Any way to tell what the original engine in a 60 was?

[Greg L.]

I'll be going to look a 1960 "dual quad" car with high rpm tach on the weekend and was wondering if there is any way to tell what the original engine could have been for this car.

I seem to remember that some fuelie cars may have something different about the firewall so I was wondering if there are any other little tell tale signs on these cars that could help me determine what the original engine was or could have been.

Are there any date codes on or inside these tachs?

[Mark P.]

Re: Any way to tell what the original engine in a 60 was?

I asked this exact question. See this link.

https://www.forums.ncrs.org/showthread.php?p=350978&uid=1060

If you have the original block that would tell you with the suffic codes.

Since I didn;t have the original block the info in the link helped me rule out it was no fuelie.


The codes on your differential may give you a clue:

I don't have my judging manual but I remember there being info on this. This may also help.

http://www.348-409.com/differential.html

[Greg L.]

Re: Any way to tell what the original engine in a 60 was?

Thanks Mark, that helps. So is there no way to tell a fuelie from the rest of them from some little quirk on the firewall? I thought there was but maybe I'm wrong. I also seem to remember the washer reservoir is in a different location with fuel injection as well....

Anyways I was really more concerned about trying to figure out if it was a 270hp car because I doubt it was a fuelie and does have the high rpm tach so that pretty much nails it down to that one engine. If there was some way to "match" the tach to the car say with a date code on the tach that would help. My 69 has a inked date code on the back of it's tach face so I wonder if the 60s had something similar.

The link with diff codes doesn't work though because I don't think it has any corvette codes.

[Mark L.]

Re: Any way to tell what the original engine in a 60 was?

Greg,

The fuel injected cars have the tach cable driven by the distributor, the hole in the firewall is in a different location/configuration. Maybe that is what you recall.

[William C.]

Re: Any way to tell what the original engine in a 60 was?

Fuelie has the washer bottle moved and a shield over the bottle, as well as a plate for mounting the air cleaner and a hole in the center of the dash for the tach cable to come in from the distributor if it's a 290 hp version. The 250 hp fuelie used the same generator drive tach system as the non-fi cars if my memory serves me correctly.

[James G.]

Re: Any way to tell what the original engine in a 60 was?

Didn't we answer this the past few days?

[James G.]

Re: Any way to tell what the original engine in a 60 was?

Fuel Injecton driver fender has a threaded plate for the air cleaner. Note the "original" mounting bolt in the right hole.

If you look under the fender in the wheel well area, you should see the plate "molded" into the fiberglass. The plates were not just attached by glue, they were molded in the glass when the inner fender was attached.

[Greg L.]

Re: Any way to tell what the original engine in a 60 was?

Thanks guys that helps too. I didn't realize that there was a tach drive distributor back then....interesting.

Yes James part of my question was answered a few days ago but I thought there was something unique to the firewall too but wasn't quite sure what it was until now. The plate you show in your pic is a good indicator but if a car has had the front clip replaced then that indicator will be missing so that is why I was looking for other indicators such as those on the firewall.

Now....does the info I've learned in this thread also apply to the 59?

The seller just sent me the VIN and informed me that the car is actually a very early 59(Sept 5th 58) to be exact. It's her dad's car and she is selling or for him so I can see how she made the mistake....