I can't speak directly to 72 production timing, but keep in mind that HOs were very low volume in terms of total Pontiac engine plant output. 3000 a year or so out of several hundred thousand V8s. The castings would be made in lots, maybe a couple hundred at a time, and then the individual engines might be made sporadically mixed in with regular procdcution.
My 04A assembled 71 TA has its original engine with a 7/1/70 production date for the intake. I assume they cast most of the intakes for the model run in one shot.
As far as timing of your engine, the castings could date to several months before the engine was assembled (the unique intake and heads anyway), but the engine was probably built somewhere between 3-6 weeks before final assembly. The engine build date was not recorded anywhere that I am aware of (just casting dates). The only real "record" of assembly is the Motor Unit Number stamped on the front of the block next to the two letter alpha code. This number is a serial number assigned by the Pontiac engine plant and would indicate where your engine falls into Pontiac V8 production for the year.
P.S. This is the first that I have seen of this old post, but would concur 100% with Rocky that no 73 cars were made with aluminum intakes. New emissions regs for 73 basically mandated EGR and as we know there never was an aluminum intake that incorporated EGR.
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