Wrong engine in my '69, Now what?

[Peter R.]

I discovered a little while ago that the engine in my 69 is not the original. In fact the engine seems to be from a '79 and not in very good shape either. This isn't disastrous in itself, but to add insult onto injury, the engine is now in need of some serious repair work as well, last weekend it decided to relieve itself of all its oil when I started it up in the garage. What a mess, I guess it could have been worse, though.

Anyway, I plan on keeping the thing in as original condition as possible, at least as far as what the casual observer can detect, but now I plan on sticking a new engine in it, as well as perhaps rack and pinion steering, beefier sway bars, new leaf etc, etc.

I am wondering if anyone has any advice on how to proceed in terms of what engine to consider. I was thinking of a nice little 383 stroker perhaps. Any opinions?

Thanks, Peter. (33299)

[Chris H.]

Re: Wrong engine in my '69, Now what?

Two words: crate motor. Take your pick; mild small block to 502/500 horse mind bender. All you do is attach the throttle linkage, radiator hoses and your off!

Well, it's a little more involved in that but you get the picture.

[Shannon Burgess]

Re: Wrong engine in my '69, Now what?

Peter,

There has been a thread on the C3 forum over at corvetteforum.com regarding the rack and pinion. Not trivial, but some guys in Europe have done it.

On your motor question, I personally like the L46 in my '69 Plenty of power and very streetable. What motor was originally in your car?

Shannon


My '69 Corvette

[Roger Legge]

Re: Detailing 283 engine

A general comment on cleaning parts such as intakes and cylinder heads. As an alternative to 'hot tanking', I found a place that uses a process called something like 'bake and blast'. The pieces are put in an oven, heated, slowly cooled, then high pressure blasted with solvent in a cabinet. I had two sets of heads done and they came out looking like new castings - far better than a typical hot tank. I doubt this would give the desired finish on something like an aluminum intake, but it sure cleans well. Also, I've never had a cast iron intake done, so I can't speak as to how well it might clean carbon out of a smaller crossover passage in an intake.

Roger
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