Tag Archives: Chevelle

1971 Chevy Engine Line-Up Part II – The 454

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One of my regular readers, Bill, posted the following question in response to the piece I wrote on Chevy engines.   Bill asked…

“No 454 V8 in 1971? I guess that motor came later. ..”

That get me to thinking so I did a little more research.  The references I’m use are “Ultimate American V-8 Engine Data Book” by Peter Sessler; “Standard catalog of American Cars” by John Gunnel and “110 years of the American Auto” by  James Flammang and Auto Editors of Consumer Guide.  I try not to get too much from the Internet at large.

Interestingly enough the 454 is briefly mentioned in the Ultimate American V-8 Engine Data Book, but there aren’t many details.  That reference shows that the 454 was available in 1971 as a 4V producing 365 horse power.  It doesn’t show under any model just as a general option for Chevy’s.  I’m assuming it was just a 400 block with a different bore and stroke.

The 454 was developed by 1970.  It’s bore was 4.251 in and had a 4 inch stroke (where as the 400 had 4.251 in bore and a 3.75 stroke).  There were other version in 1970 and 1971, designated as the LS5.  This version of the 454 was used in the 1970 and beyond in Corvette for one instance and was used in Chevelle.

Interesting that it isn’t referred to in the mentioned references for 1971 year.

Hold the presses!!!!!

It appears that in the reference “Standard catalog of American Cars” by John Gunnel that the 454 was left out off the comprehensive listing of engines for 1971.  However, the 454 was use in the SS version of the Monte Carlo – 1,919 were produced.  For the Chevelle 80,000 were sold with the SS badge of those only 19,992 were with the 454.

1917 Chevelle SS 454

 

 

1971 Monte Carlo SS 454

 

And in this reference I found the answer to a question I’ve had for some time.  About 5 years agoing I was at a car show and ended up talking to a guy with a 1971 Nova SS.  It had a 454 as the power plant between the shock towers.  However there were 7,015 Nova SS packages sold, none had the 454 as the option.

Thanks for the spark to follow this up Bill.

Thanks for reading.

Tim

1965 Chevelle – A rare one

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Chevy and it’s customer loved the Chevelle, the customers because of the low price and horse power, Chevy because of the sales. Now days a Chevelle is a highly sought after collector car.  Finding a real good one is rare unless you want to play nearly a years salary.

Among those are clusters of the extremely rare.  Within the production of the 1965 Chevelle there is an extremely rare version. That was the year Chevy took its brand new Mark IV 396 engine and hoisted it to the engine bay.  It was the first of its kind (but not the last – the following year the 396 Chevelle became a regular model) with 375 hp and a 4 speed transmission.  This was the special SS model of the Chevelle.

This was Code Z16 and only 201 1965’s were made with engine/transmission and trim, making this one of the rarest of the Chevelles SS.

1965 Chevelle SS Z16

The 396:

The 396 engine

 

I love this combo.

Thanks for reading.

Tim

 

 

Parking Lot Spotlight 6/13/2011

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Here is another cool  car sighting.

This one was in the parking lot of the a local auto parts store Checker’s or O’Rielly’s….or….all those mergers are making hard to have common name that everyone can related too (remember when there was just NAPA….can’t find them very often).

1969 Chevelle 454 Restored shell

This 1969  Chevelle  was merely as shell…oh but is extremely well done restoration.  The paint was excellent (makes ya wonder why it was being dragged round uncovered), the inside of the shell had been as expertly sprayed as the exterior..it was almost a shame to put in the interior in there.

Reproduction gauges and not much in the way of interior yet.

The badge on the car shows that this car housed or will house 454.  But however, the 454 didn’t show up on the scene until until 1970 so this must be a retro fit.

You can see the big power plant is missing.

It looks absolutely ready to for dropping that monster engine back in and hitting the strip.  Hey I don’t even mind the wheels!!!

Didn’t find the owner (or driver) , part store was crowded.

Of course this isn’t a 1970, I’ll update the data a bit later.

Some 1970 Chevelle facts:

– The 454 was produced between 1970 thru 1976.

–  It produced 450 hp configured with 4bbl carb

–  It was designated the LS6 with 475 ftlbs of torque and 9.0:1 compression ratio

The majority of the Chevelle’s  (approx. 13,000) had V8 in 1970 and approx. 10,000 had 6 cylinders.

Thanks for reading.

Tim