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The Green Monster | 1971 C3 Corvette Rebuild with Upgrades
After looking for a nice 1968 to 1972 Corvette in my area ( 3 years ) I finally ran across a green on green 1971 C3 Corvette with a 270 HP 350 4 speed car that was in pretty good shape. When looking at it, everything seemed very solid.
It needed small items, like shocks and a steering gear rebuild. The car is all numbers matching (not that it mattered much) but I would consider it more of a survivor than anything else. It has 78,000 miles on it and the more I started working on it, the more we wanted to do.
I do not have many pictures of it out of the garage. We enjoyed the car for a month and it runs excellent. I decided to start by pulling off the lower trim and start to work on painting up the frame correctly. I am currently stripping off the old undercoating.
After reading a bit, I decided to ditch the factory steering system and go with the Borgeson Corvette Power Steering Kit - https://www.summitracing.com/int/par...9032/overview/
That should give the car a more sporty feel and fix the sloppy steering.
We have need working to pull the motor and 4 speed to build a nice 383 stroker.
At this point, I am planning to take the motor to the machinist and pick out the rest of the items, but the current list of upgrades not listed is:
Aren't those headers overkill for a 383? I got the Doug's D334 that are 1 3/4 and was already under the impression that they are oversized and 1 5/8 would be enough. On the plus side yours are stainless steel but mine are ceramic coated.
I would also buy a DeWitts instead of the BeCool, I was looking at pictures recently and quality seemed higher to me.
Here is an update on our project. The engine came out smooth and we are lucky that it has never been bored at all. I am putting together a list of all the items one would need to make a nice 383 out of a Corvette 350.
DEWITTS direct fit with the fans mounted - that is what I went with. Dropped the temp 10 degrees.
Same car Brands Hatch Green, but a saddle interior.
If you are pulling engine and trans I would definitely go with a 5 speed kit from Silver Sport. . I did and love it.
I also put the Borgeson kit in, I recommend the spreader bar between the A frame towers - makes a big difference.
I really like the gearing with the 3.38 and the 4 speed in town. I won't be putting this car on the highway.
BeCool is 2 miles away from me, so I stopped by their office and had them make me a custom setup with their super fan kit. I really like to support locally.
Can you shoot me a link to the spreader bar you are talking about?
Aren't those headers overkill for a 383? I got the Doug's D334 that are 1 3/4 and was already under the impression that they are oversized and 1 5/8 would be enough. On the plus side yours are stainless steel but mine are ceramic coated.
I would also buy a DeWitts instead of the BeCool, I was looking at pictures recently and quality seemed higher to me.
I have had to change headers because the Kooks won't work with my new heads that have angles plugs.
Headman makes a nice set of stainless ones that will work.
There are so many threads here that talk about what to look for in the frame of the C3 Corvette and list the buyer beware for those items, but there is so much that you cannot see under the tin of the motor.
We purchased a "survivor" that had never had the engine touched, per the seller. This two owner car is in great shape, but someone was inside the motor and did not assemble it correctly! We found some gasket leaks, wore rod bearings and some generally poor engine work. It was clear the engine work was done by the first owner, but the second owner only put on 2,000 miles in 14 years. That showed.
On the transmission side, we found a cracked clutch that was practically new.
So tearing into this car, even though it is a very nice car was worth every minute. We have the top end of the engine in the video and we have the bottom end and all the bolts on order.
11-19-2017, 02:19 PM
The Green Monster | 1971 C3 Corvette Rebuild with Upgrades
