Quick question: what motor was stock in a 70 Chevelle SS?

[david c.]

Is it the same as a 71?

A friend of mine has a 71 and we're arguing. I wasn't born yet.

[Nostril Cheese]

396 I believe

edit: saw 71 in which case it was either a 402 or a 454

[Jim Richards]

I saw this link that might interest you...

http://www.musclecardrive.com/specs/chevrolet/1970-chevrolet-chevelle.php

[pwd72s]

Kids! A '70 "SS" could have been either small or big block. "SS" was more trim package than engine, beyond "SS" meaning V-8. In other words, "SS" didn't mean a stovebolt 6. But the engine size and power varied..."SS396" for example, meant a big block of 396 Cubic inches displacement..."SS 454" was VERY "special" and rare...probably the only Chevrolet worthy of taking on a Mopar 426 hemi back in the days of midnight drags...

[david c.]

Paul,

Looks like Jim's link says you're right. Could've been either one in 70.

He has a 71 SS conv with a 454 but it's not a numbers matching thing.

Thanks

Dave

[strupgolf]

The "stock" 1970 Chevlle SS had a 396/350 or 325 horse motor in it. The base, or other engines you coulc get were 396/325, 396/350, 396/375, 454,400, 454-450 LS6. In 1971 they went down in HP. The 454 was rated at about 375HP, I think. Then, after that, the entire MuscleCar era went down hill.

[pwd72s]

Dave? That was easy. You see, "I was there". Too bad we can't go home again. The rush given by the sound of a "three deuces"
Pontiac GTO surpasses the sound of a 2.4 S at 7300...it's a harmonics thing... (edit) Too bad you're too young to have heard a dual quad Mopar eat dead dinosaurs...Oh, MY!

[david c.]

My dad had a 65 GTO with the 396, so I've heard these war stories before.

I've heard a lot of great engines in my relatively short life but I can't say i've heard many engines that sound better than an early mfi'd 911 motor at full song.

[Por_sha911]

`67 SS with 396/375 4 bolt main.

Those were fun days.

[strupgolf]

Dave. I'm sorry to say that if your dad's GTO was stock, it came with a 389 CI motor, not a 396. Stock GTO's came with the 389 and a single 4 barrel carb. or a 3 carb set up, AKA as 3 dueces. He might have put a Chevy motor in a GTO, but I never saw one to this day. But I,m a bit older and today's cars are a bit different. I had a 65 GTO convertible with a stock 3-speed stick. I thought it was weird until I checked it out. Most of the GTO's made in 65 were 3 speed sticks, and the 4 speed was a option. I sure wish I had that car back. I sold it for 750.00

[david c.]

I can't believe I typed that but I did indeed mean a 389! It wasn't the one with three 2 barrels though.

[david c.]

My dad was a great guy who died way too early, at age 53, back in 1999.

I always got a kick out the fact that his interest in cars was diverse enough to have had such cars as that GTO, a Galaxy with some very rare big block that he referred to as a "stock car engine from the factory", a 62 and a 65 Corvette (both stolen) and then bought a 914 brand new. Sorta eccentric. The funny thing is that when he bought the 914, he went to the local BMW dealership to look at 2002tii's, another car I love. They also had a Porsche franchise, and he left with a 914.

I have pictures of my parents (pre-Dave) with their white 914, and that led me want mine. See signature below. My Eclipse was the car my dad bought for me when I was about to turn 16. Took my driver's license test in it and I still own it today!

His last oddball purchase was a 94 del Sol because it was one of the very rare ones with the early VTEC motor that has the 8300 rpm redline and makes 100hp/liter bone stock. That was pretty exotic back in 94.

[strupgolf]

Sounds like a great friend, your Dad. A 65 GTO with 3 dueces was probably the fastest car I've ever driven. The torque was tremendous, the sound was awesome, and the car was tight. A Chevelle 454 LS6 was right behind it. The Chevelle was great after the launch and kept pulling all the way down the strip. But from stop light to stop light, you could not beat the 65 GTO.

[pwd72s]

Originally posted by dave cardone
My dad had a 65 GTO with the 396, so I've heard these war stories before.

I've heard a lot of great engines in my relatively short life but I can't say i've heard many engines that sound better than an early mfi'd 911 motor at full song.

Naw, it was a 389 if it was a Pontiac...396 was Chevrolet.

I've driven both a 389 Goat with 3 deuces, and I've driven a 2.4 S and a 2.7 RS...you gotta trust me here, USA muscle did have a few things it did well. Well, okay, only one thing it did well...but it did that VERY well. My tri power goat would have eaten my 2.4 S for lunch in a straight line...an easy full second in the quarter mile. That doesn't mean, now that I've sold my 2.4 S that I'm going to hunt for a tri power goat. Like I said, you can't go home again...

[speeder]

Yup, 389. Says so right in the song, (Li'l GTO), "3 deuces and a 4-speed, and 389...."

Was driving up from OC today on the 405 and had a nice stock '65 goat next to us for a while, red hardtop. I've always had a soft spot for those cars. One of my friends had a triple-black '64 convertible w/ 4-speed and 3x2 set-up, can you imagine what that heap is worth today?

A 3-deuce car was actually a great street set-up if it was tuned correctly, you ran on the middle 2-barrel if you light-footed it, and the other two were the secondary. Talk about "coming on the cam" when the other two opened, fukenay....

The fun thing about muscle cars and drag-racing, (as I'm sure Paul remembers), is that it was not so simple as going out and buying the car with the biggest engine or most HP at the dealer. There was a LOT of car prep and tuning involved, (not to mention driving talent), that could make little David embarrass Goliath out at Pomona on bracket-racing day.

I didn't get my license until '76 and never owned a muscle car, (fell into a cheap '71 914 and the rest is history), but I used to ride w/ an older kid from the neighborhood in his '69 AMX w/ 343/posi/close-ratio 4-speed that racked up a lot of kills on Sat. nights, lost count of the SS 396 Chevelles. The one time I remember getting thoroughly shellacked on the street, (twice in a row for good measure), was by a Boss 302 Mustang. the guy had his GF trained to wave as he blew by us. Good times, sigh......

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Beautiful cars! My neighbor has a very nicely redone 1970 El Camino SS which is currently being upgraded from stock 396 to modified 502. Should be fun.

The thought of these old muscle cars entices me - they're not particularly my style - big, obnoxious and handle like a greased pig on a skating rink, but they are fun as hell to listen to (American V8s can be made to sound SO great, can't they?), fun to drive (in a straight line), and they look awesome. Just looking at them makes one think back to another era - particularly here in Southern CA. A time when life was maybe a little simpler, when the world was maybe a little more laid back, when you weren't tripping over people in an overpopulated morass of strip malls like today, when you could actually go surf after work and when you could drive down the road seeing stuff like that and more people seemed to appreciate a "cool car". Today's stuff is SO boring, bland, soulless and dull compared to what those days produced. In some ways I wish I'd been born 20 years sooner, but OTOH, I might have ended up a Corvette guy (oh, the horror!)

[Taz's Master]

Just a note about the hp decrease in '71. I believe that was due to a change in rating from gross to net hp, so actually 70 and 71 engines were equal in terms of hp, just rated differently. In '72 the compression ratios dropped in anticipation of unleaded gasoline and those hp losses were real.

[tabs]

[tabs]

[lm6y]

I don't think I've ever seen a 70 Chevelle that wasn't an "SS".

Around here, they don't even bother to clone them. I've seen a 4dr Malibu with SS badges on it!