I recently purchased a 1969 Coupe which I was told was originally a 427/390 car. Currently the engine is a 1975 350 block with 1969 heads/intake and carb. The internals were all modified when it was built. I do have most of the receipts from this work. I am interested in finding out if this was originally a L-36 car and have started to reach out to the PO whose name was included in some old documents with the car to get better info. I'm not sure if I'll have luck there yet. The folowing are things that I have found that lead me to believe it to be true:
5600 redline tach
heavy duty suspension (rear sway, 7 leaf, etc.)
fuel line with return line
3.08 heavy duty rear
427/390 plate on shifter console
aluminum radiator overflow
bolts and caps on half shafts
M20 trans
The questionable:
it's obviously not a 427 now
small block hood
I just replaced the fuel tank and did not find a tank sticker. Any input??Anything else I should look at?? I do realize without documentation I will never know for sure and that all of the above could have been changed over time but I appreciate any input.

 

Look on the emissions sticker on the firewall behind the master cylinder. Next to the bowtie it should have the letters "CJ" if it is a 427/390 hp car.

 

Thanks for the suggestion. The sticker is solid white. I can't make out any previous lettering on it. Someone must have used some nasty cleaning chemicals at some point.
Any other ideas??

 

The L-36 had a 5400 rpm tach. The only '69 car with 5600 rpm tach was the L-46...350/350hp small block engine. It would also have had the regular hood on it. Actually, that is probably a more desirable engine for a '69, anyway. And it would be a lot easier to rebuild the engine you have now into an L-36 than swap over to a BB setup.

Are you sure it's a 5600 rpm tach and not a 5400?

 

Without factory documentation, you are not likely to ever know how the car was equipped when it left the assembly line. Everything about the big block was an options package; any and all of which could have been installed by previous owners.

You say "old records" came with the car. Look through them thoroughly and hang on to them.

 

Really? Guess I better change out my original.



An L-46 small block is more desirable than an L-36 big block? Not then, not now.

 

On both counts. My original 68 L36 has the same 5,600 RPM redline as it should

 

I guess my numbers matching L-36 is a fraud because I have that bogus 5600 RPM redline tach too. Where can I get the correct 5400 RPM one? I also need to find a nice L-46 to increase the desirability of my car too. Can anybody help me out here?!?!?!?!

 

Thanks everyone!! I definitely have a 5600 redline. The paperwork that i referred to consists mainly of the receipts for building the current engine and the parts for it as well as some old registrations. I left a message for the PO that did the work in 1986 and hope to hear back from him.

 

Regarding the L-46, the 1970 stock tach for the same engine has a 6,000 RPM red line. I am certain the 1969 is the same.

 

I'm confident '69 was also 6000.

 

Thanks for the 'actual data', FasterRat. I was working off of reference info about the various engines/model year; but those data must be wrong. (Or your car got the 'wrong' tach by mistake. )

I suspect that your car is correct, but others may have additional info.

 

Now, that's funny- well done.

For the sake of the forum, can you tell us the source of your info so we don't depend on the accuracy of that source?

 

Really, my car is the same as faster rats' maybe we have 2 really rare versions. OMG, we should send both to BJ with this rarity and we could get $500k each!

Just kidding.....

Merry Christmas everyone!
E

 

Forget BJ- I'll give you $750K for it! Oh wait, I have one too. Never mind. Merry Christmas to you too.

 

Source: "CORVETTE An American Classic" by Dan Lyons and John F. Katz; Michael Friedman Publishing Group, Inc. 2001; First Barnes & Noble Edition 2003; ISBN 0-7607-4110-7.

You may find it of interest that it is also published in China by Leefung-Asco Printers Ltd.

P.S. I have never found any written source to be 100% accurate, so I don't intend to throw this one away any time soon....

 

5600 rpm tach in my 68 L68, believed to be all original car.

 

7T1vette,
Actually, based upon the part I put in bold above, it appears that you may have the L-36 confused with another engine. The L-36 is the 390 HP version of the 427. Your comment above seems to indicate that you think it's a small block motor. It would be pretty hard to rebuild a 1975 350 block into an L-36, let alone more easily than to "swap over to a BB setup". This would explain all the confusion.

 

Les...

Initially, I thought that the OP's car was an L-46 engined car...because the reference source I had indicated that the only 5600 rpm engine was the L-46 (SB). But, from the other posts above, it's clear that my source was incorrect and the L-36 optioned cars had the 5600 rpm tachs.

 

Is the car with or without A/C?
The A/C L-36 has the brass tank. Don't know about the non A/C models, but I'm sure others will know that.

Besides, once the original motor is gone it doesn't matter what is was originally, other than to the curious owner of course