67HEAVEN

Like I said earlier.......welcome to the Forum......no hard feelings here.

If you take 396RAT's advice, you'll be on the right track.

TheOman

As to the manifold and the port mis match. Go to the chevelle forum ...www.chevelles.com and search the archives for threads on this subject. People SWEAR it works using Rectangle manifolds on Oval heads. And some swear they see no performance difference and that the combo is streetable. The Chevelle forum archive is very very extensive but you will have to do some playing witht he search criteria.

I have enough parts and pieces to try this and settle the debate for myself once oand for all but I just don't want to do all the wrenching so I never tried it. I personally have seen this manifold / head combo at shows on several Chevelles. I have never been able to talk to the individual owners. I know that the combo is capable of driving to the show and I know what I was looking at. The cars in question had the GM Aluminum hi riser and the heads did not have a little casting bump on the front surface that identifies the heads as being rectangle port. I want to add. You cannot port ovals to match a rectangle manifold. You just don't have the meat in the mismatched area to allow the cutting that would be required.

Also you can buy an aluminum high rise manifold from Chevy that has oval ports. It looks VERY VERY similar to the Rectangle port manifold except it has a Bow Tie symbol on the front runner right in plain sight. Somebody who is skilled in aluminum finishing could likely remove that for you and retain the appearance you want. There is a shop in Maryland that does beautiful work on aluminum manifold restorations who should be able to solve the Bow Tie problem for you. Search threads with JohnZ as the author in the mid year section. He gave me the name a year or so ago. The 4 bbl manifold is in the Chevy performance book. It sells for about $250.

Vetterodder

If your goal is to fool anyone that knows the difference between an L36 and and an L72, you're gonna need a real L72 and will have to lose the AC. That doesn't sound like your plan so why not join the rest of us that have chosen to build our cars to suit ourselves?

Combined with the mods you've mentioned, the right cam should get you to your hp goals. The choice of cams will depend upon your gearing and how you intend to use the car. If your `66 is used like most midyears and doesn't see a lot of miles, and if you want it to sound/feel like an L72, use the L72's cam. It works well and the valve adjustments won't be that often. If you want the best performance though, many of the newer aftermarket cams will outperform it and do so with less revs.

oger

Try filling the intake ports with Epoxy and grinding them to fit the oval port heads. A guy named VON did it and said it worked fine. If you do it right there should be no reason for it not to work.

ghostrider20

I bought the Protronics Ignitor at my local auto part store. I think it was $39.99. You have to run a certain coil, same as stock size. I paired mine with an Accell. Protronics makes a coil I think its called a "flame-thrower" not sure.
There is a special resistance requirement and both coils meet it. I painted the accell flat black so It would look stock.

The Protronics package is a module that bolts in place of the points. 2 wires run out the base to the coil. A ring containing 8 magnets is bolted underneath the fly weights assembly. The ring rides over the module About .008" clearance. As the ring spins the module "picks up" the magnetic signal and fires the module that way. Mine works awesome and I love it. The car pulls awesome. The points would peter out and float around 5500 RPM.

To install you must remove the distributor. You must check the shaft play and shim if needed to get in the clearance specs. Mine required one of the small washers contained in the kit. Really easy install. I did mine in about 2 hours. I also left the ballast resistor in for stock appearance, but ran the top wire to the bottom to by-pass it. So I get full voltage to the coil.

If you are into stock appearance, it is the way to go. Everyone told me to install an HEI, but the 65 distributor is set up very well, and I wanted to leave it looking stock and use my tach cable as well.

I will research a web site and try and post that for more info. I would further guess that JEGS, Summit and others will have them.

Mark

LT1driver

Do what you want to make you happy, keep your signature if it is what you want, others don't like it, then to bad. :cheers:

427Hotrod

What you are planning is doable. It can be done several different ways, including your approach.

The easiest is to build a good solid 2 bolt shortblock. I'd cheek up and at least get some TRW forged pistons. Not absolutely necessary,but a good idea. Rebuild your stock 3/8" rods with some ARP bolts. If you want to save money, just make sure the decks are in real good shape and use steel shim headgaskets. Your pistons will likely be .017-.020 down in the hole at TDC. Unless you deck the block you really need to use thin gaskets in the .018-.020 range to keep quench area in the .035-.040 range max. This is key to running 10.0 or more compression on pump gas with iron heads. Go ahead and have it all balanced. Good idea.

On the heads... the oval ports are what you want for what you are doing. It doesn't sound like you are a 6500 rpm range kind of guy. Depending on what kind of shape they are in will determine what to do. You really gotta watch spending big $$ on old heads. You can quickly end up with too much in them. They definitely will need pocket porting at the least. You HAVE to do that for the power you want. You could do it at home and save big $$. If you have never done it before, it's not hard but it is time consuming. Work on offering beer to a Forum member close to you. If you want to add bigger valves, it's cool, but not necessary at this level. The 2.06's and 1.72's will feed it. If you get into spending money to replace guides, doing a competion valve job, decking or milling, porting, you can quickly approach the cost of a set of Merlins. I can't say enough about a set of iron Merlin oval ports. A little pocket porting on them will really make you fly, but to get your goals they aren't necessary. You heads can do it. Just spend your money wisely.

On cam choice... well everyone knows I'm a solid cam lover. The stock L-72 cam is really pretty mild, but runs great. If you install one of the good aftermarket solids with a set of regular long slot stamped rockers and some locking adjuster nuts, you won't set them too often. More power and sounds cool. But if you have to run a hydraulic, don't get too wild. Stay in the 230-240 range @.050 duration and around .540-.560 lift. I don't have a book in front of me right now, but a buddy of mine ran one of the "House brand" cams from Summit in that range in his 454 and it actually ran fantastic. it idled cleanly with a nice lope, drove great and pulled 6000-6500 rpm when needed. He loved it.

If you're willing to spend a little more, the 288 street roller from Comp is a killer. It idles at 14" of vaccum and can make over 500 hp easily in an oval port 427.

You can use the L-72 intake. You already have it so you might as well. When you're porting the heads, open up the first 1-2" as much as you can to match the intake. It will look funky and there isn't enough meat to really blend them on GM heads, but you can get pretty good. Definitley at least do this. Don't just bolt it on with the big mismatch. Don't remove the plenum divider for what you are doing.

Headers are what you really need. If you insist on using manifolds, DO NOT use stock sidepipes. They are absolutely too small for even a stock small block. Get one of the aftermarket sets that have at least 3" pipes under the stock covers. I think Kahuner on the Forum here just installed some. You GOTTA do this. Stock pipes and manifolds will make you rice car fodder!!

Hope all of this helps. Obviously this is a very high level overview, but if you keep getting into it along these lines, just jump back on here for more details or send E-mails.

Jim

TheOman

I have a 72 Monte Carlo with an LS-6 454, A/C, a Richmond 5 Speed and a 3x2 intake from a 67 Vette. Could you buy that combo from the factory in 1972 ???? Nope. Do I care when I take it to a show? Nope. Should they have built a car like this from the factory? Yup. Do the guys at Chevelle or other shows like to talk with me about the car? Yup. Do I enjoy the car ? Yup.

Build your car your way. It is your car and after all it is only a car isn't it?

396 RAT

I think he just wanted to know how to get 450hp out of a 69 427 2 bolt,
oval port with an L72 intake for $2000.00.
Can it be done? Yup, Will it be easy? Nope.
Got to watch every penny.