ok here it goes, first off i am new to team chevelle i recently joined after buying a 1965 el camino that i was wondering if you guys could help me out with. Please excuse me for the extra long post here guys. I purchased my el camino in early july from the original owners 60 something year old duaghter, the car is a clean all original fremont built regal red,red int.,m20 4speed,car with 54,000 original miles. The motor is the DG code L77 220 hp 4 barrel 283, this is where things get strange, i noticed when looking under the hood i found that the 283 had a alum. intake,the factory L-79 snowflake, it had the L-79 thermostat housing, and a few other L-79 specific peices on it, strange i thought, Then i went to fire the car and noticed it had a slightly lumpy idle especially for a 220 hp 283,hmm. The car is completely stock,i mean completely, the only thing that had been replaced on the car was the battery and cables, the front liscence plate still has 65 tags on it,it has the original owners manual ect, I asked the owner why the car ran so rough and she said it had always ran that way, she then went on to mention that the car had been originally orderd with a 327 and that her father threw a fit when he went to pick the car up off the lot in Feb 1965. She said he refused to take the car at first but then picked the car up 2 weeks later after making a "deal" with Inglewood Chevrolet. I drove the car home after paying $3000 for it and started driving it.I noticed it smoked alot and had a bad exhuast leak so i pulled the motor to do a cheap rebuild and found it had bad valve seals and a couple exhaust seats were toast, then things got even stranger i pulled the cam and found the part # 151, the factory L-79 327/350 hp cam. It appears that the motor had never been apart before as it is a standard bore block and everything looked to be original ie, intake bolts, exhaust manifold bolts, the heavy corrosion on the inside of the water jackets and t-housing, i just don't get it. Could the L-79 peices have been installed at the dealer to make up for the owner not getting the car he wanted? Was the L-77 a rare motor becuase i can't find much info on them for 65? Have any of you heard of something like this? any help would be greatly appreciated.

I know of a Red '65 that is actually a L-79 clone. Built by a GM Proving Grounds employee YEARS ago. He lived in Phoenix, his daughter lived in CA last I knew. The "dad" wasn't named Andy was he? His had a 327 in it, even had the correct date code carb, everything. Last time I saw it was about 8 or 9 years ago.

The L79 intake manifold is for a holley carburetor.

Installing a 283 4 bbl would require an adapter.

Other than that, everything is a bolt for the 283.

I suspect the dealer installed the L79 parts on the 283 for a "consideration".

The intake ports on the intake are larger than the heads but it will work.

Rebuild the engine, put everything back together and drive on.