[nmoreilly]

Awesome 😎 ❗️❗️

[SunnyS]

Having owned a low milage car back in 1972 I remember a lot of details about my car the one that Rob L owns now. You just ask and I will tell you . Over the 12 years of owning that car I had detailed every inch of it and found things that would amaze all Ram Air II owners. Being a parts manager back then also played a very important role in documenting some of the unique parts for these cars.

[muscle_collector]

please tell us about it. i owned 4 ram air 2 cars for over 30 years but never dug into see what was different other than the obvious heads, cam pushrods, exhaust rear end etc..

[SunnyS]

Interesting issue I did notice was the routing of the Postive battery cable for this late production 1968 GTO. . From what the parts book showed to my car it was a different routing assume because of the exhaust manifold shape. Normal cable routing was between the 6 and 8 cylinder on non Ram air cars.

[Greg Reid]

All cars with the RA manifolds required that alternate routing at the front of the head instead of between the 5 and 7 cylinders.

[SunnyS]

Yes I thought It had to be the RA manifold issue for that routing. My mistake on 6 and 8 cylinder wording 5 and 7 was what I meant to say.Having the parts book in front of me everyday I did add a lot of options to that car.I am sure Rob L. wonders about that but they were all factory NOS pieces .

[Cammer-6]

Sunny,what color was your Deuce ?Guessing Verdoro

[SunnyS]

My car that I bought in Sept of 72 was April Gold .This is the car that Rob L owns now in Chicago.

[Cammer-6]

I guess it was the Deuce attraction vs the shade of green for that one.

[SunnyS]

Yes I new when I bought that car that that Ram Air engine was something special at that time of ownership there was no knowledge that I had a one of 4 Ram Air two cars built from the factory but new it was something special . pretty good for a 17 year old kid. That $1250.00 was well spent back then on a 4 year old car. I never lost a race in that car. Every year I owned I had to put a new set of G70X14 tires on it. That car would do a very impressive burnout. By the time the back tires were to the same spot the front ones were the speedometer was sitting on 80 at the top of second gear. Loved that car but the Hellcat Redeye I have know is just as fun but the top doesn't go down. LoL

[Baron Von Zeppelin]

When you sold it in 1984 - I imagine you got what would have been considered about top dollar for the car .
How much was that ?
Guessing it was maybe around $10,000 ?

Do you know what year John sold it to Rob ?

Way back in this thread a caretaker for Rob's cars posted some modern day pics of it.
Do you have any pictures of it from your glory days ?

[SunnyS]

Yes If I remember the car was sold for 13k but there was a bunch of NOS parts that he bought from me so the actual number might have been higher. 40 years ago does throw a little cobweb into the brain.I do have some pics but after moving 5 times since then not sure ware they are . Here is my wall hanger and if you look the car behind the GTO is a brand new 1973 Audi Fox.Not sure how to attach this pic

[johnta1]

That's one great looking car!

[SunnyS]

Thanks for the enlarged picture. John took the car to someone and had it repainted and the drivetrain gone thru. I n my quest for more power it had 70 Ram Air 4 heads and intake on it plus the trans was not original. He found date code correct parts and I think the paint on it now is from the repaint. I would have not repainted that car but John wanted perfection.I remember that John had limited it in Hemming around 1997 or 1998. I had called on it but passed because of the repaint. He was asking 45k at that time and I am guessing that is when Rob L bought it from him. I do have another piece of history in my Garage but on a Pontiac site it might be a red flag. A 1 of 77 built 1969 Biscayne 427/425HP 4-sp frame off restored. Here is a pic

[muscle_collector]

Originally Posted by SunnyS

Thanks for the enlarged picture. John took the car to someone and had it repainted and the drivetrain gone thru. I n my quest for more power it had 70 Ram Air 4 heads and intake on it plus the trans was not original. He found date code correct parts and I think the paint on it now is from the repaint. I would have not repainted that car but John wanted perfection.I remember that John had limited it in Hemming around 1997 or 1998. I had called on it but passed because of the repaint. He was asking 45k at that time and I am guessing that is when Rob L bought it from him. I do have another piece of history in my Garage but on a Pontiac site it might be a red flag. A 1 of 77 built 1969 Biscayne 427/425HP 4-sp frame off restored. Here is a pic

i love that biscayne!!!!

[Greg Reid]

Yeah, I've always had a soft spot for that era of Chevy B body. I had a very clean '70 Impala 2 door hardtop with the fastback c pillar that I would love to still have.

[RA1John]

Since we know that RAII engine blocks and cylinder heads were cast in limited batches during the '68 model year, does it make sense that the intake manifold may have a cast date as far out as a month or more?

I spoke with a friend who worked at the PMD engine plant back in the 60s and he stated that all engines were built according to vehicle build orders. Engines weren't built up ahead of time and set aside until they were ordered (other than for replacement).

He did say that the SD engines were routed to a separate line for final assembly (usually a weekend OT opportunity for some).

Is it possible that a "D" cast engine would have an intake manifold cast in May or June according to vehicle build order?

Also, during production, if there was an engine problem at the vehicle plant, is it logical to assume that PMD engine would provide the vehicle plant with another broadcast code correct engine according to that specific application? Not like the assembly plant installed "SR" engines. Likewise, would it have been possible during the '68 MY that a customer could order an engine with a broadcast code and not get an "SR" engine?

Thoughts?

[Mcronk]

Good questions. Here is my thoughts based on the limited knowledge I have. First question about intake manifolds and block date codes. Of course the intake was the same used on most 4bbl applications in 68 and 69. So they were casting quite a few all the time. The early RAII blocks had the full 9792506 cast number on the block. Later block were "wiped and stamped" with the 2506. So my thinking is since the RAII was late in the production run, and no one knew how many orders they would get, after the early batch of blocks were used up they pulled the 9790071 blocks (2 bolt main but drilled for 4), machined them and installed 4 bolt caps, then wiped the 0071 and stamped 2506. I think it is quite possible that the intake would be closer to the build date of the car since they were using the intake inventory rapidly. As for your questions about replacement blocks not in the typical service replacement process I don't know. Could a person go to a dealer and order a block over the counter? If so would this block have a EUN (quality control/inventory purposes) a block code (per customer order) but no VIN stamp (since it was not installed on the assembly line and not a warranty replacement)? FYI my 67 400 HO has the original engine (EUN matches build card) the date codes for the block, heads, and intake are all the same month. The 67 was built in November of 66.

[J GLASGO]

The 68 RA1 also used the 2506 block

[johnta1]

Is it possible that a "D" cast engine would have an intake manifold cast in May or June according to vehicle build order?

Would the block have been built into a complete engine right after it was cast? (engines sitting around waiting for installation or just blocks)