Yenko aluminum block

[Charley Lillard]

Bill Porterfield sent me some pics he took in 1988 when he was picking up the # 1 ZL1. The LC on the block is Lockport Casting. Apparently Don had them cast some of his blocks.

[Charley Lillard]

...

[Charley Lillard]

... This is a block that Bill ran in # 1 for awhile. he was told it was bought from Yenko in 1972.

[iluv69s]

What ever happened to the original block from ZL-1 no.1? Does anyone know? cool stuff Charley

[Charley Lillard]

My understanding is the orig. block was located and is back in the car.

[bergy]

This old thread was linked on another site recently & it really brought back memories. We made the cores for these blocks at the Chevrolet Tonawanda Foundry & sent the pattern equipment over to Lockport for aluminum casting. Then the blocks came back to Tonawanda for machining on a special CNC machine that was located up by the doors leading to the main offices. The machine was very advanced at that time & the tolerances were much closer then the regular production equipment. The whole operation had to be quarantined because the aluminum machining chips couldn't get into the regular production chips (aluminum causes pin holes to occur in cast iron). I realize that the ZL-1 option was very expensice, but these blocks cost Chevrolet a fortune to produce! Also, theft was a problem - another whole story! My recollection is that the CNC machine was still in place at least through 1978.

[Xplantdad]

Neat info Bruce!

[black69]

Here is a ZL-1 block that is similar to the one I have, and has similar attributes to what is described in this thread.

I will be watching it to see where it ends up. With that casting number, it can be considered for use as is in FAST/purestock drags, as an FYI.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1969-ZL-1-ALUMIN...=item256bded370

[Carleen]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: bergy</div><div class="ubbcode-body">This old thread was linked on another site recently &amp; it really brought back memories. We made the cores for these blocks at the Chevrolet Tonawanda Foundry &amp; sent the pattern equipment over to Lockport for aluminum casting. Then the blocks came back to Tonawanda for machining on a special CNC machine that was located up by the doors leading to the main offices. The machine was very advanced at that time &amp; the tolerances were much closer then the regular production equipment. The whole operation had to be quarantined because the aluminum machining chips couldn't get into the regular production chips (aluminum causes pin holes to occur in cast iron). I realize that the ZL-1 option was very expensice, but these blocks cost Chevrolet a fortune to produce! Also, theft was a problem - another whole story! My recollection is that the CNC machine was still in place at least through 1978. </div></div>

Bergy, did Yenko end up whith thise LC Blocks later or was it sold over the counter?

[bergy]

Niclas - I believe that that set of equipment came off of the Ramboudi around 1968. It's been a long time, so I could be mistaken. The &quot;LC&quot; part is just formed by a small set core &amp; could easily be changed to accommodate any casting facility. The &quot;no casting date&quot; part confuses my a little - makes me believe that these were early blocks.