Early 1965 396

[Richard M.]

Re: Early 1965 396

I have all pages in pdf form but too big to upload here. I'll see if someone can squish it down to allow it to load here later.

Rich

A fellow member and good buddy just got it done. THANKS!

See attached pdf. It's a searchable file too(OCR= Optical Character Reader). But it's accuracy is limited by the quality of the characters. Best to minimize the search string if using the Ctrl F search function.


Rich

[Mark E.]

Re: Early 1965 396

Duke,
If this is the "cast" date it would translate to February 29, 1965...or, am I missing something?

1965 isn't a leap year. I believe B is the second month of production which is often September. But that makes it a MY 1966 block...

[Patrick B.]

Re: Early 1965 396

L-78 rated at 425 HP was available in the B-body in 1965 and guess what, a guy I knew in high school had one though I remember it was actually his dad's car.

I recall L-78 was also available in the A-body, but I'm not sure what years. Rated at 375 HP the only difference was different exhaust manifolds that were less efficient than those used on the Corvette, but I doubt if they cost 50 HP.

Later, a 396 rated at 375 HP was available in the A-body, but it was not the same as L-78, and I don't recall the RPO code... hot hydraulic cam rather than mechanical lifter. It's always been somewhat confusing to me.

Maybe Joe Lucia can sort it out.
Duke

The 200 limited production 1965 Z-16 396 Chevelles had a 375 hp rated engine with a hydraulic cam and an assembly stamp code of “IX”.
However, they had the 11:1 compression pistons and 208 heads like the 425 hp Corvettes so they were different than the later hydraulic cam 396 Chevelles engines.

But, there was a obscure 201st Z-16 Chevelle that was a pillar coupe rather than the a hardtop coupe like the others. It had an engine with an assembly stamp code of “IY” and used the Corvette solid lifter cam. That engine would be the same as the 1966 and later L-78 solid lifter engines. The story of the unique 201st Z-16 Chevelle is the kind of thing I would write off as BS, except for the fact that I actually owned its block without understanding its significance. I talked to Alan Colvin several times when he was writing his Chevrolet by the Numbers books. I mentioned that I had a 65 396 block with an odd IY stamp code and he was very excited to get the vin derivative which I gave him. He told me about the 201st Z-16 Chevelle and I think he actually found the car from the vin I gave him.

PS: I just saw the A-body Chevelle engine production list in Richard’ comment #41, and it does list 201 396 engines but gives no indication of the different cam in one of them.

[Justin S.]

Re: Early 1965 396

Was the 375 hp 396 with a hydraulic cam in the Z16 the one Duke was referring to or were there others?

[Patrick B.]