Did Ford make the ZL1????

He's thinking of the engines for the ZR1 Corvette.

Jody

That's right, Mercury outboard....like the boats.

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Don~ ZZ430DropTop
~~~~and~~~~
Pro-Touring.com DropTop
67 RS/SS Convertible, 70 RS/Z28

HA! I knew it...thanks for clearing that up.
I knew that mercuriser made the ZR1 motor,I should have figured what he was talking about instantly.

Heh, get this. The father of a friend of mine happens to be a heavy duty mechanic. A few years back, when I told him I wanted a 400 sbc, he swore up and down that there was no such thing. I couldn't believe my ears, so I just went and got one, showed him, and let his face turn red as a tomato. On a similar note, anyone ever read the article in Hot Rod magazine a few years back where a "GM certified technician" asked HRM how to convert his Pontiac Fiero to RWD? All HR had to say was "um, all fiero's are RWD. GM Certified Technician eh?"... I laughed aloud.

i think i should throw in that mercury outboard- the boat guys that did the LT5 for the ZR1 vettes is a division of GM and has nothing to do with Ford at all. nothing. nada. this is also where the 502 crate motors came from- they don't build them, but the 502 was first made for those big inboard boats that only the rich boys can afford. some of them have 2 502's in them. i have seen one or 2 on display in a mall once...i thought it was so cool to have 1004 cubic inches of big block power under the hood.

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1971 Nova(looks like 69 camaro from underneath!)
355sb, vortec heads, HOT cam,T-10 tranny, 3.70 gears 16" IROC wheels

Here is one for your Ford guy. Tell him that Ford had Yamaha make the Tauras SHO dual overhead cam engines. A Ford guy around here tried that LT5/Mercury crap on my brother, so I told him about the Ford/Yamaha deal. We got a laugh out of that. I was a Ford certified mechanic when the SHO came out so I had the facts on it.

Gm and Mercruiser got together and built the ZR1, the reason is that Mercruiser has one of the best aluminum foundry / casting facillities on the planet.
Ford and mercruiser got together and made one of the worst pieces of crap in the marine world. The 370... it is a 175 - 180 HP 4 cyl, that uses a 2.3 crank (pinto style) 460 rods, 460 pistons, and one 460 head. The engine is awful.

John

Mercury Marine is not a GM Division, and is not connected to GM in any way other than the (now-expired) contract to build the GM/Lotus-designed LT5 engines, and they are also GM's largest customer for purpose-built marine engines. Mercury Marine is also a major supplier of fine aluminum castings to many other manufacturers - they do exceptional foundry work.

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JohnZ
'69 Z28 Fathom Green

That is a fact - GM does not own Mercruiser however they joint venture a lot of projects. Mercury Racing does, however, build some of the best "production" engines on the planet. I have three of their HP500 EFI motors in my boat and one that I am fitting into my 67 RS. 550HP, 600 ft lbs on 87 octane with fuel injection "bone stock".

Adivanman http://www.adivanman.homestead.com/camaro.html

I believe Mercury Marine is owned by the Brunswic Corporation which also owns a ton of other things.I'm not sure I spelled that right.

Correct - Brunswick owns Mercury Racing, Mercruiser Marine, Baja, Sea Ray, Regal, and several others. Yes, they are also the pool table guys.