Solid lifter big block Chevys?

[lloyd3]

An early former co-worker passed about 10-days ago and while dealing with his passing I found myself in a text conversation with another associate from that era. We ended-up also reminiscing about our cars and related adventures from back then.  His fast-car days experience was with a 1969 Chevelle packing the solid-lifter L-78 396 motor. He claims it was rated at 375-horse, even with an automatic transmission (which, upon checking, it appears that he is correct). He also claims that it had plastic inner-fenders and was very-rare (which is likely true as well as I've never come across another one before). Most of the 396-equipped Chevrolets I encountered then with my 383 (and 440) cars weren't all that fast. Anybody here know just how fast his car really was?

He's a pretty good guy either way, as he also worked as a paramedic in those days (with the local "rural" ambulance company) and he had to haul my sorry-butt to the hospital after one particularly bad night (I had rolled a big block '65 Coronet down into a creek after a long night of "excesses") where he then counseled me to carefully consider my hospital of treatment for my injuries (thankfully, mostly just cuts & bruises). This caused a much-longer ride to the "further" option and confused local law enforcement, allowing me time to recover my wits and call my police officer father (so he could then interceed, I ended up with a ticket for making an illegal pass). Ahh...the truly foolish things we lived-through then, the world is so-different now.

[tan top]

yikes rolling your coronet lucky to get away with that   


by all accounts the  L78  solid lifter 396 is supposed to be a serious piece of chevy hardware , was rated at factory rated at 425 also as well as 375 horse how true    if it did or not stock ! w it was  a strong engine  this 396 was really 396 cuin ! (not the later 396 that was really a 402).
could be had with factory aluminum heads not sure what option package or maybe just a over the counter dealer fitted deal , these engines  made max power at or just over 6 grand.  

[lloyd3]

Coming of age in the 1970s included some inherent risks. You could still be drafted (that ended of-course in 1975), you could get caught-up in some sort of "tender trap" (all too-easily!), and you could die as the victim of some drunk or stoned driver (yourself included). Fast (and faster) cars were about a dime-a-dozen then and just about every young man I knew during that rather-tumultuous period had something of that sort to drive around in. Mine happened to be a '65 440 Coronet 2-door with an early & cheap ($100) 440 with it's 727 automatic (from a rusted-out & wrecked New Yorker) shoehorned into it. Throw some headers on it w/a sizable Holley carb (& some slotted mags) and trouble always followed. I didn't have it very long.