Help me with my 70 chevelle ss

[GearHead1214]

Your completely right Murray, but im talkin about in the 60's, back thenthe power of a 396 was very good, but there were a lot more powerful that u could get very easily. A fast car is more rare now'a'days, so the 396 seems a lot faster today than it did 30 years ago. dont forget the 396 is also the same engine as the 427 with a smaller bore so teh 427 has a lot more power and was always the chosen engine over the 396. the 350 only has a bore .096 inches smaller than the 396 and a much smaller stroke giving u more torque and faster rpm's witht he same power, also resulting in a faster engine.

to tell u the truth i have no idea y they called it a super sled to mean its slow, but they did, lol. i guess its cuz a sled is such slower than a car..... whatever


-GearHead

[Murray B.]

Hoo boy. I'm talkin about the sixties and I was there when it was happening. The SS396 375 H.P. was one groovy movin machine. Even with 325 H.P. the thing would still fly.

Both the 396 and 427 were derived from the big block 348 but the 350 was a small block derived from the 265 originally (I think). It went 265-283-327-350 as far as I can remember. At any rate 90+% of the big block engines made had hydraulic lifters, fairly mild camshafts and did not turn much faster than 5000 rpm. The 396 was not particularly slow turning as I recall and it was more than enough engine to launch a 3500 pound vehicle like a rocket.

It is easy today with all of the talk about the hot cars to think that these were common back then. That simply isn't true. The best selling muscle car was the GTO and in its best year I thing it sold 100k units. Compare that with more than a million each for many other ordinary cars. Truth is, there were more Ramblers with flat-heads than there were Goats and more Nash Metropolitans (a rare care in its own right) than Charger Daytonas and SuperBirds combined.

Back then it was pretty much only men between 18 and 25 years old who could buy hot cars. Its not that the dealers wouldn't sell them to other people its just that the hot cars were incompatible with most wives. Buy one and you got wife shaped tooth marks on your buttocks and an ultimatum, "Either it goes or I do". That was always followed by "you do what you want" which in wimmuns' talk means the case is closed.

It really was happening in the sixties and old timers can tell you what IT really was.

Feelin' groovy, da, da, da, da, feelin' groovy. Peace, man!

[troy145]

Originally Posted by Tomsriv

I think a better idea would be to find a Chevelle with a good body and interior and don't worry about the motor for now. Save up and build a wicked small block or build a 454 in your garage while you cruise with the stock motor. Stick shift cars usually cost 3-5k more and are hard to find. A stick conversion will cost about 2-5k. Most of the cost is in buying a manual trans that will hold the torque of a big block

i need help with buying a 70 ss chevelle.Is it whorth to get with no motor.

[Tomsriv]

Any SS is worth buying, but if you get a 70 I would make sure I put a Big Block back in there. As a general rule, engine work is the easiest to do.