Hello,
A friend of mine turned me on to a 69 chevelle that is supposedly a 396/375 that is for sale. There are some strange things with it. First for the things that seem normal - All of the VIN's match motor,trans (4-speed) and rearend. The motor decodes to a 375 hp and dates match. Okay now for the weird stuff - the car has factory A/C and no SS emblems. The car came from TX from the a son who inherited it from his grandfather who worked at GM and bought the car new. The son is not a car guy and could not verify anything except it was fast. Was the A/C added later?? It does have the deep groove pulleys. Does any of this make sence?

If the AC is factory, it cannot be a L78 car. It could have been added later. I would check it out if the price is right.
James

I Agree,Air Conditioning was not available on a 1969 Chevelle L78,Manual or Auto.Trans.from the Factory,but could have been aftermarket dealer or owner installed crudely.
I would get all the Suffix & CON VIN# off the block,Trans, Rearend,and Casting # & dates too.Also ask if there is any Paperwork,i.e. Buildsheet,P-O-P,window sticker etc.to confirm.
Ask if the VIN# was ever restamped onto that pad,if decked.

Also..are you asking about RPO-C60 Air Conditioning,& not the A.I.R.(Air Injector Reactor) system?
Sometimes owners call this AIR or SMOG when speaking.
A 1969 L78/4spd Chevelle would have A.I.R. from the factory.

Good point on the A.I.R. Rick. If loup is going by written or verbal descriptions only, he might have mistaken A.I.R. for air (as in air conditioning).

And did they make any deep groove a/c pulleys?

I'm refering to Air Conditioning and not the A.I.R. system. I have not seen the car yet but am waiting on pictures. The other thing is that the molding on the body is not what would have came with the SS package. I saw in a chevelle book that you could order a non-SS car with the L78? Is this true? If so, that would make more since about the car not having the SS body parts. Is does have the console and tach for the L78. Pictures should be here soon. More to follow.
Thanks for the help.

i would be very careful before i handed over any money. mike

Very Very carefull...lots of flags waving with that one.

ALbert

"And did they make any deep groove a/c pulleys?'
Not at all for the solid lifter engined(requires Deep Groove)passenger cars Rob,but think it was possible on the early Solid lifter engined Corvettes? I'm not up on the Corvettes to much.

"I saw in a chevelle book that you could order a non-SS car with the L78? Is this true?
That's really misleading information.You could only get the L78 engine with the Super Sport or via a COPO(427) Hi-po Fleet package.
If that's from Paul Herds 1992 "Chevelle Restoration" book..toss it!

have read that the 1972 Corvette LT1 was available with AC.
have seen where people have added AC to a car and you can usually tell it was added by looking at small details that would look different then a factory AC install. There are many small parts to swap to install the factory AC in a non AC car. If someone wanted a new L78 or LS6 with AC, I would think that it would have been a lot less work to take a factory AC big block car and drop in a crate LS6 or L78 engine. On the other hand there is an original owner Yenko Chevelle that had AC added in the 70s so you would need to take a very close look at the AC system to see if it was installed to a non AC car.

MR70 "And did they make any deep groove a/c pulleys?'
Not at all for the solid lifter engined(requires Deep Groove)passenger cars Rob,but think it was possible on the early Solid lifter engined Corvettes? I'm not up on the Corvettes to much.............................................. .................--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHEVY454 And did they make any deep groove a/c pulleys?
.................................................. ..........ACTUALLY CORVETTES FROM 65 to 74 UP bb USED DEEP GROOVE PULLEYS ACROSS THE BOARD WHTHER IT WAS AN AIR CONDITIONED CAR OR NOT,not limited to just the early 1965 365hp and the Lt1 1972 solid lifter corvettes...

I should have been more specific with my question! Like, were there any "big block" deep groove a/c pulleys! I know the 'Vettes had 'em, cause right before I was born dad bought a '64 327/365hp Vette with a/c, hard & soft top, M21, am/fm, tuxedo black...I helped him do a frame-on job on it while I was in high school...sweet car...

Thanks for the info on the Chevelle. The owner is pulling out the interior to see if he can find the build sheet. I hope he can to really see what this thing is. I'm also trying to track down the original owner or at least his family to see if they can help. I'll let you know if something turns up.