Paul L

You have a good sense of humor. I would be VERY upset!

doorgunner

RATS on the broken rod

on the new engine!

GrandSportC3

Sorry to hear about the issues with the car and hope that you'll have her back on the road soon without spending an arm and a leg.
I got more lucky with the car that I bought in Dallas (Forney). Drove my 68 Vert home to Central Florida.. 1100 miles with zero issues..

WkendWarrior

Nice! Hell of a drive ... glad my idea was sound lol It almost worked!!

GrandSportC3

I drove my previous yellow '68 Vert home from Ohio in March 2006. It was snowing up in Ohio when I drove her home... No issues either.. Also drove that car from Florida to Bowling Green KY and back.. only thing that broke on that trip was the alternator bracket which I was able to replace as I found the bracket at a Pep Boys store in Atlanta

LS4 PILOT

I had an 79!L82 when it was nearly new car......it was a heck of a hot ride the 300 miles from college to my parents house.....back then...it ran like 220 degrees all the time ......car was black too. I imagine the cat was cherry red.

My tennis shoes were so hot I swear they melted rhe soles ....it never blew up ...LOL

My car had the 3:70 axle .....running 75 mph On a hot azz day is tuff on an old engine . I thought the thing was going to blow up like a bomb it used to get so hot.......
But not as hot as my 66 BB got....that was in class all it's own.

I'm not surprised it gave up .

These old cars were built for 55 mph speed limits ......everybody does 80 now ....it's hard on old bones

69L46

Well, look at the bright side - you made it home safely, you have a nice looking '79 with a 4 speed (uncommon for that year) and a hot looking g/f..could be worse

As mentioned, plenty of good choices for crate motors...good luck!

kdf1986

Congrats on the new project, and good luck on the rebuild. After seeing the photos and reading the posts, it may be time for a new/rebuilt engine. There are some good deals on medium horsepower engines in the same range as upgrading your current engine block combo would be.

The good news is that you now have many new options to chose from.

kdf

Doughan

Great Vette...perfect reason to drop in a nice 383 stroker...

scrappy76

Great looking project. I am sure that it was used to tooling around town for the previous owner. Then you buy it and decide you would try and run 80 on the highway with the t-tops off and the wind blowing thru your hair for a couple hours. The engine just wasnt used to it. Time for a re-build though, or buy a crate motor. Piece of cake to install with all your engineer degrees. Just read and read, you should knock it out in no time. The girlfriend will enjoy the new motor also. I bet you will enjoy the vette more than the SS.

C3 4ME

79 L-82 4spds are awesome, not that I'm biased or anything! Sorry about your misfortune on the engine, and as others said you're definitely taking it well. I'm sure it will be loads of fun once you get it sorted out. I'll be keeping tabs.

JimLentz

Keep an eye on the C3 Parts For Sale/Wanted section. Sometimes a good deal on an engine shows up there.

bj1k

So this is what happens to all of those original engines ? Bye Bye Corvette value !

JimLentz

...but it is a '79.

qwank

Why be upset?, the hot girl can't work on the car if it isn't broken.
Maybe this was his plan all along LOL

qwank

It would be worth more to me with a Genuine GM crate motor, especially one of the ZZ series engines.

20mercury

Nice Corvette!!! Great find!!!

for Mechanical Engineers too!!!

Always something with C3's I think. Had my new 68 on jackstands for 8 months, going through everything (or so I thought), on the second 3hr cruise, water pump goes out, sprays what appears to be 50 gallons of coolant all over, so towed home with a tow truck just like yours. I have learned something though, now I have my favorite tow truck service on speed dial, LOL's!

All the best and hope you enjoy your new ride!

Oh, one other thought for you. I would likely try to fix the original engine, but price it out first both ways. If cheaper, I would put in a crate engine in a heartbeat. Food for thought, I have friends with the thirties/forties/fifties cars and NONE of them brag about having the original engine. In fact, they all brag about having a LS1 Corvette engine. So agree with other posts here, unless you have an uber rare Corvette where the original engine can add value (and so you could not actually drive and enjoy an uber rare Corvette since it so valuable), in another 10 to 20 years folks will be bragging that they have a C3 with a C7 LT1 engine, ha!

jnb5101

I can only assume that the hands with the manicured nails belong to your GF. I can't believe that she's even touching that greasy motor. My wife won't even go into the garage when I'm working on something like that.

GrandSportC3

After owning 13 Corvettes, I only blew up an engine in one of them.. It was in a '69 Vert I owned from '97 to '99.. Car was still running when the engine was pulled but it was smoking out of everywhere and sounded like it was on it's last breath.. Took advantage and installed a nice 383..

WkendWarrior

Bye bye original value for our vette maybe... but its just a bump on the originals still out there We did all you guys a favor haha