bluedawg

At what weight?

DO MA NEU!

Little Mouse

Well obviously its a joke have known LT1 driver since 1971. Lt1 driver has had around 15 or more cars way more then my 4 vettes and two camaro's that i had within a 10 yr period. He's had multiple vettes both SBC and BBC.. 68, 396/350hp camaro, 68 Pontiac 400 Firebird, two 442 Oldsmobile's, or when i kid him i always refer to them as old-mobiles. Always i refer to Pontiac's as turtles. He presently has an original 70 LTI a 67 427/435 vert a C5 Z06 along with other cars and pickup. His first vette before i knew him 67 427/435 coupe. Had multiple 70 vette's his favorite yr model.

The pistons were very heavy in the 302 with its short stroke harder on the rods then in any of the SBC bar none. Most rods fail if they do on the exhaust stroke trying to stop then turn direction any rod manufacture will tell you this, call them up. The weight of the piston/pin/rings and rpm two biggest contributing factors. Not HP under compression.

I bought a brand new 69 Z/28 put 36,000 miles on it and it was at 7500 rpm 8000 on the tach constantly loved the high rpm scream. my licences was pulled 4 times by the state of arkansas judge Butler knew me by name i can still remember in the court room.... James what im i going to do with you... spoke to me several times. I drove my car hard everywhere it went rods never failed in it or the 331 i built with the off road cam that went in a 66 vette with 4.11 no rod failures. friends of mine an LT1 driver knew them to ran around town one with 4.88s another with 5.13 only car they had a daily driver to work or whatever. Stock rods the same ole heavy trw pistons of the time period everybody bought. Car with 4.88 350, car with 5.13 331. Another guy worked with me at an automotive warehouse and pasts store that had a 3,000 Sq ft. machine shop his father was the crankshaft grinder. He had a very heavy 63 impala 5.13 rear tunnel ram sig roller cam and you guessed it dead stock chevy rods nothing done to them. Licensed street car drove it some raced it both legal and not legal. Me or none of these guys had a rod failure we were all running 7500, 8,000 rpm. So when i see new builds with 4340 crank and rods today i have to laugh when i hear them scared of anything over 6500 rpm, its comical. We ran 7500/8,000 day in and day out with very heavy pistons and pins ( nobody today buys when going forged ) stock rods 1049 steel forging.

Steve Matz

Yes James, When Judges get to know you well from Frequent visits to their Court Rooms it can be a double edged Sword. They are either going to make an example of you for others or they may even like you and give you a break each time verses others. I have found if your respectful and even comical saying something like 'your Honor, I just wish I could understand myself and some of my Actions, because I really am a very responsible Individual."

My old girlfriemd worked for our City Court for over 30 yrs. The Judge she worked for; the first year on the bench was a kind forgiving Soul and gave many drivers breaks and even dimissed a lot of Tickets. Boy that all changed from his 2nd year on. He became a # 1 A$$hole and he kept getting reelected because no one else ran for City Judge. Judges hear the same stuff everyday year after year and it seems to change their personalities about the way they treat people;even 1st time offenders get treated like habitual offenders. That's why I think Muncipal Court/Traffic Court Judges should only be on the Bench 4 yrs Max....

530planeman

The flywheel in my 70 LT 1 is 3973456 is this correct .Just thought I would check before I put engine back in .
Wes

Little Mouse

Funny thing about it never had a wreck in a car other then in a parking lot 72 mercury my father had i was driving had a bad blind spot in it backed it into a ploe damaged the quarter panel. Drove 18 wheelers 28 yrs without a wreck 22 yrs of it in heavy DFW TX. traffic.

Steve Matz

This is changing the thread Subject a bunch;but I'm curious if anybody would Know This. It may have been discussed before,but since I'm new to the Forum and just recently back in the Vette World after a long absence;I haven't been up to date on happenings...

Back in 69 the original plan for 1970 was to have 2 BB's as RPO's.The LS5 454 which was just a stroked 427 from 69. They also wanted a real Hi-per 454 Code LS7. Only one was built with a VIN and was tested by "Sports Car Graphics" Editor Paul Van Valkenburgh. Paul drove the Test Mule from a Press Conference in Riverside,Ca. 2500 miles to GM Headquarters in Detroit and Raved to the Media and Brass about Engine/Car. So everyone thought it was going to be an RPO. It was even listed in some early Literature Brochures. However GM's policy against Ultra-High performance cars at this time led to the Option being Stillborn. As I said before the LS7 Option was listed in some early 1970 Sales Literature but none were ever sold.

So the 1970 Vette pretty much got Ripped off as far as a Hi-Per BB was concerned. They didn't even in mid year offer the LS6 Option that was exclusive to the Chevelle,and when it did get offered in 71 even with the Aluminum Heads it had a 2 point Compression Ratio Drop(11-1 to 9-1) and easily dropped a conservative 25hp and probably closer to 40hp from the 70 LS6 Engine.

The LS7 however was offered as a Crate Engine or more of a Long Block. No Intake Manifold/Carb or Distributor. My Good Friend bought one in 1972 and immediately put it on an engine stand to disassemble it. Some of these Crate engines had horror stories behind them. Hearing about Con Rods having 3/8"bolts on some cylinders and the 7/16" bolts (which they were supposed to have!) on other Cylinders. Also a mixture of 3/8" & 7/16" pushrods happen to a few unfortunate souls but Alan's motor was intact as it was supposed to be. The Engine did have 12-1 TRW Slipper Skirt Pistons,which I don't believe would have been in the Test Car...

Since this was a Crate Motor that was probably going to be Raced;they put the higher dome pistons for the Hotrodders. It didn't have floating wrist pin rods, just the OEM LS6 rod with 7/16" bolts.Everything else pretty much what the HP stuff had before, Forged Tuftridged Crank(it was cross-drilled though) Cam was supposed to be similar to what was in the ZL1 but they didn't have specs on the Sheets included with the Engine. The Major Change was the CI open chamber heads.When GM and the Auto industry were being pressured by EPA for lower Emmissions they took the Bathtub Chamber head and basically unshrouded the valves. When they found out that this not only reduced emmisions but made some significant power gain then the Open Chamber Head was Born.So when you say LS7 to a kid today he thinks of the 505hp one in the C6. You say no kid
go back 30+ yrs, that was the Original LS7...

Does anyone know what ever became of this one of a Kind Vette. I wouldn't of thought that GM would have crushed it like the Non VIN XP test mules but they have done stranger things in their Time. If the Car still exists than it would have to be considered as one of or these rarest Corvettes in existence since only one copy with that Option was produced. If it is still in existence it's proper home should be in the Museum at Bowling Green...

Steve Matz

I was going to add this 69 Engine Option that I cropped from the Original Brochure. My Vette had the 4.56 gears with the M22 CR 4sp
I don't know why those M22's had to be so Noisy;Rock Crusher was a appropriate name because they sounded like you dumped a load of Fine Gravel in the Tranny. It made a Pete Jackson Gear Drive sound like a Chain Drive. Straight Cut Gears have always been a little noiser than Helical Cut Ones; But almost all Motorcycle Transmissions use Straight Cut Gears and they aren't noisy.I think in trying to make this Tranny as Friction Free as possible;Muncie used some really sloppy gear meshing and so the excessive Noise. They still shifted as smooth as a M21 Though. 4.56 gearing was really a killer for any kind of Gas Mileage. Luckily back then gas was only about 35 cents a Gallon. If I was paying what it is today;I would have been taking quite a few less Street Cruises...

Paul Drew Tolleson

trw list different dome size pistons for the camaro than the vette, the vette was 12-1 the camaro was 11-1 per trw

bashcraft

If TRW is saying this, they're wrong. '70 Corvette LT-1's were 11-1. I have one and it's apart right now.

7t9l82

Bashcraft is one hundred percent correct

Jebbysan

There was only one piston for the early LT-1.
CC'd out they were more like actually 10.5-10.6 to 1.......
Which to me explains why it will run on 93 octane with the right tune.
Lotsa overlap...........
I had one in 1992-3 in a 1963 Chevy Impala.....took a lot of converter to get it moving......but once it did it would go like hell......I stuck an NOS 175 plate on it and my guess is that it made like 550 on the hose....it ran on Sunoco 94.....when I went to the track I would dump a can of Klotz octane boost in the tank.

I really do not believe there is a lot to talk about with these engines....there was nothing at all special about them.....it was just the best for its time. What makes them special is that they were a happy combination of parts.
Just think if GM had made a Vortec style head then and the valvespring technology was advanced enough......GM would have had a world beater on its hands.

One thing GM shined on this engine was the intake manifold.
To this day it will run with the best of them......as the BBC ZL-1/L-88 intake did on that side.......pretty cool because you can build a sneaky Vintage Vette engine with this intake and not leave a lot of power on the table.

Jebby

7t9l82

That LT-1 intake was light years better than any small block intake. Anyone that thinks the aluminum L-82 intake is similar doesn't know what they are talking about, I've no idea where that stupid idea came from.
The LT-1 with an automatic did do better with a looser convertor.a friend had an LT-1 CORVETTE with an automatic and didn't like the idea of valve adjustments and the "noise" so I put the 350/350 cam in the car and it was killer.from a dead stop it would outrun other LT-1 CARS EASILY.. THE OWNER WASN'T A DRAG RACER so we never saw any 1/4 mile times but I suspect they would have been close.
The statement they weren't special is maybe a tad unfair as they were among the best we had at the time, but it wasn't anything a competant hot rod Der could have put together at the time,
I remember when the small block "Turbo"heads came out,everything changed the old double hump heads were used for doorstop until the restoration thing kicked in.
TRW used to list a 12-1 piston for super stock class racing.

Jebbysan

Which is what I said
The reason they stayed so legendary for so long I believe is that the industry took a dump until about 1985-86 or so when the technology was able to support bringing power back while keeping the EPA happy.

Food for thought:
A 1998-2002 LS-1 Camaro would throw 310 to the tire stock for a low 13 quarter mile.....at over 105 MPH
A 1970 LT-1 would throw about 270-280 to the tire for a low 14 quarter mile......at about 99-100MPH

The new one would smoke it because of tires and the 6 speed as well as some power increase......BUT......I would much rather be seen in the 1970......nothing like that sound!!!!!

Jebby

7t9l82

I agree, I've ridden Harleys most of my life. A guy down the street bought a BMW motorcycle and I wouldn't mind riding it but I wouldn't want anyone to see me do it

Dirty Dalton

Well this was a fun read!

And to answer a way back question, mine has done 70+ mph in first gear.

resdoggie

I think I'll check back here in 2018.

TCracingCA

Here is one list I have done, that I have posted mainly where I hang out over in C2 forums, even though I also have a C3.

Copies from other thread! I haven't worked on it for awhile!

Here is my general list. I have a more detailed one but too many variations and variable and reasons why I place them where they are and it would take too long to type all of my research, this is just a quick summary list and this is for a perfect hook up launch and shifting up the 1/4:

69 ZL-1 Fastest
66 Competition Model (Reverse rotation cams/M22 etc.)
69 L-88 Next fastest and so on!
69 L-89
68 L-88
71 LS-6
66 L-72
68-L-89
68-L-89
67 L-88
69 L-71
68 L-71
67 L-71
65 L-78
70 LS-5
71 LS-5
69 L-68
68 L-68
67 L-68
72 LS-5
68 L-36
67 L-36
66 L-36
70 LT-1
65 L-84
64 L-84
65 L-76
64 L-76
71 LT-1
63 L-84
63 L-76
72 LT-1
69 L-46
68 L-79
67 L-79
66 L-79
65 L-79
70 L-46
71 BASE

and so on to L-75's and other bases etc.. a bunch of them. I am already tired of typing!

and so on, I need to add in LS-4'S FROM 73 AND 74 and L-82's etc. Just too much typing. Maybe later I will finish this list out on all of them, if everyone is nice to me!

but this list is considering car weight, tire size, head flow, carb, every factor to place them on this basic list of my creation.

Thus sorry if your favorite RPO- don't rate as high as you thought, it should get beat by what is placed higher on my list!!!!!!!! But I am open to opinions and reasons that would lead to revising this for the good of all mankind.