Is this a copo camaro motor?

[resto4u]

This engine is for sale on ebay. Claims to be a copo camaro engine. My books do not list this as a camaro copo engine, but listed as special high performance. Ebay copo engine Thanks,Roger

[KNAPPY]

69 Passenger car (Impala?) 425 horse manual, spec. high perf.

[Z28DZ]

The motor has the same "good" stuff, but the LD suffix indicates it was intended for installation in a 1969 passenger car.

[Unreal]

Would it be any more or less correct on a COPO than a 425 HP CE coded motor?

[Supercar_Kid]

[ QUOTE ]
Would it be any more or less correct on a COPO than a 425 HP CE coded motor?

[/ QUOTE ]Personally I'd consider it to be "less correct" if there is such a thing. Technically, a CE block could have been installed at a dealer under warranty, so a CE would make sense being in say a '69 COPO Camaro or Chevelle, however, under no circumstances would it make sense for a passenger car (Impala, Biscayne, Caprice, etc.) coded 427 block to be installed in a Camaro or Chevelle, unless it was pirated from the said passenger car and installed by a shade tree mechanic. But then again, there's only one engine a given car can have to be "THE original engine" and that's the very one it left the factory with. Anything else is just a NOM. A CE block that was dealer installed with the paperwork to back it up would be be the best NOM to have IMO.

[Jeff H]

I would say the CE engine would be more correct. But I know from talking to people who worked at Chevrolet dealerships that they would pull an engine out of a car and swap it into a different car so it could have happened. Makes you wonder how many full size 427 cars actually left the dealership with a lesser 396 wearing all the 427 emblems and stickers.

[Unreal]

Erik, Jeff,
I guess what I'm asking is, if a guy has a COPO with a missing engine, and he has access to a CE block and an LD block, would installing the CE block make the car more valuable than installing the LD block?

More personally, would the installation of a CE block in my Yenko Tribute Car make it more valuable than if I installed any 4 bolt 512 block?

[Supercar_Kid]

More valuable, less valuable...these are matters of opinion, as a car is only truly worth whatever you can get someone to give you for it at any given time. To me, if a car is missing it's original engine, then any other engine you put in it is going to be a replacement engine (i.e. the wrong engine) so it doesn't make a ton of difference to me. While a properly coded, date correct engine, like say an engine out of another car identical to the one with the missing engine, built at or around the very same time, is somewhat better. How much better, that's hard to say, but if it were my COPO Camaro missing it's original engine I'd rather have another Camaro MN 427 to replace it with, if not that then a "generic" CE coded replacement. Again, that's just a matter of personal preference as both engines are equally NOMs, I just seem to value an engine a little more if it was installed in an equally rare, performance oriented vehicle when it was new. It has a bit of history of it's own I guess you could say. But as far as a clone car goes, I wouldn't spend big $$$ looking for properly coded and dated parts, so long as visually they appear correct. Here a CE block or one from a passenger car seem equally appropriate to me, since neither should be passed off as the original engine in a clone, and both would be equally as easy to dress up like the MN that it isn't. I wouldn't worry about stampings or codes on a clone, I'd make sure it was a solid lifter 69 era 427 and go from there. Find a 163 intake, of any date code, a correct appearing carb, alternator etc. Would I pay $800-900 for an 837 alternator? No way, but if that means a lot to you on your clone that's your decision to make. I think it's most important that a clone has the same effect on someone as a real supercar would have on the original onwer when it was new. When most people bought a COPO or Yenko back in '69, they didn't know if their block said 512, or MN, or CE or whatever, all they knew was that it was a solid lifter 427 that would RUN! That's the same effect I'd go after in a clone car, using all correct appearing '69 vintage parts where necessary, and the rest as far as codes and what not I wouldn't worry too much. If you could photograph the car and not be able to tell it wasn't taken in '69...then that's a good clone. If you open the hood and see HEI, a 454 balancer, and a bunch of other "modern" goodies then it isn't much of a clone IMO, it's a street machine. But everyone should build what they're after, and to please themselves, not to worry about how valuable it will be now or ten years down the road. Clones are great for creating an automotive experience that otherwise can't happen for some people, without real supercars, or the $$$ to seek one out, myself included, I just think that if you're gonna go to the trouble of building a "clone" of something, it should at least be an exact visual duplicate of the real thing, sans the important numbers that help to determine that it is or isn't the real deal. Again, this is all just my opinion on things, and everyone is entitled to their own. Build what makes you happy, but putting Yenko stripes on an otherwise run of the mill big block Camaro doesn't make it a "clone" or tribute or whatever in my eyes. I've seen this done all too many times, these are the cars you'll see on ebay that were SS396 trimmed last week.

[lzdick]

Wheew ! ! ! Could you repeat that? I'm not sure I got it all the first time. I dozed off three times while reading all of that!

[Salvatore]

Supercar...You said it all!