History Legendary L88 Big Block

Hi there,

although this is primary a Hot Rod and Custom Car Forum, I'd like to ask, if anyone knows, in which cars GM assembled the L88 beside the Corvette?

Where there any original L88 Camaros or Chevelles?


Greetings from Germany, Norman

 

I think... the only time a l88 head bigblock was used in a camaro or chevelle is..if it was dealer installed.

 

The L88 was indeed strictly Corvette, and in my opinion the most incredible engine offered to the public. Little known fact, the L88 Vettes could lay the major smackdown on the 427 Cobra.

If I can see through the cobwebs in my memory the 427s that were dealer installed were mainly L79s (?) which were a lower compression and iron head version of the L88, but that's not to say it was never done. And finally, the ZL-1, the 1st version on the BBC Mark IV platform, was an all aluminum L88. There were more ZL-1 Camaros than Corvettes (69 built) and I can't exactly recall if those Vettes were hand-built cars. The L88 was in that catagory of grossly under rated engines. Dyno numbers were as high 625+ back in the day, and GM rated em at 425 or 435 for the tri power versions...yeah, right. This isn't too far O/T being historical info so, anyone else?

 

Oh great! Now all the Ford guys are gonna start crying.

Wasn't the L88 vette the fastest factory car ever tested in the 1/4 by road & track or something? If I'm not mistaken they ran 11's right off the floor.

 

Right on repo. An amazing package and an option list that could give goosebumps to any speedfreak.

 

I would think the only way to really compare them is to look at something like NHRA's stock classes where the playing field is level.

But here's one magazines take on the situation. They got their info from Car Craft, Car & Driver, Car Life, Hi Performance Cars, Hot Rod, Motor Trend, Super Stock and a couple of others.

No L-88 cars, but there is a ZL-1.
Larry T

 

No 20 '69 L-88 but it's an automatic car

 

I remember an old article in a hot rod - type mag that tested either an L-88 or ZL-1 with a th400 in a 69 Camaro. As I remember, (this was a long time ago), they beat the snot out of it, and got in the 10's pretty quick. I think the only big change was some slicks. But time has a way with brain cells, you know. I think all the pics were in black and white.

 

I've driven both. The L-88 Vette is a fast car, but a real 427 Cobra (not one with a 428 in it, and there were some that came that way) is faster. The 'vette makes more power if your numbers are right, but the engine is heavier than a 427 Ford by quite a bit. Now a ZL-1, that might be interesting. The 427 Ford was dynoing at about 550-580 depending on whether they were for endurance or not with aset of carbs, and a purported 630 with Webers. It just depended on which one we are talking about. The 428 ones probably didn't make more than 400 hp.

 

Most of this is incorrect...

The L79 was the hipo 327 engine.

COPO's, and the like mostly had the L72 engine in them I believe which is a lower compression L88 basically. But there are documented L88 Chevelles, Nova's, and Camaros from dealers - I don't know if they were a dealer swap or a special COPO order. I have seen a chevelle convertable with an L88/L89 that is supposed to be fully documented.

The L71 was the higher 435hp rated tri carbed big block - but was quite a bit slower than the 430hp rated single four barrel L88.

The L88 is an iron headed 427 rated at 430hp. Solid cam, rectangle port heads, 12.5:1 compression and a holley carb are some of the key features. They actually will dyno right around 525hp in blueprinted stock form. A set of headers is worth about 50hp on these engines over the stock manifolds.

The L89 is the option for the aluminum heads. Aluminum headed versions are known as L88/L89's. Some literature says all L88's had aluminum heads, but his has been proven as untrue when the engine was installed in something other than a corvette (there were COPO L88 Camaro's and Chevelles).

A L88 equipped 69 camaro (if I remember it was from Nickey - and a swap on an L78 camaro) with a TH400 and a 4.10 Posi rear got into the high tens. I have the article somewhere, but there were a bunch of mods, including 10" slicks, headers, traction bars, a 950cfm 3 brl carb, and more. I belive the engine was internally stock however.

They were doing scarey neutral drop starts and brought several transmissions with them to replace the ones they fragged!

I worked at an engine shop that did a lot of resto style work and saw several of the top HP motors on the Dyno. The 65' Dodge Race Hemi we did held the HP record for a "stock resto" motor. It was one bad mutha. Aluminum heads, 13.5:1 compression, radical solid cam, magnesium crossram with a pair of holleys. It did about 650hp on the dyno through its headers.

 

http://www.autofacts.ca/classics/FAPC/ZL1Corvette.htm

 

BTW, some of the Cobra Continuation cars will be even faster. There's a guy I know down south (no names or location) with a 510 ci Tunnel-Port, Aluminum 427 Shelby Block, Dove Tunnel Port heads and a cross stack injection thats bumping 800 hp. The car is almost undriveable. How much power is enough?

 

That jives with what a friend of mine came up with on dyno testing a blueprinted L-88. It did 554 with dyno headers and the stock 850 carb.

The damdest thing though was a blueprinted 429SCJ that was built completely stock blueprinted for a '70 Torino laid down 490 hp (not a Boss, a regular 385 series dump truck motor) on the same dyno with headers. This is not an exotic engine and came in all kinds of cars ( I believe slightly detuned even cop cars in '72) at all, and if it had 11:1 CR I would be surprised. The torque band was unreal, it was like there was just not a peak, it just got up there and stayed there. The exhaust ports on any 385 series engine make you scratch your head, they flow less than a stock 428CJ, and even a 390 head with CJ exhaust valves.

 

I raced an L88 in a Corvette in vintage road racing for a while - till it blew itself up at Mosport ( breaking rods was always a problem - even with Carillo). Really too much power for the tires we had to run ( as wheelspin in any gear, at any speed...), so we went back to a small block. Engine was good for 625-650 horses on the Chev dynos in the day - if you look at the rated numbers on the engine, they are at relatively low RPMs - not a lie, just not the WHOLE story ! My info says Corvette only from the factory (as an RPO), aluminum head only, several generations of both open chamber and closed chamber. COPO - anything goes !!

 

Herb McCandless had one done for NSS that laid about that down a few years ago. Oddly though Brian Booze took him out with an FE , the "Pale Rider" '62 Galaxie. I still don't see how, but he did.

I think Mark Artis '63 Gal and Damon Kuhn's "Fugly" Plymouth are pretty cool though, as are all the Texas Outsiders are.

But I digress. An L-88 transplanted into a '66-'67 Chevelle 300 setup with the rear bumper almost dragging the ground was one of the heaviest of the heavy hitters street racing. The only time I saw him go down was a real '64 Ford Fairlane High Riser T-Bolt

 

I'm a Semi Ford guy and I think the ZL-1 Camaros were one of the coolest cars ever. I've seen pics of them with the dog dish hub caps. What sleeper.
The ZL-1 Vettes were scary fast too.

 

That was a problem we had with the Chevelle 300, it broke rods. It ended up with Carillos, and was all prepped at Larry Phillip's shop (who did a little rubbing on the heads too), he got tired of rebuilding with the stock ones and got him a deal on a set. But I moved away about that time.

 

There used to be a Pontiac Beaumont here that had an aluminum headed 427 in it. It was scary fast until the engine grenaded itself. The original owner of the car said it was built that way, whether it was a COPO or not I can't say. He still has the heads on his speedboat.

 

Hi.

Anyone know what the prize this engines goes for?
A friend that i know, is downsizing his collection of stuff, and he has
a L-88 2. design in Crate! NEW.

...........................
Taildragger&fenderless

 

Depends on the engine and block numbers. Being a crate motor - its just about the same as an LS7 crate motor except for less displacement and aluminum heads. I can still buy LS7 crate motors around here for about $8K brand new. Not really a deal anymore when the 502 cate motor is cheaper and makes the same power on pump gas.

 

I would agree as to worth of the 'crate' version. It won't bring what you would think. To be worth the BIG money it had to be installed at St. Louis. Its the TOTAL package that brings the money.

If someone has a documented and PROVEN L-88 optioned car minus its engine, it would be better to have the "service replacement" engine than something else. That would be the target for a sale of your "friends" engine. BUT, I'm sure that the Corvette purists would be very interested in just who purchased it, to prevent the building of a "clone".

 

A friend of mine told last week he was a a local hot rod guys garage 2 weeks ago. In the garage is a ton of old cars and parts. In th corner is a wooden crate with what he told him is a 427 crate motor he bought new in 1974, 1 of 6 motors the local dealer sold to drag racing guys. My friend did not ask any more questions as he was not interested in it. He did buy a 283 from him. I am trying to find where the motor is. I would like to see what he has. My friend would not tell me where the motor is. I do know the guys name and hope to get a hold of him this weekend. Would this be a nice find if it is an L88 or anything high horse. I will post more when I find outmore about it.

 

corvetteforum.com in the C1/C2 section is your best bet.

 

I've got a L-88 sitting in the shop that has 3 1/4 mile runs on it. It was bought new at Berger Chevrolet and we installed in a customers '70 Camaro. The guy had never driven anything hotter than a 350 4bbl 4 speed but thought a big block would be just the ticket for a weekend warrior. He worked 7 days a week at one of the local GM plants and kind of a loner personality that didn't have many friends. Money wasn't a problem and the conversion included a new M-22 4 speed , a 12 bolt 4.88 rearend and a set of slapper bars.
I drove the car to the strip (Tri-City dragway was local to us), about 15 miles from my place. That was the extent of the break-in. The three runs were with the owner at the wheel and he never made all 4 gears on any of the runs. As I remember a 12.0 was the best and that was using 3 out of the 4 gears. After the third pass he got out of the car visibly shaken and never drove it again with the L-88. I took the car back to the shop and pulled the engine. Replaced it with a 350 hp 396 that I had ready to go. I put the pan, pump and ignition from the L-88 on the 396 and traded him for the engine and my labor. I've kept it around just in case I happened upon a neat project to put it in but so far it's only sat under the shelving..............waiting.

Frank

 

Man you need to find a first gen RS/SS Camaro for that Or how about a '64 Chevelle 300 2dr sedan? That would be sweet, and the Chevelle would be HAMB friendly.

 

I thought a car had to be pre '64 to be HAMB friendly ?.........I've got a '64 ElCamino with a 427 , Z16 160 MPH speedo /gauges + a '64 Corvette that I didn't think I should ever mention here , not pre 1964 ?..........Z

 

I've got a '64 El Camino I picked up awhile back and don't think I haven't thought about the L-88 in it. I could just keep putting concrete in the bed until the wheelspin was under control.

Frank

 

I may be wrong, but I think '64 and earlier. My cars a '65, so it definitely isn't, but I think a '64 is. That would be bad ass, a '64 Elko with an L-88. Yessir!

 

Thanks!

Of course there are not alot of crates over here! As mentioned, the new
502 is at the same price. And the engine is probaly suited for a Corvette.
Just was couriose!

Br
Kjell

..........................
Taildragger&fenderless

 

We seem to repeat this small detail that the pre-64 gig is for the classifieds. If you're a regular visitor you'll find mid to late 60s sports cars (in the journal lately), early A/FX cars, early floppers, gassers, hell there's even a Camaro gasser in an old post that didn't get deleted so it's not a matter of nat'l security or anything. Sometimes our most treasured and coveted hotrod stuff was born well after 64, and L-88s, Cobra Jets, 426 Hemis, and much more. How many kickass show rods were done even into the 70s by some us holdouts to the "gospel"?

So I'd say relax and enjoy, and show us some pics bro!