71 LT1 Valve Covers

[David G.]

Tech Manual states oil fill cap should be on drivers side. Mine is on passenger side and survivor car at Bloomington was on passenger side. When I asked judge he said passenger side correct "opposite of dipstick". Which is correct?

[Joe L.]

Re: 71 LT1 Valve Covers

David-----

ALL 1971 Corvettes with small block, LT-1 or base, had the oil filler on the LEFT side valve cover. The LEFT side valve cover is on the SAME side as the dipstick.

[David G.]

Re: 71 LT1 Valve Covers

Thanks Joe. I have also been told no engine suffix sticker was used on valve cover for this engine?

[Joe L.]

Re: 71 LT1 Valve Covers

David-----

You know, my recollection is "foggy" on that one. It seems like I recall that they were not used, but I'm not sure. Most of these fell off in the early life of the car, so it would probably be hard to tell what might have originally been there. It would make sense, though, that they wouldn't have used the labels. They might not have wanted to "spoil" the valve cover with a stick-on label, even though the location was quite unobtrusive. Also, the purpose of the labels was for in-plant engine identification purposes. With their unique valve covers, that might have been all that was deemed necessary for identification. On the other hand, Camaro Z-28s used a very similar, but coded differently, engine. So, while the lack of a sticker would have been no problem for St. Louis folks (not too many Camaros were in the plant), I would think that, perhaps, some confusion could have occured at Flint. Maybe the labels weren't used too much at Flint, however.

[Patrick H.]

Re: 71 LT1 Valve Covers

All of the engines for Corvettes, and in fact Chevrolet passenger cars in general, used the labels.

I have only ever heard of one (1) LT-1 that had its label. Unfortunately in the 10 years since that car went through the judging process it lost its label. I know this because I recently contacted the owner. So, at this point, I do not believe that "any" LT-1's still have their original suffix sticker in place.

I would be very happy to see one in real life. If I'm going to be real, real picky it will be a 72, but I'll take what I can get.

Patrick

[KEN BUTCHER]

FACTORY MARKINGS

Hi guys,
You know what really "KILLS ME" is, I've owned at least ten GM automobles so far, and of those four brand new, and two were one year old. The rest were low mileage original, and not one of these cars had under hood markings or stickers on the block other than the emission,coolant,door,trunk,and interior decals. I only found a couple of markings on drive shaft,rear diff,front sway bar,frame,and floorboard bottom.

The reason I say this is because I've seen a lot of restored cars out there and the engine compartment is loaded with code stickers and chalk numbers and the under carriage is also loaded with different colour paint markings.

So my question is whats going on here?

I've owned lots of new and low mileage originals and they don't come close to the amount of markings that these restored cars have.

Any comments,please inlighten me.

Ken.

[Joe L.]

Re: FACTORY MARKINGS

Ken-----

These engine stickers were never designed to be very permanent. They were "plain paper" and they were affixed with a small dab of glue like "mucellage". The heat of the engine would rather quickly cause the glue to fail and the label would drop off. Plus, they were installed in a very "unobtrusive" location. I never noticed one on my engine in my 1969 Corvette when it was new even though I spent about an hour looking the engine over in great detail the first night I took it home. It may have fallen off in my driving around that day. I don't doubt that there was once one there, though.

These days, that type label is long-gone. Instead, they use a regular adhesive label with the alpha-numeric code and bar code on it. You will find these somewhere on your engine with later model cars. They last quite awhile.

[Patrick H.]

Re: FACTORY MARKINGS

Sure.

Find one of the 6198 low mileage 1978 pace cars, and there are all kinds of marks and stickers. In fact, the engine suffix sticker is present on most of them. The problem is that the label is significantly different from the ones used earlier.

My 2003 GMC truck has plenty of markings and stickers, too.

Patrick

[Tom R.]

Re: FACTORY MARKINGS

Patrick is correct about those 78 pace cars...labels and tags all over on low-mileage units. I've seen them with labels on the half-shaft, struts and even saw a rear shock label this past weekend.

Correct me if I'm wrong but seems I recall discussion where hi-performance smallblock engines were sent to the assembly plant with "slave" valve covers and than dressed on the engine dress line. As a result, finned aluminum valve covers would be delivered without engine suffix tags on the valve covers.

A 71 350/270 (low-mileage) was on display at BG and still had its labels (CJL) on the passenger side at both the front end and rear end. I've got pictures and will attempt to post if anyone interested.

[Dick W.]

Re: FACTORY MARKINGS

Ken, you are right. The restorers have gone overboard with markings and tags. Some of the cars were marked and tagged. Not all of the cars had every stripe, slash, dot, etc. I have seen too many originals not to believe this. At least in the 1968-72 era

[KEN BUTCHER]

Re: FACTORY MARKINGS

That's what I thought too Dick, I've got friends that own original 69 Shelby's and Mustang's plus my 75 Vette and 74 Camaro Z/28, and those are just some of the muscle cars, we still have our original every day drivers. I sure wish our cars came with all the shash,dot,written markings and also all the stickers but it didn't happen,so I guess the essembly workers just didn't bother.Just as you said some people go overboard.

[John H.]

Re: FACTORY MARKINGS

Tom -

All valve covers were installed at the engine plants - the assembly plant didn't touch them. None of the Chevrolet engine plants allowed any assembly plant rework or repair on the engines of any sort, and in fact, refused to pay them for it if they claimed engine repair labor, unless an engine plant engineer was on-site at the assembly plant and authorized the work. If there was an engine problem, it got yanked in Heavy Repair and returned to the engine plant for credit, and the engine plant worried about its disposition. They didn't want us assembly monkeys doing anything with the insides of their engines that might affect their warranty performance.

[Tom R.]

CJL Valve Cover Label Front

Third attempt here to post a photo of a 71 350/270 valve cover CJL tag...

[Tom R.]

Re: CJL Valve Cover Label Rear

This was captured off the reflection of the chrome cover

[Terry M.]

Re: CJL Valve Cover Label Rear

That label looks like it is in four pieces, one of which is missing.