Yenko take out motors
 

Does anyone have any info on what became of the motors from the 67/68 Camaros and 69 Novas that were transplanted to 427's? Would there be info on them somewhere?. Wouldn't they have the original VINs from the soon to be Yenko cars on the blocks? Also, how did Yenko mark the transplanted 427 motors denoting them as Yenko? I must assume there was some way to tell if your 67/68 Yenko Camaro or 69 Yenko Nova has the motor Yenko put in it. I apologize if these questions seem silly, but this inquiring mind wants to know.

Re: Yenko take out motors
 

I think it's a good question and was woundering if I could add to it.
The 1969 427 Nova, was that a copo or did the dealer install the engine? If Yenko installed the engine, did Chevy ever do a copo 1969 427 Nova?

Billy

Re: Yenko take out motors
 

Billy,
The Yenko Novas were mostly conversion cars. They were born with 396/375 engines. It is my understanding that all the Yenko Novas were not converted to L72 status.

I have never seen a COPO Nova and most of the Local folk lore pertaining to their existence seems to have come from Mr.Ed of Berganse and Fencil Tufo Chevrolet.

He did keep all his old sales records for both COPO and regular orders.(I haven't seen them, but that is what he says.) So if he ever makes them public or available we would be able to see if and how he COPO ordered 427 Novas?

I would think that if the "Father" of the L72 COPO cars, Don Yenko couldn't get GM to do it then it wasn't going to get done, IMO.

Re: Yenko take out motors
 

So where would Ray Morrison's 68 Chevy II, Gibb/Harrell prepped 427 COPO (9738) fall into. Nice right up of it in the April 99 issue of Chevy High Performance. States hes the orginal owner and picked the car up himself. Oh those were the days.

Re: Yenko take out motors
 

The take out engines were advertised for sale in the Pittsburgh Press. One story I heard is a trucking company bought many of the left over engines. As for original 68 MV 396 code engines in Camaros, my friend has one with the VIN...BKH

Re: Yenko take out motors
 

Jeff:

The story on Ray and his '68 COPO Nova is truly awesome, and we are fortunate enough to live within about 40 miles of Ray, and get to see him and his car fairly often. As neat as his car is, it may be overshadowed by the fact that Ray is so unbelievably nice! He is truly a class act, and would talk cars until the cows come home!

Interesting info about the take out engines and the trucking company. It just so happens there is a late '60s 2-ton wrecker here in town that sports an L-78, and has for a LONG TIME, and it's supposed to even be out of a '68 Camaro! That thing sure sounds good when he's in a hurry...maybe I should do a little investigating!

Re: Yenko take out motors
 

I understand that Don would have done anything to get rid of the orig. L78's, whether they be complete engines or just the short's from the '68's.

Any '69 427 Nova that is claimed to be a COPO would have to have serious paperwork in order to be believable, not impossible but highly unlikely. Not all of the '69 Yenko Novas were 427's, supposedly, approx. 7 were left as 396's with possibly a supertune. That is similar to the '68 Harrell Novas, you could get them plain Gibb style, Harrell L78 supertuned, or Harrell L?? converted.

Re: Yenko take out motors
 

Still wondering if the 427s were stamped or otherwise identifiable as being the one Yenko put in?

Re: Yenko take out motors
 

My thoughts is they were not identifiable on the conversion cars. I have not heard of any of the converters of the day actually stamping engines, ie. Nickey, Motion, Thomas, Harrell, etc.

Re: Yenko take out motors
 

I believe Motion did stamp his engines, something like: MP####. I thought it was tied into the work order, for verification purposes.

To my knowledge, Yenko did not stamp anything onto the YSC installed engines.

Re: Yenko take out motors
 

The only thing I have heard on this is that Motion kept the number of the CE block in the car's paperwork. If we assume that Yenko did the same, then an original paperwork file might contain that "serial" number.

Re: Yenko take out motors
 

Mike;
Didn't Timken's Motion Camaro have an MP### stamping on the block of his dark green car? I thought I remember seeing a pic of it in the MCR article.

Re: Yenko take out motors
 

On the removed L78. I know Don said in his interview that he had trouble selling them but I would think that they would sell easily if advertised in the correct place. There were many people doing low cost home built big block conversions. Bill Thomas and others sold kits to convert a 55-57 Chevy and early Corvette to big block. People were dropping BBs into GTOs, 442s, early Chevelles, Novas etc.. You would think that a new L78 short block with TRW 11:1 pistons, forged crank, 4 bolt mains, big solid lifter cam, etc., would sell if the price was less then a new short block. This is another Yenko mystery.
On stamped engines, Some engine builders, head porters, crank grinders, used to stamp the parts they did in secret places so they would recognize them if they were returned. A Motion Phase III motor that had a lot of work done to it by customer request may have some special ID stamps on them.
On a side note, I have a 1969 CE block that is stamped "JIM" next to the CExxxx stamp. I like to find "JIM" and slap him in the head. just kidding.

Re: Yenko take out motors
 

On the three Dick Harrell prepared motors we have restored, Two are CE and one is the original MO 427. No further numbers were added. The competition 427 Yenko engine has two stampings on the pad. The initials of the builder and the trade name of the machine shop that Yenko used for special machine work...BKH

Re: Yenko take out motors
 

The Yenko Nova engine which I have has no specific designation other than GM's CE stamping and its sequence number.

You would think there would be at least a couple of documents to verify which engine went into a particular car.

You should have at least a parts invoice charged out against a dealers internal work order, very standard procedure.

If I recall ,GM did warranty their over the counter short blocks and a dealer would want to keep track of them.

It would be great to see documents surface to help verify and document the engines.

I did run accross someone (?) who had an NOS L72 short block with MP and its own sequence number in addition to the standard GM stampings. I didn't know what the stamping meant?

Re: Yenko take out motors
 

OK folks, Heres another twist on this. If I were to have bought one of thses cars new in 68-69 I would think that since I paid for the car itself along with the extra $$ to have the car converted, I would think that the engine that was removed should have also went to the person who bought the car new. Kind of like when I get repainr work done on my wifes car. I want the old parts back. Keeps the H#n#a dealer here honest. I also get to see just what was replaced

Re: Yenko take out motors
 

In those days, the salvage value of the engine taken out was already factored into the price of the conversion.

Re: Yenko take out motors
 

The response from Joel when asked if Motion added any MP numbers or designations to the CE blocks was "not normally". That confirms what I have observed on the blocks in my Motion cars.
Also, my recollection of "back in the day" was that we didn't care what number was on the block, and, if a motor needed replacing under warranty, so much the better. Nobody gave much thought about the original block adding any value, especially 30+ years down the road.

Re: Yenko take out motors
 

BKH, Were all three 427 Harrell engines out of 1969 Novas?

Billy

Re: Yenko take out motors
 

No Novas at all. One Harrell 69'427 COPO Camaro. One Harrell 69'SS 427 Camaro and one untouched Harrell 427 68' SS Chevelle. All the pads are stamped with only what GM did...BKH