Where did the dealers (Yenko, Baldwin, Nickey (sp?) and others) and others get the replacement motors for the non-COPO cars - particularly the Novas?

Service parts counter at your neighborhood dealer. I bought three L-88 (all cast iron headed) that way, and it is how I bought my LS-7 when they released the parts for that motor. Of course they didn't pay list price; and if you knew somebody that worked there you got one at cost also (funny how many L-88's and LS-7's the guys who washed cars and greased cars on the service line used to buy back then!). :thumbsup:

Big Dave

So, someone at the Yenko dealership placed an order through Yenko's parts dept for 427 motors. I wonder how the motors were stamped where the VIN would have been. Maybe the shop stamped the motors with the correct VIN on installation?

So, someone at the Yenko dealership placed an order through Yenko's parts dept for 427 motors. I wonder how the motors were stamped where the VIN would have been. Maybe the shop stamped the motors with the correct VIN on installation?
Bob,

Being an original owner of a 427 Nova, I might be able to answer some of your questions. First, Yenko Chevrolet was not the only one involved in transplanting 427's into Nova's. As Big Dave mentioned earlier, the engines used in these Nova's, Camaro's, & Chevelles, before GM started building 427 factory cars( excluding Nova's) by the COPO process, could be bought at most any authorized Chevrolet dealer. This being said, there were several dealers installing the 427 motors into these cars, selling as new, with original warranty, and being financed by GMAC, the same as any other car.

While some of the dealers doing the 427 transplants may have had different ways of identifying the Nova's, my car's VIN# was not stamped back on the 427 motor. The protect-o-plate was sent by the factory with the VIN# & engine code assigned to the original L-78, 396 factory motor, delivered to Fred Gibb Chevrolet, and never changed. There was one thing my car received that was different from factory, that being an assigned serial number on the the firewall above the master cylinder. While not certain, I'm pretty sure this would be an identifying factor for my car for recording what engine, what was done to the engine, and the options the car received? I would think that most of the dealers doing these transplants kept some sort of records on these special built cars?

Fred Gibb and Dick Harrell (Mr. Chevrolet) were doing 427 Nova conversions in 68. Fred Gibb could supply his own short blocks, as most dealers building 427 Nova's, ordered factory 396-375 RPO Nova's, pulling the original engine, adding a 427 short block and transferring the original 396 L-78 heads, intakes, carbs, etc., onto the new block. If an L-88 was desired, then a complete engine was usually used. The hi-performance dealers involved in these transplants, had no trouble of selling the origianl short blocks to the many drag racing folks. Dick Harrell modified a number of his cars, much the same as Motion Perfromance, who was associated with Baldwin Chevrolet, the same as Dick Harrell Performance Center was to Fred Gibb Chevrolet in LaHarpe, IL.

Yenko did his 427 Nova conversions, later on with the 69 models.

Thank you for the info. You are the first person I've heard from that has first hand experience with these very special cars and the people who helped shape our generation's love for them. I sure hope I can keep it alive and pass it on to my son. I think I have my good wife of 43 years convinced that our stable is filled with art - not cars! It's fascinating how things worked in those days between the factory and the dealers/performance shops. I'm just to retentive for my own good (and most other people as well), so of course I have a follow-up question: Do you think the Baldwin/Motion Performance cars had any additional id's or stamps on the cars or the replacement 427's?

Do you think the Baldwin/Motion Performance cars had any additional id's or stamps on the cars or the replacement 427's?[/quote]

While I don't know if Baldwin/Motion preprared cars had any assigned special tags or ID's, these cars still had warranties when converted and sold as new. This is the reason an authorized Chevrolet dealer was part of the program. With this in mind, I believe there might have been a need for some kind of identification for the warranty work that might be taken to another dealer for this work to be done? Additional paperwork attached or kept with the protect-o-plate could have been used by others? This is only my opinion with nothing in proof about how this was carried out on other dealer built cars.

My Baldwin Motion came with no warranty expressed or implied on the motor transmission or rear end. Motor was sold for off road use, and voids factory warranty. That being said any dealer would have fixed a defective master cylinder within the first two years without question because they didn't need anything other than the date of the car to be reimbursed by the factory. Suck a valve at 8,000 RPM and your own your own. Motor had a thirty day warranty against defects in workmanship, once again null and void if raced.

My set up was different than most because they didn't install a GM motor in the car. It was a race preped L-88 that was using a non-stock block.

Big Dave

Big Dave,

Though a very short warranty of 90 days, I know for fact a few of these got engine warranty replacements within the 90 day period. I know and have talked with the person, who was in charge of doing the warranty work at Fred Gibb Chevrolet, during the time these Nova's were built.This warranty also included the transmission and rear axle. When I picked my Nova up at Dick Harrell Performance Center in Kansas City, MO., Harrell made a circled X on the schedule adjustment sheet, commenting that any dealer who did engine warranty work on my car and had any questions, to give him a call. Basically my engine was an L-72 and do suppose that there was a limit as to what could be done and still receive warranty work? Yet, it received Jardine Headers, A&A Fiberglass Hood, Sun Tach, Crager SS Wheels, Spring Clamps, reworked carb & distributor, and 8:00 X 14 M&H's. Was also financed through GMAC, with all these added options. Just surprised to hear that Baldwin/Motion did not have this privilige?

You are correct about how many did overly abuse the BB Motors by trying to rpm them like a SB.




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