I've finally pulled the engine and taken it apart. Ever since I made my dyno run which indicated 200HP at the rear wheels I've been wondering if my engine had been rebuilt. One clue was a conversion from auto to stick, plus the heavy duty drive train. I figured heck...if the original owner was going to do all that then he probably had the engine rebuilt...the rocker covers are of the L82 variety with the fins (but both are left side covers which have an oil fill cap instead of the corvette logo). There was also orange paint on the bell housing and firewall which indicated that the engine was painted.

Well, it turns out that it was totally original. I'm not sure if the rocker covers were added later or if it was given some spare L82 covers (one of the covers has a weld repair). All of the tolerances are right at the service level...bearings don't show any serious damage...just normal wear. The journals are all round and have .001" wear. Interestingly the original main bearings are .009 over, thus a set of .010 over size bearings for the crank shaft will work fine. With all considered I can just buy a set of new bearings and seals then throw it back together and it should last another 50,000 miles!

But, the important thing is that the cam is the L48 cam. This means that the only reason I'm getting 200HP at the rear wheels instead of 140 (based on a 165HP at flywheel specification when new) is the sidepipes...everything else is stock.
:cheers:

 

:cheers: :cheers: Gettting to the bottom of things like that is always nice, I wish I could figure out those mysteries with mine :lol: :seeya