The words “Chevy” and ultra-rare usually don’t run very close together. After all, the bowtie brand produced millions and millions of cars during even their slow years back in the day. That being said, there are some pieces that transcend that volume and stand as testaments to the era when the major companies were blinded by racing, horsepower, and trying to curry the favor of energetic buyers by dominating on the streets and race tracks of the world. Blocks like this ZL-1 piece were part of that plan and they found themselves installed in all types of race cars from the blazing Can-Am road racing machines that international super stars drove, to drag racing warriors that upheld Chevrolet’s honor in a grass roots fashion with greasy hot rodders and muscle car fans.
This particular block was destined for use in a Don Yenko built super car back in 1969 but for whatever reason it was never used. Amazingly, nothing was ever done with it and the piece looks the same way it did after final machine work at the Tonawanda, New York engine plant that produced it. You can see in the first photo that the Yenko name is partially ground off. According to the seller that happened as a result of the block being “faced” during its manufacture.
The block has four bolt mains, the freeze plugs are still looking brandy new, and somehow even the bores appear not to have a spec of rust on them. This one has the bore to be a 427, but we know the Can-Am guys ran them at 494ci levels, so there is room for growth. Would you believe that there is a nostalgia front engine dragster with a legit ZL-1 block in it. It’s true. We’ve snorted nitro fumes from the pipes of that bad boy before.
The seller is looking for $26,000 to purchase this block. Insane? Sure to regular dudes like us, that is incredible money for a block. That being said, there’s probably a Richie-rich dude out there looking to build a dead nuts clone ZL-1 Camaro or Corvette and this is one of the only known blocks to start with an get it all “right”.
SCROLL DOWN TO SEE MORE PHOTOS AND THE EBAY LINK!
nice find
but 26k…… WOWzer
but that was probably a bad boy and then some back in the day
Kinda cool but only a fool would pay that much….no matter how rare.
So, what was the over-the-counter price of that back in 1970? In inflation adjusted dollars, how close is that to the current $26k?
You have your info Wrong.
Chevrolet was no longer going to make ZL1 Blocks. Don Yenko in 1971 Struck a Deal with GM to have Winters Foundry make the Blocks Exclusively for him. That when on threw the 1970’s. He Sold the Blocks to Race Teams threw his Parts Business separate from his parents dealership.
The Initial COPO 9660 ZL1 carswere built only for Fred Gibb. Who couldn’t sell $8,000 Camaro’s when a Iron Block Camaro was $3,995 to $5,000 depending on what you had them do to it.
Now if you find a Yenko with out the orginal engine, putting in a Yenko Block ZL1 would raise the Value.
BTW: do some serious searching on the net and everything I say here is verifiable.
The poster is wrong. This block has iron sleeves. The Can Am 494s had no sleeves. They were cast from Reynolds 390 hypereutectic aluminum, the exact same material as the Vega.
I was reading the car mags back then and I don’t remember seeing any problems with the bores, proving the concept should have worked in the Vega.
The aluminum Vega blocks didn’t work because they were overly sensitive to overheating/warping when coolant got low and cylinder bore corrosion of the thin lining when coolant leaked in. Chevy added a ‘low coolant’ light to vehicles to prevent this… Pontiac went to the Iron Duke engine also to avoid that problem.