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From another list I am on........
Fran Preve lived in the Niagra Falls area of
New York. He worked most of his life in the Tonawanda Chevy engine
plant, and was the most knowledgeable person in the world on the Chevy
348/409 engines and variants. Cancer took him in his sleep.
His mission in life was partly to let people know that the 348/409
wasn't a "truck" engine. He had been asking at the plant about the
rooms full of documentation from the 50's and 60's that seemed to be
forgotten, and was told it would be there forever. then one day he saw
a mound of paper overflowing several dumpsters behind the plant and
there was all that paper from that period. He went home, got his pickup
and carted it all to his house.
In going through the documents, he found the first piece of paper, dated
about 1954, referring to a "big block" engine to supplement the 265/283
that was already in the works for 1955. This very first not pegged the
big engine at something over 300 cubes (348 was not decided till
sometime later) and production at about 70/30 car engines to truck
engines. (almost all engines do double duty, or did in those days). So
right there was proof that the engine was a car engine that did truck
duty. The numbers never varied much from that original note.
That engine became the 348 that was introduced in 1958.
Fran probably won't get a write up in the big magazines, he wasn't rich,
he didn't run in influential circles. He was just a husband, father,
and a car guy with Chevy and oil in his veins that wanted the world to
know more about that short term engine that did so much for hot rodders
and racers, the "W" head, big block 348/409/427.
Fran Preve lived in the Niagra Falls area of
New York. He worked most of his life in the Tonawanda Chevy engine
plant, and was the most knowledgeable person in the world on the Chevy
348/409 engines and variants. Cancer took him in his sleep.
His mission in life was partly to let people know that the 348/409
wasn't a "truck" engine. He had been asking at the plant about the
rooms full of documentation from the 50's and 60's that seemed to be
forgotten, and was told it would be there forever. then one day he saw
a mound of paper overflowing several dumpsters behind the plant and
there was all that paper from that period. He went home, got his pickup
and carted it all to his house.
In going through the documents, he found the first piece of paper, dated
about 1954, referring to a "big block" engine to supplement the 265/283
that was already in the works for 1955. This very first not pegged the
big engine at something over 300 cubes (348 was not decided till
sometime later) and production at about 70/30 car engines to truck
engines. (almost all engines do double duty, or did in those days). So
right there was proof that the engine was a car engine that did truck
duty. The numbers never varied much from that original note.
That engine became the 348 that was introduced in 1958.
Fran probably won't get a write up in the big magazines, he wasn't rich,
he didn't run in influential circles. He was just a husband, father,
and a car guy with Chevy and oil in his veins that wanted the world to
know more about that short term engine that did so much for hot rodders
and racers, the "W" head, big block 348/409/427.
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