1965 fuelie

[Fred Dewey Jr.]

I am in the process of buying a 1965 supposed fuel car- Can anyone give me the up to date "things to look for " list to help document that it is a true fuelie

Thanx in advance

Fred Dewey

[DarenSchneider]

Re: 1965 fuelie

Fred:

If it is black with Blue interior I strongly advise you to go to CORVETTEFORUM.COM and see the BEWARE note within the C1-C2 section

[Duke W.]

Re: 1965 fuelie

It's not that hard to make a '63 to '65 FI car, especially if you start with a 365 HP engine. The toughest part would be duplicating the OE broach marks on the deck and restamping the numbers, so carefully inspect the engine pad and verify that it appears original. The code is HG or HN if TI equipped.

The RH exhaust manifold should not have a hole and internal tube for the choke clean air system used on carbureted engines. It's on the LH manifold on FI cars.

FI unit is a "380" and the serial no. should jibe somewhat with the VIN sequence number considering that only 771 were made. I think the FI units may also have a VIN derivative stamped on the plenum, but I'm not sure. A '65 FI expert can confirm.

Tach red zone in 6500-7000; '65 did not have the crossed flags on the fenders - just FI emblems unique to '65, so check for filled holes above the emblems from the inside of the fenders.

Considering the premium that FI fetches, if you do not feel absolutely confident in your ability to reasonably determine if it an original FI car, get help, including hiring an expert for a fee inspect the car.

Duke

[William V.]

Re: 1965 fuelie rad suppot

Duke

Question on a FI rad support. I have a 64-65 GM replacement rad support with the Fuelie oval hole and lip. Am I correct in assuming that this rad support is common as it was the GM replacement for all 63-65? and is there a diffrence between what I have and an origional 64/65 fuelie support?

Thanks

[Robert D.]

Re: 1965 fuelie rad suppot

Bill,
I beleive the original radiator support had the bottom of the X brace held on by little clips and the over the counter replacement was welded. I am not sure if every '65 fuel car had it's serial number stamped on the plenum but the ones I have looked did. Hope this helps.

Bob

[Fred Dewey Jr.]

Re: 1965 fuelie rad suppot

As a follow up - I have heard that the fi wiring harness has a wire that goes to the microswitch that activates the enrichment solenoid. some say that all the harnesses have this wire-others say only fuel harnesses had it. Any input???

Thanx

Fred

[Duke W.]

Re: 1965 fuelie rad suppot

Yes, sometime in the sixties the final interation of the FI core support became the service part for all SB core supports. Joe can probably tell us when that occurred. Since front end damage - enough to replace the core support - is common, there are a lot of non-FI cars out there with late FI core supports.

The '63 core supports - both FI and carb - have some unique geometry features compated to '64 and there may have been some other detail changes that occured before the final design interation.

Duke

[Duke W.]

Re: 1965 fuelie rad suppot

Don't know the answer, but if FI DID have a unique wiring harness that included the electric choke lead, it would be mentioned in the L-84 section of the AIM along with other unique FI parts that were installed in lieu of regular production parts.

Duke

[Bill W.]

Re: 1965 fuelie rad suppot

Fred, You are correct about the extra wire going to the maroon micro switch, only "380" unit FI cars had this wire. It should be purple 12 gage and the plastic shield covering the connection to the micro/s is small and VERY hard to duplicate. Good luck and be carefull, lots of bogus stuff out there, Bill

[Joe L.]

Re: 1965 fuelie rad suppot

Duke, et all-----

The 63-65 SMALL BLOCK radiator supports were a somewhat complicated situation as far as SERVICE goes.

For 1963, there were 3 PRODUCTION supports:

GM #3797131 was the "standard" support;
GM #3828210 was the FI support;
GM #3833388 was the with a/c support.

For 1964, there were 5 PRODUCTION supports:

GM #3845218 was the early "standard" support;
GM #3858961 was the late "standard" support;
GM #3845224 was the early FI support;
GM #3858963 was the late FI support;
GM #3845230 was the with a/c support.

For 1965, there were 5 PRODUCTION supports

GM #3858961 was the early "standard" support
GM #3874760 was the late "standard" support
GM #3858963 was the FI support
GM #3858958 was the early with a/c support
GM #3874768 was the late with a/c support

The 1963 standard and FI supports were discontinued and replaced,for SERVICE, by the early 1964 FI support, GM #3845224, in January, 1964.

The early 64 standard support, GM #3845218, and the late 64 standard support, GM #3858961, were NEVER available in SERVICE; they were always SERVICED by the 1964 FI supports, GM #3845224 or 3858963. The 3845224 FI support was discontinued and replaced for SERVICE by the 3858963 in October, 1965.

The early 1965 standard support (same as late 1964) was NEVER available in SERVICE. The late 1965 standard support, GM #3874760, was discontinued and replaced, for SERVICE, by the 1965 FI support, GM #3858963, in October, 1966.

So, to boil this all down to the "lowest common demoninator", by October 1966, the GM #3858963 FI support SERVICED ALL 1963-65 Corvette standard and FI applications. The GM #3858963 was finally discontinued in July, 1986. If one purchased a radiator support for a standard or FI 1963-65 Corvette between October, 1966 and July, 1986, then one got the late 1965 FI support. I'll bet that a LOT were purchased since, as you mentioned, radiator supports are a "crash" part.

The a/c supports were a different story. The 1963 GM #3833388 was discontinued and replaced, for SERVICE, by the 1964 a/c support, GM #3845230, in March, 1964. The GM #3845230 support was discontinued and replaced by the 1965 with a/c support, GM #3858958, in March 1965. The GM #3858958 was discontinued and replaced, for SERVICE, by the late 1965 with a/c support, GM #3874768, in October, 1965. The GM #3875768 was discontinued without supercession in September, 1974.

Also, NO 1963-65 supports were ever used to SERVICE any 66-67 Corvette application. Likewise, NO 1966-67 supports were ever used to SERVICE any 63-65 Corvette application. In addition, no 63-65 standard or FI Corvette was ever SERVICED by a with a/c support nor was any 63-65 with a/c application ever SERVICED by a standard or FI support.

[Jack Layton]

Re: 1965 fuelie rad suppot

You are amazing ! How do you keep all this stuff straight ? Would it be possible to insert a USB cable into your left ear and down load all your info into a hard drive ? Then you could sell it on a CD for $19.95 and buy up all the remaining NOS parts still on dealer shelves with the profits.

[Mike M.]

Re: 1965 fuelie rad suppot

I agree 100% with bill. the plastic connector is unlike any others i've seen--about 2/3 the size of your typical electrical connection plastic pieces.If the 65 you're(fred) looking at lacks this piece, be real cautious. mike

[Mike M.]

Re: 1965 fuelie

Duke: you're correct in stating that the 65 plenums were vin stamped---in most cases.we've documented seven real 65 375 hps, built in dec of 64 and jan of 65 that didn't get their plenums vin #'d.mike

[Mike M.]

Re: 1965 fuelie rad suppot

Bob: i agreee. orig 64 and 65 fi core supports x bracing rod had a stamped steel plate covering the lower ends of each cross brace and stamped steel plate were welded to the core support. the later service replacement core support x bracing rods were welded directly to the core support(lacking the stamped steel plates) mike

[William C.]

Re: 1965 fuelie rad suppot

All harnesses in '65 had the provision to include the wire to the microswitch, but only FO cars actuall had the extra wire installed. It's a matter of disconnsecing the connector in the purple wirenear the distributor and adding in a factory supplied jumper.