V-v-Valley Pan

This thing:

well, actually that ones an AMC.  I'm building an SBC on a budget.  The question is, what's it really for?  I read on several of the knuckle dragger forums (thanks for keeping this one different mods) that guys with aluminum intakes don't even bother with them.  I'll have a cast iron intake.  This will be a Jeep engine and I'm looking for snappy throttle response, good torque, and above all else reliability.  Do I need it?  Gotta think the guys at the factory weren't just sitting around burning weed one day and decided to add an extraneous part.

Small block chevys don't have those. 

Might be why I couldn’t find it in my pile of disassemble.  

SBC has a tin cover riveted to the bottom of the intake that does the same, or a similar job.  It's there to try to separate the heat from exhaust crossover or egr passages from the oil splash in the valley.

Or, it's there to keep the heat from the oil away from the intake runners, but I think its the first explanation.