Memories of my friends 1970 LS-6 Red convertible

[Ralph Spears]

A high school friend had a red/black LS-6 4speed conv. he bought in 1971 in Rhode Island AM radio 8 track PBrakes, we used to race it around the streets in the Boston area it had a Jake Kaplan Rhode Island dealer emblem on the trunk lid. Early in 1973 he offered it to me for $2,500 it needed tires and the conv top was cut from an attempted theft, What did I want with a car like that when I just bought a new 1973 Corvette !!!!! Shortly thereafter it was stolen and found burnt.

[mockingbird812]

Cool beans. How did she perform on the street?

[Ralph Spears]

The front bucket seat backs were bent back from the hard acceleration

[Ralph Spears]

Note we were 21 & 22 years old while he had this car.

[Mr70]

Nice!... :burnout:

[Ralph Spears]

It used to break valve springs a lot,One time it bent a valve and had to have the right side cylinder head replaced under warranty

[luzl78]

Ralph. We need old pics!

[Bill Pritchard]

It used to break valve springs a lot

I think that's pretty common on hi-po big blocks that are run hard. I remember back in the day my friend Rick's 70 Nova L78 had problems with them.

[Ralph Spears]

Any Rhode Island people out there that know of Jake Kaplan dealer and how they would have sold a car like that when it was one year old. My friend bought it from their used car lot

[JRSully]

The original valve keepers were very suspect back then, many dropped valves in the HiPo BBs

[WILMASBOYL78]

The original valve keepers were very suspect back then, many dropped valves in the HiPo BBs

The valve train was definitely the weak link in the hi-perf big blocks...replacing springs, keepers, retainers, seals and ideally new aftermarket one piece valves is good insurance.

Dropped valves, broken springs and keepers were responsible for a lot of CE motors.

-wilma

[ssl78]

This is what the original owner to my L78 conv wrote me


"Yes, I dropped a valve twice, and the street racers/wrenches, said to put after market,
better valve springs in, Chevrolet wouldn't do it under warranty. So the third time a valve spring broke, I ran it at high RPM, till it quit, put the valve in the piston. A mechanic that worked on it the third time, told me Baston took it upon themselves, to upgrade the valve springs. Not sure if that was the truth, but never broke a valve spring after that".

[dustinm]

Those factory springs are like wet noodles, float the valves causing the rest of the damage.


To quote ssl78.. I cant imagine intentionally blowing up an engine on a new car just to get new springs. Why not purchase and install them himself?

[olredalert]

----Both times I broke valve springs on my 1966 427/425 Corvette it was on start up. Guess I just lucked out as the inner held the valve up at idle. After the second I had the main Corvette tech at Bob McDormans replace all the springs. He was racing the same combo and put good springs in.......Bill S

[Bill Pritchard]

I cant imagine intentionally blowing up an engine on a new car just to get new springs. Why not purchase and install them himself?

Because purchasing and installing them himself was $$$ out of his pocket, and if the dealer somehow found out about it later, bye-bye warranty. Blow up the engine and all the expense is covered by GM.