Yenko take out motors

[69rsss350]

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.

[L78Impala]

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

[Stefano]

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.

[JChlupsa]

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.

[bkhpah]

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

[Chevy454]

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!

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

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.

[69rsss350]

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

[COPO]

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.

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

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.