Hey guys i have this old vette motor with low miles on it.. its got the camel back heads and the 4 bolt main with the stock cam still in it.. guy said i came out of a 70's vette? anyhows with this stock block.. putting the right intake and carb on it. how much horse do you think i could push out of it?

 

IF it is actually a Vette engine, and IF it's early 70's, then the best thing to get out of it is money. Sell it to someone looking for an era-correct Vette engine.

Most likely, even if it is true that it came out of a Vette, it's basically a 350 in need of heads, cam, intake, and exhaust to get out of it what it can produce.

 

with the right camshaft and intake 350 HP . Thats with the Fuelly heads that are on it . Or with some porting to the heads and a slightly bigger cam 375 HP . Thats about it But not bad . To get more then this you will need a set of better heads . Vortec heads can bring it to the 400 HP mark . COOL Engine

 

Yep, yer basic 350 with right camshaft, intake, and Vortec heads. . .

 

I don't think I would call this engine your basic 350 . It may be an early LT-1 or a 350-350 hp Corvette engine . If so it will have Forged pistons / crank Pink Rods 4 bolt main block . And 2.02in/1.60ex valve Fuelly heads . Give us the block and heads Casting #s . And the Letters on the Tab of the front of the block . We can tell you what it is . COOL

 

You have a decent 350 short block to rebuild. HP depends on what you want to buy to go with it. The camel hump heads are good to sell to a restoration type guy or a sucker.

 

The Fuelly heads may not be the best thing out there . But there has been Stock class cars that ran in the 10s with 327 engines with them . And look at all the guys who use 305 #416 #601 heads with good HP builds ? Most of the Fuelly heads were 165 to 170 cc intake runners . And yes they are in the running for an easy 375 HP Build . I was there They did the job back then and can still do the job today . COOL . I still have a set of #186 350-300 HP Fuellys can't what to use them .

 

Haha sweet! thanks for the info guys.. ill get those casting numbers asap.. wont be till this weekennd tho cus its downstate.

 

It's value, IF it is a Vette engine, is nostalgia.

It's simply silly to take it apart and put in/on what it would take to get it to run well when you can do the same thing with any junkyard 350. Doing so destroys its value.

Sell it and get a junkyard 350.

 

And there is always that:

"Out of a Vette" is the single most common sucker line in all of hot-rodding. It's entirely possible that it's just some random bunch of garbage that somebody stuck off into a Vette just so it would move, so now it's "out of a Vette"; or, like happened to somebody I know who went to a guy to pick up a set of heads he'd bought that were "out of a Vette", the guy walked out to a parts car Vette in his back 40 and pulled a couple of old 2-barrel heads out of the back seat floorboard, which also made those heads "out of a Vette"; or, since there no way most people would know the difference, it might just be an out-and-out lie, intended to snare the unwary. In any case, I can POSITIVELY assure you, the castings are QUITE dumb (almost as dumb as ME, in fact); and will entirely forget what romantic-sounding trim was on the sheet metal or fiberglass of any car they have ever happened to be in. What matters, is what castings they are, not what tall tales the PO can tell.

Vette engines from about 73 on were nearly all the same as any other L48; 8.2:1, 882 or 624 heads, 929 cam, low-rise crappy intake, etc. Not alot of point in getting all wound up over "from a Vette" if it's one of those.

I'd suggest finding out what it REALLY is before making any decisions. And above all, before falling for the "out of a Vette" line.

 

First off the Camel Hump heads were never 2BBL Heads . The smallest engine they were on was the 327 300 HP . And they were on the 1970 LT-1 350 370 HP with 2.02in/1.60ex valves screw in studs and guide plates . Also the L-82 350 in the Corvette till 1979 and the Z-28 till 1974 . Were 4-bolt blocks with forged pistons / cranks / and hand picked Pink rods HD oil pumps and the L-82 Camshaft #3896962 224dur at .050 with 450/460 lift 114 C/L . From 1971 on the L-82s had Forged flat top pistons with 74 to 76cc 2.02in/1.60ex valves . The heads they used for the 1971 and newer L-82s #487 and 882 were not the best castings . But the short blocks were 2nd to none . Really I had some of them car I know . I was there and it was fun . COOL

 

Yes I'm aware of that. I still have some sets of them from my early motor-building days in the 70s and 80s. I got rid of all the 461s I had, but I still have some 186s, and maybe some 492s somewhere.

However, the heads that were "out of a Vette" in the case I mentioned, were 283 2-bbl heads OUT OF THE BACK SEAT FLOORBOARD of a Vette.

487 wasn't too bad of a casting, except for the chamber size; but 882 isn't even a good door stop. Too wobbly.

I'm still betting that the motor in question is NOT an original Vette motor, L48, L82, or anything else; that it MIGHT have BEEN IN a Vette at one time or another, at best, and maybe even under the hood (as opposed to the back seat floorboard like those heads); but the highest probability is that it's just some random motor jammed together from some random pile of parts, and some PO just used that sucker line to hoodwink some unsespecting n00b by using the magic V buzzword on him to put stars in his eyes. (Well, one of the magic V buzzwords.... the other being "Vortec" )

 

sofa, you are not a very trusting person....haha. i've heard that "out of a vette" line so many times i NEVER believe it. i look up the numbers myself, then decide what i can sell it for, and if its worth dealing with.

mirocz87 always use caution when someone starts off saying a motor is out of a vette. the majority of people don't even know what a vette motor is. and a little more info-i've ran into quite a few people who think chrome valve covers add 25 HP, exhaust cutouts add 25-50 HP, and the all seem to have a 3/4 cam???????

 

No, I'm really not... people have fornicated me too many times, or at least tried to put the wood to me, in about every way imaginable. "Out of a Vette" is one I learned about 3 months into this hobby as being an OUTRIGHT LIE 99% of the time. If the person it was coming from wasn't a Vetter owner who was a member of the local Vette club and traded often in KNOWN Vette parts such that his word about "out of a Vette was trusted by others WHO KNOW what "out of a Vette" is supposed to mean, or something like that, I simply don't believe it, period. I've seen entirely too much KNOWN non-Vette stuff get passed off at exorbitant rip-off prices that way.

 

Kk, other than the casting is there any way to vissualy tell what the camel back heads look like without taking them off or anything?

 

THere should be on I think the front of hte heads a small symbol that looks like two camel humps... hence the name - camelhump heads.

See here:

 

ALright ill keep that in mind thanks!

 

Keep in mind, those in that pic (typical 461 casting), won't support a pass side alternator and the PS pump bracket system such as is on these cars (V-belt); and won't support a serp system AT ALL.

Those will only work on cars up to the late 60s, except Vettes up to the early 70s; or race cars with a "short" water pump, which is the kind in the pic.

They lack the bolt hole bosses in the ends. Without the bosses, you can't even install the holes, because there's nothing to drill into - only the thickness of the water jacket, less than 1/8".



Here's the later-model style of them, that are at least useable on these cars. This particular set is the 186 casting.

 

Ok cool thnx for the info! you guys have ben a great help like usual!.. another question if you dont mind tho.. Do the later model camel backs have the same flow and valve sizes?

 

The flow is about the same (180-190ish stock, 230ish well ported); valve sizes are the same, either 1.94" or occasionally 2.02" (although people put 2.02" in them alot); but the chamber design is better.

And of course, the later ones fit cars that have been built since 1970 or so, whereas the earlier ones don't. So it hardly matters WHAT they flow or anything else like that, if you can't use them.

 

kk cool thanks guys!! this site Ish teh best!