Mid-Life Crisis '68 Camaro

[markinnaples]

Thanks RSSSFan, appreciate it. I thought it possibly was an original Z when I got it, but after some research, I found out it was originally a plain 327/4spd Camaro. I'm OK with that. The 302 in it is a original DZ out of a '69 Z (3970010 casting, so I guess it's a late '69 Z?) but the block has been decked. I tried using the acid etching to see if I could raise the DZ stamp but they must have decked it too deep and wiped out the stamping. Bummer.

I have started taking it apart to see what happened to it as I initially thought it was a head gasket, but turned out not to be that. I'm hoping it was just a collapsed lifter and that the cam isn't wiped out, but I have several other projects to get finished before I can dedicate myself to finish taking it apart and seeing what's up. I really hope that it's not going to take a full rebuild but I guess that might be the best option. If it does need a full rebuild, I may take out the DZ block and replace it with a 383 and see if I can get the other numbers off it and sell it to someone who needs one for their OG '69 Z/28.