Memories of my friends 1970 LS-6 Red convertible
 

A high school friend had a red/black LS-6 4speed conv. he bought in 1971 in Rhode Island AM radio 8 track PBrakes, we used to race it around the streets in the Boston area it had a Jake Kaplan Rhode Island dealer emblem on the trunk lid. Early in 1973 he offered it to me for $2,500 it needed tires and the conv top was cut from an attempted theft, What did I want with a car like that when I just bought a new 1973 Corvette !!!!! Shortly thereafter it was stolen and found burnt.

Cool beans. How did she perform on the street?

The front bucket seat backs were bent back from the hard acceleration

Note we were 21 & 22 years old while he had this car.

Nice!... :burnout:

It used to break valve springs a lot,One time it bent a valve and had to have the right side cylinder head replaced under warranty

Ralph. We need old pics!

I think that's pretty common on hi-po big blocks that are run hard. I remember back in the day my friend Rick's 70 Nova L78 had problems with them.

Any Rhode Island people out there that know of Jake Kaplan dealer and how they would have sold a car like that when it was one year old. My friend bought it from their used car lot

The original valve keepers were very suspect back then, many dropped valves in the HiPo BBs

BB Chevelle...
 

The valve train was definitely the weak link in the hi-perf big blocks...replacing springs, keepers, retainers, seals and ideally new aftermarket one piece valves is good insurance.

Dropped valves, broken springs and keepers were responsible for a lot of CE motors.

-wilma

This is what the original owner to my L78 conv wrote me


"Yes, I dropped a valve twice, and the street racers/wrenches, said to put after market,
better valve springs in, Chevrolet wouldn't do it under warranty. So the third time a valve spring broke, I ran it at high RPM, till it quit, put the valve in the piston. A mechanic that worked on it the third time, told me Baston took it upon themselves, to upgrade the valve springs. Not sure if that was the truth, but never broke a valve spring after that".

Those factory springs are like wet noodles, float the valves causing the rest of the damage.


To quote ssl78.. I cant imagine intentionally blowing up an engine on a new car just to get new springs. Why not purchase and install them himself?

----Both times I broke valve springs on my 1966 427/425 Corvette it was on start up. Guess I just lucked out as the inner held the valve up at idle. After the second I had the main Corvette tech at Bob McDormans replace all the springs. He was racing the same combo and put good springs in.......Bill S

Because purchasing and installing them himself was $$$ out of his pocket, and if the dealer somehow found out about it later, bye-bye warranty. Blow up the engine and all the expense is covered by GM.