Reulandjr

I have a 79 L-82 with 38k miles. It was completely stock until I had the cat removed and ran true duels. I'm having the car tuned up by Atlanta corvette and having them setting the timing following Lars' white paper.

I'm a newby, but have been reading the forum a lot and would like to get up to 300 HP out of the L-82 if I can ( my CLK500 has 300 HP and makes the vette seem like a bit of a dog...) I'd like to keep the mods to a minimum but it seems like new heads are the biggest bang for the buck...the questions I have are, what's the best setup? Do I have to replace the cam too or is the stk cam acceptable? Do I have to get a new intake manifold as well? Can i get away without headers and just keep the duel exhaust? Is there one kit that has all the parts already matched for eachother that I can buy and install? I appreciate any guidance I can get.

7t9l82

1. the L-82 is a good engine with lots of potential.
2. there is probably 3 days of reading if you use the search function.
3. do your research and come back and ask for what you don't find
4. probably everything has been discussed already.

scottyp99

Hi, Jack!

Scott

gcusmano74

An L82 in good shape with true dual exhaust, and a bluprinted carb and distributor will probably be making close to 300 HP. Make the most of what you already have, before dropping lots of money.
Then get a good 4 wheel alignment.
I think you will be happy with that....

DucatiDon

Look at my L82 upgrade thread

resdoggie

I'd like to know how much play is in the side yokes seeing its a 7K mile car.

Jebbysan

Think of the L-82 as a Targetmaster engine...with a little better cam...
Take the heads off and bowl bend and pocket port them.....
Stick a XE274H cam and performer EPS intake....have your Q-Jet set up...round this off with a 2.5 dual system and it will bring a smile to your face.....

Jebby

7t9l82

never saw a target master motor with forged crank ,rods, and pistons. or 9.0 compression.

Jebbysan

Forged crank, rods, and pistons do nothing for power.....
All SBC rods until the ZZ4 and others are forged.....the crank and pistons By 78' even the L82 paid victim to low-po wars.....whether these had a forged crank and pistons is debatable....early L-82's maybe...(73-74)

You are correct on the compression....only using this as a reference....
There are a hundred write ups on power building for those motors....

Jebby

7t9l82

1. a forged bottom end provides greater durability .

2. i can assure you my 79 L-82 has forged components

3. the target master has below 8-1 compression in most cases and makes a lousy short block to base a performance build on.

Jebbysan

It is a 4 bolt block....
Forged anything does nothing for power....durability or not....
The compression is very low.....these respond well to 64cc heads....
It needs none of the forged pieces....it does not spin that high.

New Targetmasters have cracked powdered metal rods.....and the cast pistons and crank are much more durable than one would think....

I personally built a 440 horsepower motor using the Targetmaster shortblock.....that was 14 years ago....and it still runs great.....

I would not spray 175 shot of nitrous or rev 6500 all day but who does that?

Like I said...just a reference....

Jebby

LS4 PILOT

Good advice.!.....fix all the suspension issues , bring it up to top shape , corvette is a lot of fun if the suspension is tight.

Torqued Off

All this talk of maintaining originality, I know it has its place, but it seems that rubber bumper C3's are destined to never be worth much.....no matter what.....according to many on this forum. (I personally disagree, but who am I to question?). But ultimately, if anyone really thinks a car is an investment, you must have way better luck that I ever have. I don't do it for that reason, so I make the car the way I want it, with NO regard to a feeble attempt at making it some marginal amount of dollars more. For this OP, holding on to weak cylinder heads to gain some investment advantage defeats the purpose for me.....just my humble opinion. No offense meant.

Torqued Off

Where do you get this Targetmaster name, I see no reference to an engine named Targetmaster. I don't believe they are available. Now, if you are talking about Chevy Performance engines, they are available. Just trying to get the nomenclature straight. But, maybe I am wrong.

63mako

The forged crank, forged flat top piston 4 bolt main L82 is a great base to build a performance engine on. The cast crank, cast dish piston 2 bolt main base crate engine is a lousy base to build a performance engine on. That said I have seen them handle 400- 425 hp and occasional bursts to 6000 RPM, for how long or how much is anyone's guess. The L82 short block will handle 500 hp, 6500-7000 rpm and a nitrous shot. Remember that back in the day if the engine approached 1 FWHP per CI it had forged internals. This cost more so there was a reason GM engineering did it. Personally that would be where I would draw the line as well. Valve float and RPM are what kill most engines so cam specs, valvetrain quality and a rev limiter to limit your peak RPM to what the components will handle helps longevity.

cv67

Targetmaster was a popular crate motor replacement through gm awhile back

On "what if it becomes worth something", I agree. Why worry about something that hasnt happened yet shoot they are only what 30 yrs old already so

7t9l82

personaly , i hope and pray mine does not become valuable. there is no future need to sell to finance different things in life. a future wife could not sell it to remodel the kitchen , and a thousand other reasons. i came by this car in an unfortunate way and it will stay with me for a good long time. one day maybe i will tell the story.

gcusmano74

Please, please, please don't think of these cars as investments, like stocks or bonds or real estate. They are grin-mobiles, toys for us to play with. These are hobby cars. They amuse us.
If I make money when I (heaven forbid!) sell it, fine. If I lose money, also fine. I was giggling most of the time I was driving it. That's worth something.

pacecar620

Agreed - for the most part anyway. No, the Pace Cars haven't appreciated much if any, maybe never will, but I didn't buy mine as a split-window alternative. On the other hand, it hasn't really DE-preciated either. For show value, they do draw attention, and the chicks dig it. Worth every penny! No, mine is not NCRS caliber, it's a 12,000 mile survivor with '69 side exhaust (factory parts and NO cats!). So, even tho it hasn't appreciated in value, it still has some collector value that would simply vanish if you start making irreversible changes. And there's plenty of room for improvement under the hood by simply modding some of the shoddy made factory pieces. Yes?

pacecar620

There's a ton of performance hidden in that L82 using just the stock parts. Remember, that motor was engineered in the mid 70's to meet future emissions standards and performance was the furthest thing from their minds. The cam is a carryover from the 350/350 but the compression was dropped, so there's plenty of potential. A "cleanup" of the exhaust system, carb re-jet and recurve of the distributor is about all that's needed to wake up that L82. The L82 also came with larger exhaust manifolds than the L48, so headers is not really a huge addition unless huge RPM's are in the plan.