ZL-1 Aluminum 427
- Thread starter Blk61409
- Start date
If they had the salesman that was always asleep it wouldn't have been a problem.
I read it all fine, must be these young eyes. 
I guess you could only make 50 COPO ZL-1's and not really make them easily available to the public.
Now days they build the factory hot rods without a VIN number or title. Sell them for race application only, like Mopar does nowadays.
Pat, do you know of any modifications that were made to make the ZL-1 Moore streetable or street friendly other than the L-72 cam swap inlet manifold and induction system?
Phil, Dollar General has magnifying glasses with LED lights on them on sale!!!!!!!
Now days they build the factory hot rods without a VIN number or title. Sell them for race application only, like Mopar does nowadays.Pat, do you know of any modifications that were made to make the ZL-1 Moore streetable or street friendly other than the L-72 cam swap inlet manifold and induction system?
Phil, Dollar General has magnifying glasses with LED lights on them on sale!!!!!!!
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Tooth, I the 69 ZL-1 engines were all alike.
Never heard of any of the proposed changes ever being implemented.
As crazy as it may seem, to me this last letter was written as a CYA.
Chevrolet was still only 6 years out from their racing ban and the guys behind the scene supporting us racers, Bernie Krass, Vince Piggins, Paul Prior and many others were making some neat stuff!!
The engineers were designing cool parts and then their bosses wrote internal memos “suggesting” poor sales!
Just think, ok, let’s spend $Millions to make great “Heavy Duty Service” parts and then circulate a memo to tell everyone to slow sales.
No one did anything, but they can say, “well, we tried”.
Most people did not know that some of the ZL-1 Camaros did not sell. Fred Gibb was buried with them, he was able to sell some to other dealers to remove his burden. My friend, Charlie Gaines, mechanic for Dick Harrell moved to KC and helped to sell these cars with modifications like adding fiberglass front ends, clutch turbos, dual 4’s, etc.
We all have to remember the guys behind the scenes brought us the 348/409’s.
How about the 58 with a 348, multiple HP combinations and even a 4 speed, in the trunk with parts in boxes.
Or the 61-409, the 10 special 409/409 engines for 61, 62 Special Service Package combinations, FI 409(wonder where that one is), aluminum stuff, the 50 Z-11 cars, we think about 29 Mystery Motors and continuing with the 201 65 Chevelle 396’s, L-88 Corvette, etc.
Thanks to all the true racers that were behind the scenes supporting us!
There is a great story to be told about the Chevrolet big blocks and how they evolved.
I have some more stuff I’ll post as I dig it out.
Never heard of any of the proposed changes ever being implemented.
As crazy as it may seem, to me this last letter was written as a CYA.
Chevrolet was still only 6 years out from their racing ban and the guys behind the scene supporting us racers, Bernie Krass, Vince Piggins, Paul Prior and many others were making some neat stuff!!
The engineers were designing cool parts and then their bosses wrote internal memos “suggesting” poor sales!
Just think, ok, let’s spend $Millions to make great “Heavy Duty Service” parts and then circulate a memo to tell everyone to slow sales.
No one did anything, but they can say, “well, we tried”.
Most people did not know that some of the ZL-1 Camaros did not sell. Fred Gibb was buried with them, he was able to sell some to other dealers to remove his burden. My friend, Charlie Gaines, mechanic for Dick Harrell moved to KC and helped to sell these cars with modifications like adding fiberglass front ends, clutch turbos, dual 4’s, etc.
We all have to remember the guys behind the scenes brought us the 348/409’s.
How about the 58 with a 348, multiple HP combinations and even a 4 speed, in the trunk with parts in boxes.
Or the 61-409, the 10 special 409/409 engines for 61, 62 Special Service Package combinations, FI 409(wonder where that one is), aluminum stuff, the 50 Z-11 cars, we think about 29 Mystery Motors and continuing with the 201 65 Chevelle 396’s, L-88 Corvette, etc.
Thanks to all the true racers that were behind the scenes supporting us!
There is a great story to be told about the Chevrolet big blocks and how they evolved.
I have some more stuff I’ll post as I dig it out.
Pat, fantastic stories can't wait for the to be continued. I have a 65 396 block that has a casting number that was used in the first 396 Chevelles, I also done some checking and that particular block was reboard to a 4.250 bore for the 66 427. Lots of material in this 396 block. And I have a set of 3946074 (ZL-1) aluminum head castings on my 68 beater Nova. 1 is date coded the last week of march and the other one the 2 week of april 69. Cool Stuff that you are feeding us, keep it up, keep it up......
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Pat, were the Can Am blocks the same as the ZL1 blocks. I use to know the answers to this.
Barry, I need to look, something tells me they were different.
I know one time we received from Vince Piggins a 430 cu in CanAm crank, rods and pistons to go into a boat, we used the steel 427 block for it.
The reason I remember it so vividly was because it was 430 cu in and it was FREE
I know one time we received from Vince Piggins a 430 cu in CanAm crank, rods and pistons to go into a boat, we used the steel 427 block for it.
The reason I remember it so vividly was because it was 430 cu in and it was FREE
Thanks, Pat and Don. That’s what I remember now. My dads cousin bought a Can Am block for an Unblown Gas Hydro that I eventually drove for three races after the Can Am block had expired. His engine builder filled it with some kind of epoxy that expanded when they got the motor to hot. Cracked it up real bad. That motor had the staggered Kinsler injectors. When I drove it it had a iron 540 cubic inch motor with Hilborns. Pat these hulls were built by Grey Bros. on Jacksboro Hwy. in Ft Worth.
Barry, I remember the Grey Bros. a couple of other guys I worked with were Elmer and Delmer Youngblood that raced lots of boats. Barry, I can't imagine driving one of those, I got scared with a 427 with 2 Holleys, can't imagine what you drove!!!
Thanks Don, the sleeveless blocks were crazy. A Chevrolet engineer guy I know had the job of trying to get the ZL-1 blocks to be sleeveless, never was successful. He said everything he tried failed. I just know the steel sleeve to aluminum block distortion caused the fiber head gaskets to fail, had to o-ring the block. Not sure how the Can-Am blocks worked.
Thanks Don, the sleeveless blocks were crazy. A Chevrolet engineer guy I know had the job of trying to get the ZL-1 blocks to be sleeveless, never was successful. He said everything he tried failed. I just know the steel sleeve to aluminum block distortion caused the fiber head gaskets to fail, had to o-ring the block. Not sure how the Can-Am blocks worked.
I saw a Can Am block at a swap meet a number of years ago. The guy wanted $150 for it and I passed because it was pretty rough and had been filled. Probably would have cost a bundle to try to salvage it but would have made a nice conversation starter.