jpatrick62

Was interested to know if there are any indications on the 69-70 body of the L46 option besides the obvious engine itself and the engine tag near the shifter

Iceaxe

Nope, there is nothing on the exterior to identify a L46.

All L46 were manual transmission, shared valve covers with the LT-1, had the 350 hp console tag. All L46 had a 6000 rpm tach redline, which is the hardest item to fake and is often the easiest way to see if a base car has been dressed up to look like an L46. There are a lot of other smaller indicators but those are the items I always look for first as they are easy to look for.

YMMV

7T1vette

Tachometer redline point is the best 'tell' for a real L46. Lotta trouble to fake or find a correct one. The faceplate could be changed, but then the age-fading of the numbers/colors would be different on the speedometer.

Boswell

The L46 will have deep groove pulleys and an 8" balancer. These can be seen easily and can help verify a real L46 along with tach red line, aluminum valve covers, and console badge.

Barry's70LT1

The L46 had the large copper rad, same as the LT-1. The base engine had the smaller rad with the external expansion tank.

gbvette62

This could be a good indicator, as long as the car doesn't have air conditioning.

The L-46 used the 26" wide core copper radiator, with attached tanks and corresponding core support, while the base 350 with a manual trans, used the 19" aluminum radiator, with the separate aluminum expansion tank. The 26" copper radiator was also used with base 350's with an automatic trans and/or air conditioning, so the copper radiator in a car with AC, might not be a indicator of a real L-46.

The base 350 came with 2" exhaust, and the L-46 had 2 1/2" pipes, but after 50 years, the pipes have likely been changed a few times.

jpatrick62

Thanks to all that responded, great info!

Boswell

I have a 1969 L46 non AC car and it has the expansion tank and aluminum radiator and steel fan shroud. If you do some searches within the forum you will see many came configured with the expansion tank. I have seen these cars configured both ways. AC cars were definitely configured differently and there may be a difference in the way the 1969 was configured and the 1970. I am not enough of a guru to say for certain but to look at the cooling system as a way to identify a true L46 car is not a good indicator. (In my opinion)

Norm

jhudec

I agree. I have an early 69' L46, it came from the factory with aluminum radiator and expansion tank.
Beware as configurations changed.

Barry's70LT1

It would appear that the 1970 L46 rad configuration differs from the '69. I've only seen one '69 L46 and it had the large copper rad. So much for using a rad as an identifier.