The Hugger goes ZL-1....

[cook_dw]

No car yet.  Customer just wanted the engine finished then he would look for a car..  I had to make the setup very basic and broad so it would work in a heavy or light car with light tuning..

[hgger69]

Finally, the rare pistons have arrived in Sweden and my home! These are some of the most essential bits in my large ZL-1 puzzle!

As I understand it these were factory original installed pistons, #3947886, especially made for the 427 L88 and ZL-1 engines. Rated at 12.5 to 1 with the floating pin design.


We found them on eBay and got them for a very reasonable price also. According to the seller these are the original pistons from a 1969 Corvette with the L88 engine and the car were just driven from the dealer and back home, a trip of about 30 miles.
The original owner removed the engine and replaced the pistons with "Blue printed " stock eliminator pistons while he had the engine built for competition use in the NHRA Stock eliminator class.
They have been in storage in a box in a clean dry garage for all these years.

Of course all this could be crap and an eager sellers best fake argument but so far nothing points to that these "facts" are wrong. The pistons shows the typical signs of ageing and storing for a long time and they all seam to be in a great condition!




The hand made markings from the seller are probably the weight of each piston in pound. All the moving parts in the engine will later be fully balanced and weight adjusted. ....that's another piece in the ZL-1 puzzle.

[BULLITT65]

congrats , on getting another major piece...

[hgger69]

Thanx Bullit,
Another advantage with these original pistons is that we can rebore the block and buy new pistons without changing the cylinder liners! And they don't make this original dimension of the pistons anymore, just 0.030 and the block can't handle anymore then 0.040 bore so.....

[z28z11]

Yessir - skirts look brand new. They haven't been up and down in the bore for any great length of time, for sure. Nice find - and boy, what a dome. No wonder the ZL-1's/L-88's had such a punch.

Regards,
Steve

[cook_dw]

The LS7 pistons look very similar..

[ko-lek-tor]

just remember on that dome configuration that quench area has to be right for a flame pattern that reaches the other side of the dome and lessens risk of detonation

[hgger69]

Yessir - skirts look brand new. They haven't been up and down in the bore for any great length of time, for sure. Nice find - and boy, what a dome. No wonder the ZL-1's/L-88's had such a punch.

Regards,
Steve

Thanx, Steve!
I´m glad to hear that and that's another remark that could confirm the sellers history! 
Yupp, the dome is majestic 

[hgger69]

just remember on that dome configuration that quench area has to be right for a flame pattern that reaches the other side of the dome and lessens risk of detonation

Nice info on that, ko-lek-tor! 

[hgger69]

Well, I just got some new parts in to Sweden shipped from California.

First a real heavy duty harmonic crank balancer,  a 8" x 2 11/16" high performance HO balancer. A direct replacement for an original one, as I understand it.



Then a new 168 teeth flexplate from Scat. Stamped from a extra thick 5/32" colt rolled steel plate for extra strength. Features double welded ring gears. SFI 29.1 approved balanced and checked for runout.



Both these parts were taken direct to our motor guy that will keep until we have the rest of the parts for the internal and external balancing.

The crank has passed the very same motor guys sharp eyes and ears and has no cracks or other faults. However it will need some polishing and largest oversize bearings before assembly.

I´ll get back to you later when the other parts from US has arrived to Sweden! 

[hgger69]

The blue freeze plugs are the older ones, new are black. Make sure your engine builder checks the line bore, they had an issue in the past.

I checked my engine block this weekend and I do have the black freeze plugs! 
I hadn't unpacked my block when I wrote the first time so I just took the pics from the net....

[hgger69]

Finally a box of candy showed up after a looong journey overseas.....


This is the solution for our problem with running this engine on the quality of petrol that we have here in Sweden/Europe, its 95-98 RON.
We think that the original pistons with 12,5 in ration would cause problem while running on the lower octane. After sweeping the interweb we discovered that ICON had a set of new of forged pistons for original bore to the 427, but with a more suitable ratio of 10,8. We found a good price on them at eBay and now they are here!  

Great lookin pistons I reckon:


...and here´s the spec:

Bore: 4.25   
Stroke: 3.76   
Compression Height: 1.765   
Compression Ratio: 119CC-10.8   
Weight piston/pin: 703/141

...getting closer and closer to the final. 

[cook_dw]

Not sure who is doing your engine build but make sure to knock off the hard edges on the piston tops..  Reduces the potential of hot spots.  Also might want to consider coating the tops of the pistons along with the skirts.  Just my $0.02 from previous engine builds.

Pistons look nice as well as all the other parts you've added in the past few months.


Piston from the blue car L78 replacement pistons.  I was wanting to get the car finished and worked with the parts I already had..  Im already working out in my head the next engine build for the car..     Either a tunnel ram'd big cube baby big block or a LS with a Holley tunnel ram with rail injectors and dry throttle bodies on top to the intake..     If I were only rich...

[BULLITT65]

Hey you are rich in knowledge Darrell. What are you coating the tops of the pistons and skirts with, and why is it beneficial?

[hgger69]

Interesting info there, Darrel!
Do you mean the sharp edges of the domes or ...? And how much do you need to knock of?