When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Bad L88, Do not run a chambered exhaust it is to restrictive. If you run headers use them with the side exhausts that were a dealer option on L88s. This way you will have the HP you want and it will give your car a vintage racecar look.
Re: How much hp does the L88 really have? (BAD-L88)
BAD-L88,
It sounds like you are doing what I started nearly 15 years ago. I always wanted to experience what the famed L88 was all about. I bought a pair of NOS factory iron exhaust manifolds so that I could have a stock setup too. I have never mounted them and probably won't. The headers are too important to make the power. I can now understand why the L88 is the stuff of legends.
Re: How much hp does the L88 really have? (Chuck Harmon)
Chuck,
Drop a trailer hitch on that baby, hook up a fuel tanker with aviation and come on up for launch day. We'll blast around Mosport like the good 'ol days. :cheers:
And for a special treat, I want someone to videotape the Hemis and 440's oversteering into the woods. We can show the tapes at some of the Cruise-Ins.
:lol: :lol:
Re: How much hp does the L88 really have? (Chuck Harmon)
Chuck,
I stand corrected on the RPM's. And yes, I soon hope to fully experience the legend.
SBR,
Because of everything I have read here, the chambered option is now dead. It's stock, headers to stock pipes, or headers to side pipes. You are reading my mind on the dealer option side pipes.
Corvette Stories
The Best of Corvette for Corvette Enthusiasts
10 Reasons the C6 Z06 is Still A Performance Benchmark After 20 Years
Joe Kucinski
How Much Horsepower Every Corvette Engine "LOST" in 1972
Joe Kucinski
Top 10 DOs and DON'Ts for Protecting Your Convertible Top!
Michael S. Palmer
Top 10 Most Explosive Corvettes Ever Made: Power-to-Weight Ratio Ranked!
Joe Kucinski
150 hp to 1,250 hp: Every Corvette Generation Compared by the Specs That Matter
Joe Kucinski
8 Coolest Corvette Pace Cars (and Replicas) of All Time
Verdad Gallardo
Top 10 Corvette Engines RANKED by Peak Torque (70+ Years of Muscle!)
Joe Kucinski
Corvette ZR1X Will Be Pacing the Indy 500, And Could Probably Race, Too!
Verdad Gallardo
Top 10 Corvettes Coming to Mecum Indy 2026!
Brett Foote
Top 10 C9 Corvette MUST-HAVES to Fix These C8 Generation Flaws!
With a modern valve spring and ring pack they will make 580 all day long.......give it a 5 angle Serdi job with Ferrera 6000 valves and a mild blend, that number goes to 620 or so......this is assuming all GM parts.
Wonder what the first guy that drove one in 66' though when he jumped on the first L-88 test mule?.........nobody had even heard of anything that powerful.......what a time that must have been.
I bought an early 68 L-88 roadster about 1975 from s local SCCA racer going through a divorce. He also had a 67 he was not selling. He had the Stahl side pipes on it.i didn't think it ran as good as it should so I ran through the valves which were all over the scale. Put a curve in the distributor. Then changed to an old 3 barrel Holley later changed it to something else . But just those changes I really have to say it had to be 600 horsepower. 3:73 gears at 100 mph it didn't just burn the tires if your tire pressure was off on one side it was dangerous. I had lots of fun with that car. I raced some kind of Ferrari on the Dulles access road outside d.c and from the time we took off I watched his headlights get smaller till they disappeared.
A buddy at the DMV got me a special tag I8A4RE. I WAS TRULY blessed early in my life by being in the right place at the right time.. good luck with your adventures you will love it