Joined
·
4,964 Posts
Not a Chevelle...but awful cool story! LOTS of patina here!
Back in 1970, a buddy of mine and his buddy from high school days walked into Chevy dealer and ordered 2 new 1970 bench seat/4 speed SS396 Nova's with 396/350HP motors. Magazines had convinced them that setting valves was tricky stuff....so no 396/375's. My buddy's car was black and the other guy's was blue (this car). The only difference in them was the daddy of the blue car's owner wouldn't let him order positrac. (it later got it installed). My buddy kept his black car for a year or so but a little too much *street enthusiasm* lost his license for him, and the black car was sold.
Fast forward into the 80's and the blue car is sitting in the original owner's backyard with 30K miles on it and no motor. It had received an LS-6 crate motor for a little while..but that got pulled and installed in a boat. My buddy talks him into selling it to him.
Sometime before that, (I was about 19 or so) another guy we know in a neighboring small town has bought a brand new L-88 shortblock and installed iron closed chambers rectangular ports on it and dropped it into a '67 Camaro with 4.56's and G60x14's. Didn't take long before pump gas running hammered all the bearings out of it. It was rebuilt and brought to a different friend to tune it. I was called over one bright Sat. morning to ride along with him on some backroads. Of course that pretty much meant torturing it and rapping it to 7500 rpm and smoking tires through 4th gear on the street tires. Somewhere in all of that the L-88 spun a bearing or two again and the owner decided he was all done and he wanted to sell the motor...carb to oil pan for $300! Of course that was HUGE $$$ to us..and the only guy we knew who had the cash was the *old guy* (late 20's) that had originally had the black Nova. A quick call to him and we brought it home.
The engine needed a new crank and two rods...but otherwise was fine. It was balanced and carefully assembled this time and a new set of iron open chamber rectangular ports were installed to lower compression some along with a low .600's lift Comp flat tappet cam to replace the L-88 one. Still had stock 7/16" pushrods and long slot rockers.
It was dropped in the Nova and ran the streets for a few years. After I moved away from the area, I would make semi regular trips back to get him to fire it up and go riding. He usually made me run the valves before we went. That was a killer engine and always loved 7000+ RPM..but the good news is it lived and we never had to touch it during all those years. It was raced a few times at the old Green Valley Raceway in Dallas and at Temple Academy back when it was a 1/4 mile track. Wasn't really a stellar performer at the dragstrip with the close ratio Muncie, 4.10's and 29x9" slicks. Usually high 11's/low 12's and crossing the line in 3rd gear. But from a roll on the street....it pulled a LOT harder than those ET's show. It was just a pig out of the hole. We tested it with an old Tarantula intake as well as the stock L-88 dual plane. Ran the same with either intake really.
The car has sat pretty much since the early/mid 90's. We regularly ragged on him to get it going and even managed to get him to let us help him fire it up about 5-6 years ago. We brought a freshened Holley and filed the points in the Accel dual point and it fired right up! But he never got around to messing with it until recently. He dug it out, put all new brakes around it, replaced some bushings in the front end and rear springs. Another quick carb freshen and a gas tank cleaning and it was ready to go!
We had a little car show this weekend in my old hometown and he had it out cruising. You can see my Vette in the background. The thing sounded sweet as ever and hopefully we'll be taking it to the track soon for some shakedown passes just like the old days! I tell him it's got a 10.99 in it if we get to work on it!
He will coninue to run the Daisy American's on it and also has a NOS set of Cragar unpolished Super Tricks to use for drag days.
![]()
![]()
![]()
JIM
Back in 1970, a buddy of mine and his buddy from high school days walked into Chevy dealer and ordered 2 new 1970 bench seat/4 speed SS396 Nova's with 396/350HP motors. Magazines had convinced them that setting valves was tricky stuff....so no 396/375's. My buddy's car was black and the other guy's was blue (this car). The only difference in them was the daddy of the blue car's owner wouldn't let him order positrac. (it later got it installed). My buddy kept his black car for a year or so but a little too much *street enthusiasm* lost his license for him, and the black car was sold.
Fast forward into the 80's and the blue car is sitting in the original owner's backyard with 30K miles on it and no motor. It had received an LS-6 crate motor for a little while..but that got pulled and installed in a boat. My buddy talks him into selling it to him.
Sometime before that, (I was about 19 or so) another guy we know in a neighboring small town has bought a brand new L-88 shortblock and installed iron closed chambers rectangular ports on it and dropped it into a '67 Camaro with 4.56's and G60x14's. Didn't take long before pump gas running hammered all the bearings out of it. It was rebuilt and brought to a different friend to tune it. I was called over one bright Sat. morning to ride along with him on some backroads. Of course that pretty much meant torturing it and rapping it to 7500 rpm and smoking tires through 4th gear on the street tires. Somewhere in all of that the L-88 spun a bearing or two again and the owner decided he was all done and he wanted to sell the motor...carb to oil pan for $300! Of course that was HUGE $$$ to us..and the only guy we knew who had the cash was the *old guy* (late 20's) that had originally had the black Nova. A quick call to him and we brought it home.
The engine needed a new crank and two rods...but otherwise was fine. It was balanced and carefully assembled this time and a new set of iron open chamber rectangular ports were installed to lower compression some along with a low .600's lift Comp flat tappet cam to replace the L-88 one. Still had stock 7/16" pushrods and long slot rockers.
It was dropped in the Nova and ran the streets for a few years. After I moved away from the area, I would make semi regular trips back to get him to fire it up and go riding. He usually made me run the valves before we went. That was a killer engine and always loved 7000+ RPM..but the good news is it lived and we never had to touch it during all those years. It was raced a few times at the old Green Valley Raceway in Dallas and at Temple Academy back when it was a 1/4 mile track. Wasn't really a stellar performer at the dragstrip with the close ratio Muncie, 4.10's and 29x9" slicks. Usually high 11's/low 12's and crossing the line in 3rd gear. But from a roll on the street....it pulled a LOT harder than those ET's show. It was just a pig out of the hole. We tested it with an old Tarantula intake as well as the stock L-88 dual plane. Ran the same with either intake really.
The car has sat pretty much since the early/mid 90's. We regularly ragged on him to get it going and even managed to get him to let us help him fire it up about 5-6 years ago. We brought a freshened Holley and filed the points in the Accel dual point and it fired right up! But he never got around to messing with it until recently. He dug it out, put all new brakes around it, replaced some bushings in the front end and rear springs. Another quick carb freshen and a gas tank cleaning and it was ready to go!
We had a little car show this weekend in my old hometown and he had it out cruising. You can see my Vette in the background. The thing sounded sweet as ever and hopefully we'll be taking it to the track soon for some shakedown passes just like the old days! I tell him it's got a 10.99 in it if we get to work on it!
He will coninue to run the Daisy American's on it and also has a NOS set of Cragar unpolished Super Tricks to use for drag days.
JIM
