A friend bought a 69 Camaro and boy did they feed him a line of BS. The car was "allegedly" a 375 SS with THE original motor, but there are several problems. First the block that was furnished with, but not installed in the car was a CE. The car had oval port heads with a 375 intake, but there's not a component there dated anywhere within reason for the car. Another detail that I found troublesome based on my Chevelle and Corvette experience, is the fact that it has a fuel return line. It's got a 12 bolt, but in all honesty, with all the other stuff wrong I was too lazy to crawl under it on a creaper and hunt a date code.

My only present Camaro is a 69 with an LS7 that started life as a 6 cyl car, so I've never gotten into Camaro big block documenting. What are the telltales on: 375HP??? original SS car????



[This message has been edited by SolidLifters (edited 11-27-2002).]

ALoha, I think you meant 396 SS and if it had a CLE block in it I would say its a late 69 or 70 Built 427/335 HP** engine that should have a Turbo 400 Tranny with a 4 barrel carb out of a Vette. (** Due to the 1969 Build-out schdeule revisions after productioon change-over at the Tonawansda plant, theres engines were installed in late 1969 cars and may have a slightly different engine code suffixes that use the new <1970> "C" prefix in the original code. Example: Code JA -1969 396/325 HP- could be a CJA, which is also the code for a 1970 402/325 HP engine. In this case if its a late build 1969 Vette engine "C" would be before the LE (427/335 HP Vette engine)
What is the other numbers on the engine before the CLE? Is there a partial VIN on the block and what are the block casting numbers.

Where was the Car built? Los Angeles or Norwood? If Norwood is there any X codes on the trim tags such as X22 or X66.
Whats the Vin of the car and its Trim Tag info.

Does it have a big block heater box?

Disc Brakes?


427/335 HP engine is in a Passenger car NOT a Vette as I mentioned above and so not to confuse anyone I am adding this here instead of editing it out.
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Jeff 67/68(2) & 69 RS's
http://hobbystage.net/camaro/hawaiiancamaro/index.html

[This message has been edited by HawaiianCamaro (edited 11-27-2002).]

Good lawd HC, I don't have a clue what you're talkin' about with the 427/335 Corvette thing. There was never such a Corvette engine. Actually, I confused this issue with a typo when I said CLE. I meant to say simply CE and didn't catch the typo, (which I'm editing in the top post now) It's just a CE (replacement) engine with no vin and the CE is a prefix. I guess my post was also confusing because I generally refer to L78's as 375's rather than 396 as just an easy way to differentiat between these engines and the other 396's. It's just easier to me than saying 396/375 or having to think whether this is an L78 or several of the other L's which is easy to confuse in my old abscent minded state although I own pretty well all of the L's with solid lifters, at least the big block ones, and a few of the small block ones as well.

Anyhow, back to the questions, yes it does have a big block heater box. The present owner thinks it's got a rock crusher, because of a lower drain plug, but I didn't have enough enthusiasm to crawl and see if it even had a big output shaft and of course that wouldn't have really proven anything anyhow if the trans was from a later car.

I've got a fairly deep data base on Corvette stuff, with 2 67 435's, 5 69 big blocks, a 70 and a 71, both big blocks also. I've also learned a lot in documenting 2 original engined LS6 Chevelles that I've owned for over 15 years, but my Camaro base is really weak. One thing that intriques me about your reply is the comment about the late 69's having 427's factory installed. I've never run across such a comment before with the exception of the COPO's and would like to hear more about it. The only thing I'd say for sure is that the lowest horsepower 427 ever installed in a Corvette was the 390 HP and it'd be hard to believe it was rated as low as 335 for installation in another car.......but if it was, I'd sure like to hear the specifics because that's absolutely new information to me.

Back to the friend's most recent purchase, was there any rear spring requirement specific to the BB or the 375 by itself?

Thanks for the response.

Man oh Man, You are correct on the 427/390 HP Vettes for 69, I messed up and diddnt relize the car model changed when I turned the page and saw the LE Suffix code which IS FOR A PASSENGER CAR and NOT the Vette like I first Posted Sorry for the mistake.

As for the rear springs they should be multi leaf springs with a 12 bolt

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Jeff 67/68(2) & 69 RS's

http://hobbystage.net/camaro/hawaiiancamaro/index.html

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe factory big block 1969 Camaros had 5 leaf springs where Z/28 cars had 4 leafs.

Only difference between an L34/L35 car and an L78/L89 car is the single fuel line used for the Holley equipped L78/L89. the L34/L35's use a 3/8" fuel line and a 5/16" return.

There are Tach red line differences but with shortages during production that isn't really reliable. 6K redline/7K range for L78/89's and 5.5K redline/7K range for L34/L35's

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Mark Canning
1969 Indy Pace Car
350/300HP RPO Z11
My 69 L48 - 350/300HP Engine (http://www.townisp.com/~markcanning/camaro/transparent%20air%20cleaner3.jpg)

Geez, Solidlifters.......a 61 word sentance........now I'm confused. http://www.camaros.net/forum/smile.gif

Yep, it's a good thing there ain't any grades for grammar and punctuation around here. I don't put a lotta' effort into checkin' my spellin' either.

Might be a long sentence but at least it didnt have grease and oil stains on it like most my books do.

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Jeff 67/68(2) & 69 RS's

http://hobbystage.net/camaro/hawaiiancamaro/index.html

Well, I kin spel!