicle by their standards.

You may need a thermostaticly controlled air cleaner assy as well.

The oil breathers are the intake for the PCV system, not the vent out. The PCV valve is the crank vent exit point. I think that would be okay.