Hello!


I have been thinking about buying this Corvette from 1980.
The seller says the it has a newer engine from 2012 installed and it has only about 1000 miles on it.
He says that the engine is a 5.7 (350) with 190hp.


Now to my question: The original engine had 190hp in 1980 right?
If there was newer engine installed in 2012, I guess it could have some more hp right? On the cars papers it says 190hp.


The car has also got sidepipes exhaust installed, does that give some more hp ??




Greetings

 

It could be a new REPLACEMENT engine , not a new 2012 style engine

 

Yes, from the Pictures it looks like a replacement Engine. But are there replacement Engines with the same 190hp or had these newer replacement Engines maybe some more hp?
The 190hp is a bit underpowered or what?

 

Here are Pictures of the car and Engine.

 

What do you guys over all Think of the car?
Nice color and car but the interior looks a bit tatty, some gauges missing or what?
Anything else that catches your Eyes?

 

I don't wanna sound harsh but, I would keep looking.

 

The interior looks like it was thrown together by a high school kid. You might want to look that car over closely if you want to buy it.

 

The L-48 base engine was 190hp for 1980. The L-82 was 225hp. The California LG-4 was 180hp.

A no frills 190hp small block was a generic engine for GM and was used in dozens of applications.

Not necessarily. The headers offer a small performance gain.

 

Cromwell74, it might be helpful to mention where you are from, Finland perhaps?

It could possibly be a new crate engine that was installed in 2012, in which case it would depend on the crate engine they installed and could certainly have more than 190hp.

Good luck... GUSTO

 

You can pick up a 195hp crate engine new for $1500 plus shipping, right now, from Jegs:
http://www.jegs.com/i/Chevrolet-Perf...oductId=752506

It may be that or similar. Googling the stamped numbers on the drivers side of the block between the head and transmission could help tell the story.

Having said all that, I agree that the one you linked to should be looked at carefully if you like the style of what was done so far.

 

In my opinion, the car looks pretty cool with the color and wheels and side pipes but doesn't look like it was done by a pro. In picture 1, you can see the side pipes are the type that use regular headers and there is a U bend under the car to bring the collector to the side pipes. Not sure this is optimum. 'Real' side pipes use special headers that exit to the side right into the side pipes.

In picture 2, yes it looks sloppy. It looks like there are seat covers thrown over the seats to cover up what are probably crappy seats. The console side is coming off. The white paint is sort of weird and does not match the steering column. In picture 5 they stuck on a 'V8' decal which is strange (of course it's a V8 lol). In picture 6, again it looks a little cheap that the stripe is only on the hood which is the easy way to do it.

The engine... who knows what it is. If it's a GM crate engine then it could be anything. I would think it would be more than 190 HP though. Probably a GM Targetmaster 290 maybe. They probably took out all of the CCC stuff, no big deal there it wouldn't be used at this point anyways.

As far as the wheels, they are 18's it looks like, so who knows how it rides or if they did anything to the suspension. You would have to look at the under side.

Depending on how much it is, it could be a fun ride, or something to work on and fix up. The bright yellow will turn heads!

Jim

 

Not sure where you located and maybe cars are hard to find? I would pass on this one though, unless you are looking for a small project car. The interior is going to be a bit of work and for ~15K US that a lot to pay for an 80'. IMO, you could get that for ~10K.

The exhaust work would bother me, although fairly cheap to fix. The white interior will be hard to restore. That look's like it was sprayed in place.

That said, you could turn the car around for sure, but for ~20k for an 80', that's a lot. Please don't take offense to anything I said here, I can be a bit abrupt at times. JMO's.

 

I agree with others...not impressed..looks thrown together and poorly coordinated. As for the engine, it almost certainly is the L-48 base engine of equivalent, The 1980 L-48 base engine was rated at 190 Net HP while the optional and very rare 1980 L-82 was rated at 230 NET HP (and only came with an auto, no manual for the L-82, only about 5,000 1980 L-82's produced out of approx 50,000 1980 C3's.) The GM target master or any other crate motor rated at 290 HP is Not the NET HP rating form the factory but a 290 GROSS HP which is about 190-200 NET HP or almost no difference in performance. Had a friend who years ago replaced his base L-48 in his 79 C3 with the exact same GM target master "290 HP" crate engine under the illusion that he would pick up 100 hp over the L-48..he was greatly disappointed since he felt the 290 Gross engine was no more powerful than his base L-48...it wasn't.

 

Regardless of whether you buy this '80 or another C3, you should always check for frame rust, especially where the "birdcage" meets the main frame. There is a removable panel ahead of each door in the foot well that is easily removed with a Phillips screwdriver. Shine a good flashlight in there to look for rust. Post pictures here if you can.

My '80 was in a very dry climate for most of its life. I had almost NO rust in this area and the original paint was in very good condition.

Search for "bird cage rust" here on the C3 Forum for more information, lots more.

 

I Think I´ll keep on looking.
When I asked the seller how the car was to drive, he said that it´s not so good to drive due to too wide tires in the front, 245s.