...The good kind. A.K.A. -- I took it apart myself, not blew it apart.

So, my quest for discovery has met its end, and I have some very interesting things to report. I swear I have the strangest late (23 October 1969) '69 small block coupe. Let me explain, as the first part is not strange:

First, what I discovered inside my engine when I started unbolting things. The coolant came out a gorgeous, nice bright green (with water too). Looked nice and clean (15,000 miles on the coolant). The oil came out looking clean and with good consistency (7,000 on the oil, Mobil 1 10W-30 Synthetic). The engine came apart fairly easily, and there are now boxes with lots of little labeled baggies of parts in my car.

The oil pan came off, and I discovered a GM crank, TRW pistons, GM rods (look like the "pink" rods, but need to find numbers on them). The pistons all looked like the entire rotating assembly had been balanced and quite well.

The heads came off and I learned the following. The valve lift (with 1.52 rockers, stock) appears to be .477" at max lift. This is estimating with a very fine ruler and a straight edge. I didn't degree the cam to find out how it was installed. Basically, it looks like a stock cam in there. The pistons were .030" over, so it has been rebuilt once like the seller had told me. They have .100" domes on them and valve reliefs as well. The valves are 2.02"/1.60" in 186 '69 casting heads (F29, F59 dates). The chambers have been cut like the '70 LT-1 heads, with the relief for the intake valve to increase flow. The stroke is 3.48", measured on the two cylinders at BDC when #1 is at TDC compression. The deck height is .028".

For those of you who remember my "strange" flywheel/clutch combination, here is more information. The flywheel is 14" with ONE set of holes drilled for a 10.4" pressure plate and clutch. There is no way my car had a 11" clutch. I compared sizes to the '74 next to me who was doing a full rebuild...different hole spacing. The flywheel is steel and marked with "GM" and a number. Stupid me, I left the number in the car. I'll get it ASAP along with other information.

I'm going to get the heads and valves cleaned. I cleaned the intake, oil pan, and other hardware myself, and have started repainting the oil pan. Gosh, it looks good. Oh, and I removed my pinched off A.I.R tubes from the stock exhaust manifolds. I'll keep you all updated. :cheers:

 

Rainman-
Sounds like you have a good 'package' there! Except for the cam, sounds like you have close to a LT-1 clone. Nothin wrong with that! Isn't it cool to actually find out what you have, and how the work was done?! No doubt in my mind that you'll have a fine and strong runnin vette when you're done! Keep us posted on the 'button-up' and test runs! Good Luck -Rod :chevy

 

I'm taking the heads and valves to the machine shop tomorrow. They'll hot tank the heads and clean them to like new for $20/head. They're going to clean all my valves for $10. Then I'll repaint them and before I start reinstalling everything, I think I'll clean the block too.

Any suggestions on how to clean the carbon off the top of the pistons while installed? :D