If a car has the correct vintage CE motor, is it NOM or do the powers that be on such matters allow a correct vintage CE motor as "original".

My 1970 is still a mystery to me. It's got a Motion Phase III body and many components from a '69 427/435 but the original motor is a '69 CE block with oval port heads and at least 12:1 compression.

I am replacing the "original" 427 with a new 496 and trying to decide if I need to keep the '69 CE block.

Thanks!

 

A CE block is not original to the car and unless you have bullet proof documentation showing when/where/why the engine was replaced by GM, then I can see no reason to keep the engine.

If you have the documentation trail, then by all means, put it in the corner of the garage to sell with the car in the future.

Either way, good luck with the 496!

Tom

 

That's the piece I was missing. I remember reading something about a CE motor being allowed as original for judging and the key was documentation that GM replaced the motor.

Thanks, now I won't feel guilty about selling it.

 

Re-read his post. He did NOT say it would "be allowed as original for judging." Bulletproof documentation will show the engine's provenance and its connection to the car within its history, (which is interesting and likely results in more value than a normal NOM) but a CE block is not original in any way you want to spin it.

 

Once upon a time, a CE engine was not as good as an original but was better by far than the junkyard motor tossed in for motion.

It was not the original engine Chevrolet put in, but it was one put in by Chevrolet, as they were only installed after a Chevrolet Zone Manager OKed the work.

That is different than Joe Bob and Hank dropping in a motor from an old station wagon.

HOWEVER, in the mid '70s, apparently a lot of CE engines became available over the counter when Chevrolet quit the CE program. Millions, if you believe all the stories from all the guys who claim to have bought them. So most view them as nothing more special than an NOM.

Simple logic would tell you, though, that a CE from 5 or 6 years after the car would NOT have been installed by Chevrolet, and most would not fake a CE when you could as easily fake a correctly stamped and numbered engine. Also, if Chevrolet produced them for warranty replacement only, why would there be so many extras at the end of the program? Ten thousand, yes, but in all sorts of formats, and not necessarily Corvette.

In a Corvette world ruled by NCRS, the only thing that counts is having the original everything, or at least the numbers that says it is original. So a well-stamped replacement is far more valuable than a CE.


(Or finally, that station wagon engine from Joe Bob is now worth more than the CE from Chevrolet, if they decked it and stamped it right.)

 

I'm new to older Corvettes, just didn't want to get rid of something that I shouldn't. Thanks for the education!

 

If there was some way to tie a given engine to a certain car, then a CE engine might help value or judging a little. The CE you have in your car could have been installed by a dealer as a bone fide warranty replacement, or it could have spent the first twenty years of it's life (or longer) in a dump truck or grannies sedan.

No real way of telling without paperwork.