You can get an insane amount of horsepower simply by putting in a huge cam, such as a 326 duration intake and chromoly main bolts, spins 7000 + RPM and no problems. Going from peak RPMs/HP at 5800 to over 7,000 on the 396s gave them insane power.
I bought a '70 Chevelle SS 4 speed with this engine back in 1974, when I was 21. For those of you older folks who remember the auto insurance surcharges on the performance cars of the day, my insurance company at the time didn't have the 375 horse 396 in it's list of performance engines, so I paid the same the same amount for coverage as someone who had a basic 307 Chevelle.
I grew up in the 60s around 100s of these cars/engines and one thing I learned fast was there ability to blow up.They were fairly fast right off the show room floor but the bottom ends on the 396s were inherently weak.I remember a girl buying a new 68 ss396 automatic chevelle and it puked a rod on her third pass at xenia raceway but she had put 9k miles on it by then.I got to the point I didnt want to ride in anything with a 396 because on one occasion my buddy was running a 390 cougar in his 67 396 chevelle and it came apart and blew fragments into the firewall and only inches from where I was sitting.396s were plentiful back then and my buddy had it replaced within 2 weeks and still has it today.Ive always said a 2 bolt 350 would hold up better than a 396 any day of the week.For the power GM wanted out of it and made with it they should have came with way better rods and crankshafts.
When I came out of the US Army Signal Corps in 1970, I bought a used 1965 Impala Super Sport 2 door hard top (all white with the deluxe red interior) from Kenny Chevy town in Johnstown, Ohio. This car had the L78 425 HP engine mated to the X2 speed Power Glide Transmission. The car was super fast and we (she and I and my girl friend who did the whoopee cushion thing) loved to go fast and it would shift out of low gear at 80 mph. I literally passed every car on the road, even in a 85 degree curve routinely. This car was the best drifting car I ever drove. The Japanese drifters would have loved this car, it was perfectly balanced for drifting. I could pass cars and drift thru curves at the same time. The car was so fast, I had to steer left of the car I was passing before I floored the 4 barrel carb to pass, otherwise I might crash into the back end of the car in front of me. There were no lines on the highways yet, so passing was at our own risk. I would love to own another one to fly again. My current 1972 Monte Carlo with the 454 engine 425 HP with the X4 speed Turbo 400 Hydromatic transmission is not quite as fast.
I owned a 1966 Impala Super Sport with the 325hp 396 and a 2 speed power glide transmission. In 1973 it threw a rod with about 60k miles on it. The second rod from the front was the one that let go. All the rest were still tight. It gave me a deep knocking noise warning for several days that I ignored. I was in the desert of New Mexico between Clovis and Portales when it let go. I probably would have heard the knocking and could have shut it off before the heavy damage was done if the cassette player wasn't at full blast. I have always wondered why that one rod made it that long and then let go. It might have had something to do with the engine fire it had experienced before my dad bought it. My friends and I did the repairs required to fix that. I rebuilt the engine myself in the USAF auto hobbie shop. I decided to soup it up with a new higher performance cam. Big mistake when you have a power glide transmission. I couldn't live with that cam so I had the old one reground and put it back in. It ran good for 20k miles, then I sold it because of high gas prices. Wish I could have kept it in a barn somewhere now.
In the close up shot of the Holley carb you can clearly see that it it a vacuum secondary carb, and not a mechanical secondary carb like you say. And I believe that L78 has a vacuum secondary carb as did the 350 LT1s of that same era.
I've owned one car and one short box pickup both having 402's in them. One with oval port heads and the other with rectangular ports. A cam, headers, dual plane intake, Holley carb, mild porting, balancing, good gears, is all that was done. Great running, very respectful, fun, and both had lots of wins during street racing. So yes the last statement in this video is 150% correct and there is something about the bore/stroke/compression combination that just works. Good truthful video.
Fantastic right on video. Brings me back to my early muscle car days, I was so fortunate to have owned a 1969 L78 nova ss all black with cragars. Bought brand new and had to inform salesmen of L78 option code as he only thought there was 325 and 350 hp versions. This was the most horrifying fastest car I ever owned. Ran a 12.78 @ 112 mph with only headers and G70 cheap tires. Absolutely no traction. added slicks and 456 zoom gears to get into 11's in 1970. sold for 1970 454 corvette. 70 yrs old now and building 1965 Malibu SS with 396 turbo 400 old school. Miss my L78 with open headers Yeee Hawwwwww Thanks for sharing
I had a 67 ss chevell wt the 30 over 396. Had to put 10.5 popups and closed chamber heads in order to run the new gasoline they sell. Went to 92 from 101 octane
i have an L78 sitting on my engine stand right now, i was lucky enough to find it at a local you pull it wrecking yard in Salt Lake City, Utah. They didnt know what they had, i got it for 150.00 dollars, what happened was i saw it in an old truck, and ran the numbers, and freaked out , pulled it immediately and took it home, what a find, it had never been apart. its a 1966 L78.
The L78 has always been my favorite Chevy Big Block. My friend had a 68 Nova SS with the L78, plain jane, bench seats no carpet. he could barely keep it on the road when he got in it. Amazing. Oh, those were the days!!!!
i love my 67 427 camaro rs ss and my 68 chevy pu with a stroke 454 with a 02xx trans now i am building a 79 z28 rs t top going wide body on it putting a stroke roller 454 with tunnel ram not sure which trans yet have a t-10 or the 02xx trans think it will be a fun project
Back in 69, My teacher had a new Chevelle SS 396 He told us it had chambered Exhaust that probably was a L78, It was a sound I'll never forget as a kid hearing that Big Block Exhaust.
As a street racer form the mid 60's, Our big money maker on the street was my friend with a el-Camino with a 375 HP 396 in it and It could be heard coming as solid lifters piston slap let us know he was around. Later I worked on a crew of a 69 Camaro 427 that struggled to get into the low 12 sec / @121 MPH (I drove) after the nationals and trounced by grumpy Jenkins. we went back to the 396 block with a similar set up and went 11.5 with no changes to the basic setup. Bill Thomas told us the problem, the 427 ran out of juice above 5800 RPM (we ran it to 6800 in the eyes), the 396 didn't quit to almost 7000.
I drive a 66 SS Chevelle L78 and it's a beast to drive . When I rebuilt in during a frame off restoration I added a comparable roller cam , match ported the intake and exhaust manifolds and balanced the rotating assembly . I have a few videos on my channel of the car , plan to do a new one soon .
I always wanted a 396 big block. When I was in High School in the mid '70s I was green with envy of my friends with their 396 Camaros. Well fast forward 50 years and I finally got my 396! I am NOT disappointed! I agree 100% that this engine is terribly underrated. Sounds great, pulls, pulls hard! Buckle up when you're behind this engine. The heads breathe well due to the canted valves and allow bigger valves and better porting compared to most other engines. This Mark IV powerhouse reminds me of my old Ford Gran Torino with its 351 Cleveland. That was another underrated engine but I think the Chevy Mark IV is still my favorite. Don't confuse any of this old American iron with the new engines, these engines have personality, can be a bit rude at times but they really respond to good tuning and will last forever with reasonable maintenance.
Charles Hubert The Cleveland heads also used canted valves. The Boss 302 made those heads famous. Interesting to compare the Boss to the Z28 DZ 302 with its small block magic. Great cars!
The vast majority of the comments in this video are "remembering" performance numbers that are simply detached from reality, for extremely rare engine options that most people never owned. In REALITY, there were numerous period road tests of production L78 cars back when they were new, and those magazine road tests are still referenced online today. In Chevelles and Camaros, the L78 typically ran about 14.8 to 15.0 at about 96 to 99 mph, a quarter mile terminal velocity that equates to about 215 actual net horsepower.
Probably right, the NHRA A stock record in 1968 was 11.89 by a 427 66 Fairlane. All these 12's and even 11's seem improbable without mods besides headers, gears and slicks. A 68 Camaro L78 did hold the A stock speed record at 117 something.
Yep---I had a 68 Camaro SS/RS L78 with the M22. We had it running in the 12's easy with Hedman Headers, 4.10s and RAM clutch and pressure plate. What a monster of a muscle car. Slicks, too. Bigger carb, too. Double pumper 800.
I had this same engine in a 1968 RS/SS Camaro in 1972. It was a beast from redlight to redlight with a 488 posi traction. Someone stole it and I've never gotten over it.
A lot of the L78 engines produced ended up on the drag strips. The racers preferred the 396 over a 454 because of its ability to rev fast and higher RPMs.
A small bore BBC will not make power as high as a big bore BBC. Too much valve shrouding from the small bore. They can all easily handle 6500 but 427 or 454 can more easily make power up there. A 632 with a 4.750" stroke can rev to 7000.
So, my SS/C 1967 Camaro, wich I still own by the way,will run a high 10 /low 11 factory heads carb, I always waited for mopar boy in the staging lanes, the only problem was mopar boy couldn’t hang in SS/C
Thank You, Old Car Memories. When i was a teenager in the early '70s, an older kid at the end of the block bought a really nice 4 Speed '66 SS 396 Chevelle in light metallic blue. Me and other kids would shoot hoops in his drive way while the SS was parked in a cul de sac near by. We all loved the car but when he decided to buy a ski boat (small block), the 4 speed went away in favor of an automatic.He just felt it would be easier to manage. He offered to take me and a friend to a record store one afternoon in '75 (LS Nuthin' Fancy and JB Blow By Blow new releases for me) and i teased him about the swap. He nailed it on a freeway on ramp that while riding in the passenger side back seat, threw me end over end to the drivers side before i knew what happened (yes, no seat belt for me). Car was STILL a monster!!! '64 and '65 and '70 Chevelles in the family at one point but the '66 has remained a fave, maybe because of that great SS!
g mat , talk about pure fun, I got a 66 Chevelle Supersport, built small block 327 with 12:1 hi Dome compression Pistons, ported heads, Aluminum Intake high-rise, 750 CFM carb, headers, thumping camshaft, 11 inch Heavy Duty clutch, Lakewood blow proof bellhousing, m-21 Muncie 4-speed, 12-bolt posi track rear end with 4-11 gears, traction bars, this thing will rev up to 10,000 RPMs before the valves start to float, it's got 450 HP which is more than any stock big block 396 made that year, the big block 396 came in two versions 325hp and 350hp , this little small block 327 revs higher and faster and weighs 100 pounds less than a Big Block 396,, it pulls the front wheels off the ground in first and second gear and is a blast to drive, pure enjoyment
This is really a beautifully done piece work. In 1975, I turned 16 and bought this SS396 and learned how to set a solid lift cam never realizing that they weren't all built like that. I have this L-78 to this day now at 61 yrs old and love it. The only mod is Hodkis suspension (>$10K) all around and that makes it an amazing driver too. On the video, why did they use small block headers? And the only other mistake here is on the carb secondaries. That 780 Holly had vacuum secondaries but that may have only been on 3 pedal cars (4 spd). I bought the car for $1450 from a woman living in a trailer court who's husband was just sent to prison. All truth.
FUN ! Had a 1969 SS NOVA with 396/375 L78. Installed 2 inch Hooker Headers, changed 3.55 to 4.10 rear, added Traction bars, Hurst Shifter, Sun Super Tach, and SW Guages. Cheap "upgrades" (good friend installed 4.10 rear). Fast Fun street car for the times.
Those L78 Nova's must've been a blast to drive. They were faster than both a Camaro or Chevelle with the L78. The 427 Yenko SuperNova's must've been insanely fast. Even an SS350 Nova was a decent performer because they were so light. I like the 66 Chevy II's with the L79 327/350 horsepower engine and a 4 speed too. Awesome street sleeper
@@jeremythompson9122 A big fan of Novas, in High School there was a '66 L79. He knows where the 2nd owner lives now and has the first refusal if he ever sells it. A buddy had a '70 Nova L78 that I drove a couple times. I personally owned a hardtop '63 6cyl 3speed and a '64 SS 4sp that had a 327/300HP (replaced the 283). Would love to have any of these cars now, even the '63.
My 1968 Camaro SS had a L78 ....It said 375 HP on the air-cleaner , I added headers and a comp-cam , with slicks it ran 12:80's all day....I wish I had it back ..!
I'm a diehard Mopar fan, and I love 440s, however, back in the late-80s, my sister's first husband owned a '69 el Camino with a 396 / 4-speed, and man oh man that thing was a BLAST to drive. Lightweight, nimble, and just killer with the 4-speed. Chevy guys are definitely spoiled with excellent choices for chassis and engine options.
really?i think most chevy big blocks were pigs on the street unless geared way down min.4.11.they were overported without big cubic inches. usually a 440 would smoke them easily on the street.the big chevys with the big ports did have an rpm advantage at the drag strips however;enter the 426 hemi,case closed.
@@danielslocum7169 It took a 440 with 3.91 or 4.10 gears to be much of a street fighter. In fact, a 340 Dart with a 3.90 rear would a lot of the time be faster than the 440 with the 3.23 gears.
@@anthonynelson9136 agreed.nevertheless i stand by my comment about the overported chevy big blocks with highway gearing [worse than a 440]. a dart weighs aprox 600 pounds less than say a road runner,thus requiring aprox 60 less horsepower to run the same e.t. . a 6-bbl road runner came with 4.1 gears and was very formidable. also the chrysler 4-spd had a lower 1st gear than the automatics and was thus much better with 3.23 or 3.55 gears behind a 440;if the driver knew how to use it properly,especially on the launch.
@@danielslocum7169 I'm glad you told that Joe Biden loving gun banning clown off. Dad said in late 60's Chevy's we're such a joke they didn't even try to compete in nascar. Mopar baby!
If, and IF, you were rich back then, just get a slightly used 66-67 427 Cobra S/C roadster and be done with it! And I mean it would shut down ALL muscle cars: Ford, GM and Mopar included!😁🛠️
396. Having been raised on Chevrolet/GM, i knew how capable that particular engine was. The first car i bought...1969 Chevelle SS 396. Though it was the 325 horse, it performed well, thru the TH400 and 373 rear gears. That car also had some factory weight relief, with the front wheel wells being plastic. And, the American Racing magnesium wheels helped a lot, too. Once, in traffic, struck up a brief conversation with a guy driving the same model year SS Chevelle. Highly modified. When i asked if he was running the stock 375hp(425+hp actually) 396, (because I noticed the chrome roof trim was a hint of the factory supermotor under the hood) he said "No. I found the 396 block in a bus." That, and the red primer/ladder bars/high stance, along with that wonderful rumble, i knew he was a serious street racing hustler. Never remembered his name. Only that the song "Racing in the Street" reminded me of him. If i recall rightly, he was unbeaten on the street. Should I ever be in the position to do so... I'd like, just once, to own the 1969 SS Chevelle with that factory 425+ horse 396 and M22 with at least 4:10 rear gears. And...do what some Chevy racers used to do. Make all the Mopar and Ford folks cry.
Had one in my 78 Jimmy. Did not impress me much even with 550 horse power. Learned one thing, it is alot easier to tear up a big block than a small block.
When I was in High School I dreamt of having a 396 Chevelle. To me, they were and still are the definition of the affordable muscle car. No doubt a 426 Hemi could give it a run for it but not from a cost for performance standpoint.
The 396 Chevelle was probably the most popular muscle car in Central Ohio. You could beat one every once in a while but,you were outnumbered every where you went.
I bought a '67 belaire wagon that had that engine, backed up with a rock crusher 4 speed & position. WHAT A SLEEPER!Many Corvettes choked in my dust. God was that a blast. The only car I wished I had back.
My Dad bought a new 1968 Impala SS with the 396 V-8 2 door front bucket seats Gold with a black top. The interior was gold with fake leather..It had the 3 spd automatic transmission and would lay rubber shifting into 3rd..I loved the few times I got to drive it..Never lost a drag race except to a 427 Vette.. ]
At 3:45 Steve Minadi testing a "bone stock" 396 finds it produces 425hp ....... with a massive great velocity stack on it. Now there's 10 extra hp in itself ... how reliable was Steve's test??
I had a 68 Camaro 396/375 and that car was a kick to drive I put hooker headers a tarantula intake manifold and a competition cam in it. Whenever I go to a car show I regret selling it
The early 1969 Chevelle 396/375 SS came from the factory with baffled exhaust, no mufflers. Chevrolet quickly offered to change to standard exhaust with mufflers because of noise complaints tickets from various police depts.
Good video as always Old Car Memories. There were a number of times in my younger years that I turned down buying a nice car because it had the 396. The reason was everybody I knew that had one blew them up, so I was led to believe that there must be something about the 396 that made them prone to blowing up. Back then I knew I couldn't afford to rebuild or replace an engine as just buying a decent car at all was a strain. I never did learn why 396's blow up but maybe somebody in the comments here has some words on that.
probably being over-reved did it. chevy big blocks are generally very strong engines with an excellent oiling system. many fools will rev an engine way past its power band and red line thinking they are really doing something.
@@danielslocum7169 Daniel, you are totally right. The solid lifter big blocks would easily rev past 7 grand and people would rev them as long as they thought the engine was still pulling never paying attention to what the tach said.
the L78 is an awesome engine. I have one in a 1971 camaro 4speed. but with header and comp cams XE284 hydraulic cam because I got tired of adjusting valve lash all the time. I have to say it is a beast of an engine. and runs solid 12.3's on BFG radial tires. there is probably another half second left in the car if I put slicks on it. but I don't want to break the orignal rear end. as it is a power shift from fisrt to second makes it feel like the back end is going to drop out of the car.
They cleaned up in nascar and top fuel i think they won every nascar race from 65 to 70 maybe lost one or two races top fuel every engine had the distributor in the back of the engine I might be wrong just ask big daddy
Trooper427SS I thought the same thing. Those are small headers, with the siamese runners. A big block headers are separate, like the LS family of engines
We were lucky here in Canada as pontiac sold a chevy copy of the Nova here, called a Beaumont.The 427 was available in !968 and '69. Came with a red tag rather than black. Cool.
I do not agree with the quarter mile times but, not every car is equal. My friends and I took our friends 1969 Nova L78 to Cecil County back in 1970. We were in the high 12's. It had headers, better clutch, traction bars. The engine rpm maxed out around 6800 rpm. This thing was a rocket. Frank's (Frank owned the Nova) brother had a 69 Chevelle with the L78 and never hit the 12's. I praise the mechanics that worked on Frank's Nova for the better performance (ability to tune). Nowadays we can revel in Kia and Hyundai, Fiat - NOT! BTW, each car had 3 pedals.
can’t wait to throw mine into a 68 mustang
You can get an insane amount of horsepower simply by putting in a huge cam, such as a 326 duration intake and chromoly main bolts, spins 7000 + RPM and no problems. Going from peak RPMs/HP at 5800 to over 7,000 on the 396s gave them insane power.
I bought a '70 Chevelle SS 4 speed with this engine back in 1974, when I was 21. For those of you older folks who remember the auto insurance surcharges on the performance cars of the day, my insurance company at the time didn't have the 375 horse 396 in it's list of performance engines, so I paid the same the same amount for coverage as someone who had a basic 307 Chevelle.
I grew up in the 60s around 100s of these cars/engines and one thing I learned fast was there ability to blow up.They were fairly fast right off the show room floor but the bottom ends on the 396s were inherently weak.I remember a girl buying a new 68 ss396 automatic chevelle and it puked a rod on her third pass at xenia raceway but she had put 9k miles on it by then.I got to the point I didnt want to ride in anything with a 396 because on one occasion my buddy was running a 390 cougar in his 67 396 chevelle and it came apart and blew fragments into the firewall and only inches from where I was sitting.396s were plentiful back then and my buddy had it replaced within 2 weeks and still has it today.Ive always said a 2 bolt 350 would hold up better than a 396 any day of the week.For the power GM wanted out of it and made with it they should have came with way better rods and crankshafts.
L78s had steel crankshafts and dimple rods. The rods do need upgrading. Crank is fine
Ran 12.50s with L78 El Camino. Headers 4.88 gears. 10 in M&H. Back in early70s. It was my daily driver
When I came out of the US Army Signal Corps in 1970, I bought a used 1965 Impala Super Sport 2 door hard top (all white with the deluxe red interior) from Kenny Chevy town in Johnstown, Ohio. This car had the L78 425 HP engine mated to the X2 speed Power Glide Transmission. The car was super fast and we (she and I and my girl friend who did the whoopee cushion thing) loved to go fast and it would shift out of low gear at 80 mph. I literally passed every car on the road, even in a 85 degree curve routinely. This car was the best drifting car I ever drove. The Japanese drifters would have loved this car, it was perfectly balanced for drifting. I could pass cars and drift thru curves at the same time. The car was so fast, I had to steer left of the car I was passing before I floored the 4 barrel carb to pass, otherwise I might crash into the back end of the car in front of me. There were no lines on the highways yet, so passing was at our own risk. I would love to own another one to fly again. My current 1972 Monte Carlo with the 454 engine 425 HP with the X4 speed Turbo 400 Hydromatic transmission is not quite as fast.
Very informative and most enjoyable ! Thanks fellas ! Cool stuff - Oo yeah …
I owned a 1966 Impala Super Sport with the 325hp 396 and a 2 speed power glide transmission. In 1973 it threw a rod with about 60k miles on it. The second rod from the front was the one that let go. All the rest were still tight. It gave me a deep knocking noise warning for several days that I ignored. I was in the desert of New Mexico between Clovis and Portales when it let go. I probably would have heard the knocking and could have shut it off before the heavy damage was done if the cassette player wasn't at full blast. I have always wondered why that one rod made it that long and then let go. It might have had something to do with the engine fire it had experienced before my dad bought it. My friends and I did the repairs required to fix that.
I rebuilt the engine myself in the USAF auto hobbie shop. I decided to soup it up with a new higher performance cam. Big mistake when you have a power glide transmission. I couldn't live with that cam so I had the old one reground and put it back in. It ran good for 20k miles, then I sold it because of high gas prices. Wish I could have kept it in a barn somewhere now.
My neighbor just bought one of these so i had to watch this vid! So awesome I wish i could own one
In the close up shot of the Holley carb you can clearly see that it it a vacuum secondary carb, and not a mechanical secondary carb like you say. And I believe that L78 has a vacuum secondary carb as did the 350 LT1s of that same era.
I've owned one car and one short box pickup both having 402's in them. One with oval port heads and the other with rectangular ports. A cam, headers, dual plane intake, Holley carb, mild porting, balancing, good gears, is all that was done. Great running, very respectful, fun, and both had lots of wins during street racing. So yes the last statement in this video is 150% correct and there is something about the bore/stroke/compression combination that just works. Good truthful video.
I a 70chevy L6 454 4 barrell carter carbauto trans headers etc candy apple red loved it it was a snappy eng to
Had a 67...ran my 76 Torino 351 quad 4 for the money!! Even with dual exhaust, Starkey and Hutch ss didn't hit 140...daaam, that was the $#!+
Fantastic right on video.
Brings me back to my early muscle car days,
I was so fortunate to have owned a 1969 L78 nova ss all black
with cragars.
Bought brand new and had to inform salesmen of L78 option
code as he only thought there was 325 and 350 hp versions.
This was the most horrifying fastest car I ever owned.
Ran a 12.78 @ 112 mph with only headers and G70 cheap tires.
Absolutely no traction. added slicks and 456 zoom gears to get into 11's in 1970.
sold for 1970 454 corvette.
70 yrs old now and building 1965 Malibu SS with 396 turbo 400 old school.
Miss my L78 with open headers
Yeee
Hawwwwww
Thanks for sharing
I had a 67 ss chevell wt the 30 over 396. Had to put 10.5 popups and closed chamber heads in order to run the new gasoline they sell. Went to 92 from 101 octane
i have an L78 sitting on my engine stand right now, i was lucky enough to find it at a local you pull it wrecking yard in Salt Lake City, Utah. They didnt know what they had, i got it for 150.00 dollars, what happened was i saw it in an old truck, and ran the numbers, and freaked out , pulled it immediately and took it home, what a find, it had never been apart. its a 1966 L78.
You DOG,YOU!!😆
I just saw this. I absolutely love the 396 BBC!!!
The L78 has always been my favorite Chevy Big Block. My friend had a 68 Nova SS with the L78, plain jane, bench seats no carpet. he could barely keep it on the road when he got in it. Amazing. Oh, those were the days!!!!
Great video buddy
i love my 67 427 camaro rs ss and my 68 chevy pu with a stroke 454 with a 02xx trans now i am building a 79 z28 rs t top going wide body on it putting a stroke roller 454 with tunnel ram not sure which trans yet have a t-10 or the 02xx trans think it will be a fun project
Back in 69, My teacher had a new Chevelle SS 396 He told us it had chambered Exhaust that probably was a L78, It was a sound I'll never forget as a kid hearing that Big Block Exhaust.
I had a 67 chevelle ss 396, I wish I kept it
I can attest that this engine has served my '71 F250 well since 1979.
As a street racer form the mid 60's, Our big money maker on the street was my friend with a el-Camino with a 375 HP 396 in it and It could be heard coming as solid lifters piston slap let us know he was around.
Later I worked on a crew of a 69 Camaro 427 that struggled to get into the low 12 sec / @121 MPH (I drove) after the nationals and trounced by grumpy Jenkins. we went back to the 396 block with a similar set up and went 11.5 with no changes to the basic setup. Bill Thomas told us the problem, the 427 ran out of juice above 5800 RPM (we ran it to 6800 in the eyes), the 396 didn't quit to almost 7000.
Good description, good facts to know. I have an L78, myself.
They offered the 396 on the Impala and impala SS
1965 z-16 Chevelle.
I have a factory stock 69 chevelle SS with 81k actual miles. It is a 396/350 hp car that still runs extremely well. Those 396 motors are fun fun fun.
I drive a 66 SS Chevelle L78 and it's a beast to drive . When I rebuilt in during a frame off restoration I added a comparable roller cam , match ported the intake and exhaust manifolds and balanced the rotating assembly . I have a few videos on my channel of the car , plan to do a new one soon .
Got to be fearsome...
I always wanted a 396 big block. When I was in High School in the mid '70s I was green with envy of my friends with their 396 Camaros. Well fast forward 50 years and I finally got my 396! I am NOT disappointed! I agree 100% that this engine is terribly underrated. Sounds great, pulls, pulls hard! Buckle up when you're behind this engine. The heads breathe well due to the canted valves and allow bigger valves and better porting compared to most other engines. This Mark IV powerhouse reminds me of my old Ford Gran Torino with its 351 Cleveland. That was another underrated engine but I think the Chevy Mark IV is still my favorite. Don't confuse any of this old American iron with the new engines, these engines have personality, can be a bit rude at times but they really respond to good tuning and will last forever with reasonable maintenance.
Charles Hubert The Cleveland heads also used canted valves. The Boss 302 made those heads famous. Interesting to compare the Boss to the Z28 DZ 302 with its small block magic. Great cars!
Good stuff ! Just found your channel and had to say good work 👍🏻👍🏻
The vast majority of the comments in this video are "remembering" performance numbers that are simply detached from reality, for extremely rare engine options that most people never owned. In REALITY, there were numerous period road tests of production L78 cars back when they were new, and those magazine road tests are still referenced online today. In Chevelles and Camaros, the L78 typically ran about 14.8 to 15.0 at about 96 to 99 mph, a quarter mile terminal velocity that equates to about 215 actual net horsepower.
Probably right, the NHRA A stock record in 1968 was 11.89 by a 427 66 Fairlane. All these 12's and even 11's seem improbable without mods besides headers, gears and slicks. A 68 Camaro L78 did hold the A stock speed record at 117 something.
I'm looking for 68 camaro L-78 396!!
Butternut yellow numbers matching & not molested!!😤😤😤
No one ever mentions the 430 buick. They should.
Put a set of L89
Aluminum
Heads on an L78 back in high school
We got 491hp and 443 ft / LB
Yep---I had a 68 Camaro SS/RS L78 with the M22. We had it running in the 12's easy with Hedman Headers, 4.10s and RAM clutch and pressure plate. What a monster of a muscle car. Slicks, too. Bigger carb, too. Double pumper 800.
I had this same engine in a 1968 RS/SS Camaro in 1972. It was a beast from redlight to redlight with a 488 posi traction. Someone stole it and I've never gotten over it.
A lot of the L78 engines produced ended up on the drag strips. The racers preferred the 396 over a 454 because of its ability to rev fast and higher RPMs.
427 was the best of both worlds that's what my 69 nova has!
A small bore BBC will not make power as high as a big bore BBC. Too much valve shrouding from the small bore. They can all easily handle 6500 but 427 or 454 can more easily make power up there. A 632 with a 4.750" stroke can rev to 7000.
The last of the true 396's WAS1969!!. ...correct facts
The 65 425 hp engine had a different camshaft than the 66 to 70 375 hp engines.
Yep
I would go for an equivalent 427 any day. Under a 400 ci limit, give me a Pontiac RA IV. A 396/375 is not the worst thing in the world though.
I still have my 67 Camaro SS396/375 (L78) and its all original nos. matching. I still enjoy driving it today as much as in 67!
Most under rated BB variant in the family.
The 396 is a 💎.
Legally you are allowed 10%in ratings either way
So, my SS/C 1967 Camaro, wich I still own by the way,will run a high 10 /low 11 factory heads carb, I always waited for mopar boy in the staging lanes, the only problem was mopar boy couldn’t hang in SS/C
Thank You, Old Car Memories. When i was a teenager in the early '70s, an older kid at the end of the block bought a really nice 4 Speed '66 SS 396 Chevelle in light metallic blue. Me and other kids would shoot hoops in his drive way while the SS was parked in a cul de sac near by. We all loved the car but when he decided to buy a ski boat (small block), the 4 speed went away in favor of an automatic.He just felt it would be easier to manage. He offered to take me and a friend to a record store one afternoon in '75 (LS Nuthin' Fancy and JB Blow By Blow new releases for me) and i teased him about the swap. He nailed it on a freeway on ramp that while riding in the passenger side back seat, threw me end over end to the drivers side before i knew what happened (yes, no seat belt for me). Car was STILL a monster!!! '64 and '65 and '70 Chevelles in the family at one point but the '66 has remained a fave, maybe because of that great SS!
He should have left the 4-speed in it.
Hind sight is 20/20. In todays market, you're right. As a 'driver' then, he went for what worked. Thanx, btw.
g mat , talk about pure fun, I got a 66 Chevelle Supersport, built small block 327 with 12:1 hi Dome compression Pistons, ported heads, Aluminum Intake high-rise, 750 CFM carb, headers, thumping camshaft, 11 inch Heavy Duty clutch, Lakewood blow proof bellhousing, m-21 Muncie 4-speed, 12-bolt posi track rear end with 4-11 gears, traction bars, this thing will rev up to 10,000 RPMs before the valves start to float, it's got 450 HP which is more than any stock big block 396 made that year, the big block 396 came in two versions 325hp and 350hp , this little small block 327 revs higher and faster and weighs 100 pounds less than a Big Block 396,, it pulls the front wheels off the ground in first and second gear and is a blast to drive, pure enjoyment
My brother owned a 1967 Impala SS 396 L78, rated then at 375 hp.
Great video but those headers were for a small block.
This is really a beautifully done piece work. In 1975, I turned 16 and bought this SS396 and learned how to set a solid lift cam never realizing that they weren't all built like that. I have this L-78 to this day now at 61 yrs old and love it. The only mod is Hodkis suspension (>$10K) all around and that makes it an amazing driver too. On the video, why did they use small block headers? And the only other mistake here is on the carb secondaries. That 780 Holly had vacuum secondaries but that may have only been on 3 pedal cars (4 spd). I bought the car for $1450 from a woman living in a trailer court who's husband was just sent to prison. All truth.
You can't use sbc headers on a bbc ? They ahh will not fit at all they just showed them reference
@@rooster68able IKR
Yeah 396 has own headers for big blocks and depending on car model , mine were hooker headers
@@skylarsoper241
Don't think the 390hp L36 427 from the Corvette/ full size has ever been considered under rated.
Stone stock ? What does that mean ? How did that nomenclature get started.
Had a 69 el camino 375 hp factory tach no radio kept breaking valve springs put 435 hp springs in never broke again.also hooker headers.
396 was a boat anchor
FUN ! Had a 1969 SS NOVA with 396/375 L78. Installed 2 inch Hooker Headers, changed 3.55 to 4.10 rear, added Traction bars, Hurst Shifter, Sun Super Tach, and SW Guages. Cheap "upgrades" (good friend installed 4.10 rear). Fast Fun street car for the times.
Those L78 Nova's must've been a blast to drive. They were faster than both a Camaro or Chevelle with the L78. The 427 Yenko SuperNova's must've been insanely fast. Even an SS350 Nova was a decent performer because they were so light. I like the 66 Chevy II's with the L79 327/350 horsepower engine and a 4 speed too. Awesome street sleeper
@@jeremythompson9122 A big fan of Novas, in High School there was a '66 L79. He knows where the 2nd owner lives now and has the first refusal if he ever sells it. A buddy had a '70 Nova L78 that I drove a couple times. I personally owned a hardtop '63 6cyl 3speed and a '64 SS 4sp that had a 327/300HP (replaced the 283). Would love to have any of these cars now, even the '63.
12 second screamer...
Good choice... I had one back in the day.. my vote is for the 427 L72.. had one new in a 1968 camaro. With some modifications about 600 h.p..
My vote goes to the L88 Corvette 427 🏁 which had a factory rating of 430 hp @ 5,200 , Chevy seriously underated it. Try 570 hp @ 6,400.
1968 396 L78 Gitter done 🤘
I had 2 396's. I put one in a 1978 Z28, and another in a 1967 Chevy C-10 Stepside. Both engines were amazing !
I had a 65 Vette 396 ,425.what a beast .Side Pipes, Close ratio 4 spd, 4:11 posi..Added 70s can am valve train. Brutal excelleration.
Me too
A full tilt 8800 rpm 327 will run with pretty much anything if its light
always wondered what the real hp rating of the ls6 was
Thinking of purchasing a 69 caprice that has a 396. So I this a good engine for this model?
YEs....325 hp version. Had oval ports that are good better with porting
Add a lil compression cam headers they run hard dont overcam it as its heavy.
My 1968 Camaro SS had a L78 ....It said 375 HP on the air-cleaner , I added headers and a comp-cam , with slicks it ran 12:80's all day....I wish I had it back ..!
I'm a diehard Mopar fan, and I love 440s, however, back in the late-80s, my sister's first husband owned a '69 el Camino with a 396 / 4-speed, and man oh man that thing was a BLAST to drive. Lightweight, nimble, and just killer with the 4-speed. Chevy guys are definitely spoiled with excellent choices for chassis and engine options.
really?i think most chevy big blocks were pigs on the street unless geared way down min.4.11.they were overported without big cubic inches. usually a 440 would smoke them easily on the street.the big chevys with the big ports did have an rpm advantage at the drag strips however;enter the 426 hemi,case closed.
@@danielslocum7169 It took a 440 with 3.91 or 4.10 gears to be much of a street fighter. In fact, a 340 Dart with a 3.90 rear would a lot of the time be faster than the 440 with the 3.23 gears.
@@anthonynelson9136 agreed.nevertheless i stand by my comment about the overported chevy big blocks with highway gearing [worse than a 440].
a dart weighs aprox 600 pounds less than say a road runner,thus requiring aprox 60 less horsepower to run the same e.t. . a 6-bbl road runner came with 4.1 gears and was very formidable. also the chrysler 4-spd had a lower 1st gear than the automatics and was thus much better with 3.23 or 3.55 gears behind a 440;if the driver knew how to use it properly,especially on the launch.
@@danielslocum7169 I'm glad you told that Joe Biden loving gun banning clown off. Dad said in late 60's Chevy's we're such a joke they didn't even try to compete in nascar. Mopar baby!
If, and IF, you were rich back then, just get a slightly used 66-67 427 Cobra S/C roadster and be done with it! And I mean it would shut down ALL muscle cars: Ford, GM and Mopar included!😁🛠️
The L78 was a giant killer!
396.
Having been raised on Chevrolet/GM, i knew how capable that particular engine was.
The first car i bought...1969 Chevelle SS 396.
Though it was the 325 horse, it performed well, thru the TH400 and 373 rear gears.
That car also had some factory weight relief, with the front wheel wells being plastic. And, the American Racing magnesium wheels helped a lot, too.
Once, in traffic, struck up a brief conversation with a guy driving the same model year SS Chevelle. Highly modified.
When i asked if he was running the stock 375hp(425+hp actually) 396, (because I noticed the chrome roof trim was a hint of the factory supermotor under the hood) he said "No. I found the 396 block in a bus."
That, and the red primer/ladder bars/high stance, along with that wonderful rumble, i knew he was a serious street racing hustler.
Never remembered his name. Only that the song "Racing in the Street" reminded me of him. If i recall rightly, he was unbeaten on the street.
Should I ever be in the position to do so...
I'd like, just once, to own the 1969 SS Chevelle with that factory 425+ horse 396 and M22 with at least 4:10 rear gears.
And...do what some Chevy racers used to do.
Make all the Mopar and Ford folks cry.
Had one in my 78 Jimmy. Did not impress me much even with 550 horse power. Learned one thing, it is alot easier to tear up a big block than a small block.
The 396 is a beast good job. Long live 1960 s. engines
I know this is an older video. But, now I understand the mystic of the L 78 engine. Thanks for sharing
Awesome video !👋
I love the Chevrolet 427, But there's something kick a** about the 396 ci =425hp It's a bad mother
Glad I still own a 396 +0.060" (408).
Me too👍
When I was in High School I dreamt of having a 396 Chevelle. To me, they were and still are the definition of the affordable muscle car. No doubt a 426 Hemi could give it a run for it but not from a cost for performance standpoint.
I still own a 1968 std bore 396 in my 1970 SS396 Chevelle. I repeat...Standard Bore 1968!
I was top dog in school till a boy from muscle shoals Alabama got a HEMI 68 charger and beat my Chevelle
They were fast but wouldn't stay together at all run it break it rebuild it sell it was the usual cycle
The headers shown are not big block they are small block headers...
The 396 Chevelle was probably the most popular muscle car in Central Ohio. You could beat one every once in a while but,you were outnumbered every where you went.
I bought a '67 belaire wagon that had that engine, backed up with a rock crusher 4 speed & position. WHAT A SLEEPER!Many Corvettes choked in my dust. God was that a blast. The only car I wished I had back.
My Dad bought a new 1968 Impala SS with the 396 V-8 2 door front bucket seats Gold with a black top. The interior was gold with fake leather..It had the 3 spd automatic transmission and would lay rubber shifting into 3rd..I loved the few times I got to drive it..Never lost a drag race except to a 427 Vette..
]
Never understood the term "turbo jet" why not "water pump jet" or "timing cover jet" or "alternator jet"?
Big blocks rule !!
Fantastic videos...thanks
Glad I got a 69 Nova 396 bored 40 over 4sp
At 3:45 Steve Minadi testing a "bone stock" 396 finds it produces 425hp ....... with a massive great velocity stack on it. Now there's 10 extra hp in itself ... how reliable was Steve's test??
And electric water pump (if that pic in the video was indeed the same test).
I had a 68 Camaro 396/375 and that car was a kick to drive I put hooker headers a tarantula intake manifold and a competition cam in it. Whenever I go to a car show I regret selling it
My first car was an Aztec Bronze 1966 SS-396 Chevelle that I bought used in 1968. I paid $2900 and my monthly payments were $88.06.
The early 1969 Chevelle 396/375 SS came from the factory with baffled exhaust, no mufflers. Chevrolet quickly offered to change to standard exhaust with mufflers because of noise complaints tickets from various police depts.
I remember that, believe they called it chambered pipe.
Yes I had one police would stop me all the time
I had 1 in a 69 Chevelle and a 69 CST pickup and they were runners
Good video as always Old Car Memories.
There were a number of times in my younger years that I turned down buying a nice car because it had the 396. The reason was everybody I knew that had one blew them up, so I was led to believe that there must be something about the 396 that made them prone to blowing up. Back then I knew I couldn't afford to rebuild or replace an engine as just buying a decent car at all was a strain.
I never did learn why 396's blow up but maybe somebody in the comments here has some words on that.
probably being over-reved did it. chevy big blocks are generally very strong engines with an excellent oiling system. many fools will rev an engine way past its power band and red line thinking they are really doing something.
@@danielslocum7169 Daniel, you are totally right. The solid lifter big blocks would easily rev past 7 grand and people would rev them as long as they thought the engine was still pulling never paying attention to what the tach said.
1967 camero ss 396. Fremont Chevrolet 3,500 out the door
Bless you for including all those engine shots. I could look at Chevy big blocks all day. Rather hear them though. ;-)
the L78 is an awesome engine. I have one in a 1971 camaro 4speed. but with header and comp cams XE284 hydraulic cam because I got tired of adjusting valve lash all the time. I have to say it is a beast of an engine. and runs solid 12.3's on BFG radial tires. there is probably another half second left in the car if I put slicks on it. but I don't want to break the orignal rear end. as it is a power shift from fisrt to second makes it feel like the back end is going to drop out of the car.
i love my L78 375 hp 396 4 speed 67 elcamino. only problem with it is the 11.25 compression.
They cleaned up in nascar and top fuel i think they won every nascar race from 65 to 70 maybe lost one or two races top fuel every engine had the distributor in the back of the engine I might be wrong just ask big daddy
Great video as always. Y'all used a picture of 350 headers instead of 396 ones.
Trooper427SS I thought the same thing. Those are small headers, with the siamese runners. A big block headers are separate, like the LS family of engines
We were lucky here in Canada as pontiac sold a chevy copy of the Nova here, called a Beaumont.The 427 was available in !968 and '69. Came with a red tag rather than black. Cool.
Acadia= Nova
Beaumont= Chevelle
My first car I owned at161/2 yrs old was a L78 69 Chevelle 4 speed, all I can say is hold on. Didn’t a very small amount come with aluminum heads
That's the L89
Yuppers,L79
those porkie pine heads was never used again an it may of been a sad mistake !!!!!!!!!!!
Loved that engine,they were runners!!!
Im a ford guy
Thats because you can't handle all that CHEVY power
I do not agree with the quarter mile times but, not every car is equal. My friends and I took our friends 1969 Nova L78 to Cecil County back in 1970. We were in the high 12's. It had headers, better clutch, traction bars. The engine rpm maxed out around 6800 rpm. This thing was a rocket. Frank's (Frank owned the Nova) brother had a 69 Chevelle with the L78 and never hit the 12's. I praise the mechanics that worked on Frank's Nova for the better performance (ability to tune). Nowadays we can revel in Kia and Hyundai, Fiat - NOT! BTW, each car had 3 pedals.
Paul Straney. Hyatt
Gawd I miss the brute force of these simple, yet unforgettable engines. 😕 Thank you sir for commitment to muscle car enthusiasts.