What year has the most Horse Power?

[Rick106]

Hi guys

I just wanted to understand which year of C3 has the most horse power as I understand it drops after 1974 from 350hp to 200hp.

Also, is there any way to upgrade/tune a post 1974 model to increase the horsepower?

Cheers,

Rich

[demonx]

That would be 1970 for the 350ci which went up to 350hp for the L46 and 370hp for the LT1.

1968 & 1969 427ci which achieved 435hp at its highest combo
1971 had a 454ci which achieved 425hp

The thing to mention is that not all 1971 454's are 425hp, it depends which suffix's etc that car has as there were many different combo's. For ex: 1971 had 5 different 350ci ranging from 270hp to 330hp and 4 different 454ci ranging from 365hp to425hp.

I suggest you jump on ebay and pick up a copy of the "Black Book". Doesnt matter if you buy an old copy as the info for the C3 has not changed. My black book is the 1993 edition but the info for the old cars is still the same and it has all the different engine codes to answer your questions. It's where I copied this data from myself!

[69 DIRTY RAT]

68-69 L88s unofficially had 600+hp!, 430hp factory then put on the headers and BANG!

[gtc]

Don't get too excited by those pre 1972 hp figures beloved of auto maker marketing departments.

Prior to the 1972 model year, American automakers rated and advertised their engines in brake horsepower (bhp), frequently referred to as SAE gross horsepower, because it was measured in accord with the protocols defined in SAE standards J245 and J1995. As with other brake horsepower test protocols, SAE gross hp was measured using a stock test engine, generally running with few belt-driven accessories and sometimes fitted with long tube (test headers) in lieu of the OEM exhaust manifolds. The atmospheric correction standards for barometric pressure, humidity and temperature for testing were relatively idealistic.

Source: Wiki

[Jethro]

"That would be 1970 for the 350ci which went up to 350hp for the L46 and 370hp for the LT1.

:banner::banner::banner::banner:Hey, hey, wait on a minute  me 350ci has 350 h.P. option???? in fact in 69 the standard 350ci motor came with two options a 300 H.p. or as in mine a 350 H.P.......:bannana::bannana::bannana::bannana::bannana:

[demonx]

When I wrote that I was more referring to the LT1 being 370hp which is the highest HP of the 350ci

[Scott]

Don't forget that some engines were under rated on purpose to keep them out of the average mans hands.  One year, the Fuel injected big block, which was a $2000+ option was listed as the highest horsepower. Another option which was over twice as dear was the full race engine that was listed as less power, as dirty rat stated. The smart racers cottened on to this :)

I'll have to dig out my corvette book. It was a good read.

[69 DIRTY RAT]

Scott only the small block had Fuel Inj, there was no Big Block Fuelies, are you thinking of the Aluminum Big Blocks @ around $4000 extra?

[mick]

The C3 with the most horsepower is the one that has had the most money spent on its rebuild/replacement.



there are a few really good engine guys that advertise in our club mag. I havent used any personally because im up in the sticks but im sure plenty of club members could give good recommendations for you. The performance possibilities of your car really just depend on how deep your pockets are.

Anyone here with a seriously fast C3 (that holds its own with modern fast cars) would have very little original parts, such as the block (mabye).

So without wanting to offend anyone as I also love reading up on the engine specs in my corvette books as much as the next corvette addicted guy, but 40 year old specs really are not that relevant if you have the cash to do it right you wont reuse a 40 year old carby/intake manifold etc etc. You will use more modern internal engine parts eg: forged pistons, roller rockers a better cam etc etc.

in short "Get an engine builder you trust"

my 2 cents....