Two comments. 1) I think the Hemi needed deeper gears and 2) I wonder if that's one of those externally balanced 396's?

You mean like the Jenkins 396 in Super Stock that was really 488?

396 and 427 are bad ass engines back in the day.and im a mopar guy

Slantzilla, you have my attention, I never read about a Jenkins 488.

I too would like to hear more about the 488

The 375 HP 396 ran pretty good, the L88 427 motors ran better.
Neither were as good as my 1963 415 HP M.W. motor in my Belvedere sedan with 4:56 gears stock Whup up on them rascal saying it(my car) had a noisy solid lifter 318 dual 4 barrel motor in it that was really fast

Why all the smoke in the shutdown area on all the runs ? Both cars ?

If I were a famous world class engine builder and racer, that's exactly what I would do: throw everything over the cliff.
A 488 would be protested the first time it starts up.

In FAST, they could be big-inch motors, but Pure Stock is supposedly enforced.
L89 is a 427, L78 is the 396/375HP deal. Both run pretty darn hard.
Seems to me the Cuda should've had 4.56s, though I was under the impression that the max factory ratio was mandated.
IIRC, to get 4.88s in a Chevelle, that was a dealer-installed ratio - I could be wrong, though.
I seem to recall that the 1st-gen Z28 could be factory-fitted with 4.88s.
I'm thinking the smoke @ shutdown is due to "loose" engines and the high vacuum is pulling oil on decelleration.

Pretty even match up looks like right lane was about 6-8 hundreds quicker

Most haven't read about Mr 5 and 50 either.....

A 396/375 was no match for a well tuned and set up hemi or 6 pack car.

That was in one of the magazines years ago. They had built a legal 68 Camaro SS396 and Jenkins swabbed the deck with them. They protested and he had a 480+ ci motor. The good old days......

I have read many stories of Ma Mopar and ringer cars too.

L89 is an aluminum headed 396, same as an L78 but heads are aluminum.

The 396 running hard is no surprise, the L78 396 is just a smaller version of the 425 HP L72 427 and the 450 HP LS6 454, all 3 engines have the same heads/cam/intake/carb. The heads flow 290 cfm+, and the stock cam is 242 @ .050. I wasn’t there but some stock L78s were duds from the factory, for exactly the reasons you’d think - big heads, fairly aggressive cam for stock, etc. They came with smog pumps too. Some ran hard. But the potential was there regardless.

L89 is the RPO code for the aluminum heads on a performance big block and not indicative of cubic inches. L89 option was available on both the L78 396 in Chevelle/Camaro/Nova, as well as the L71/L72 427 in Corvette.

Back when we were street racing, there weren't many BB Shivvies that were real competitive. And the ones that were, they couldn't keep together. Seems like they especially had problems with the valve train/rockers.

An A:B comparison is as useful as asking only 2 people who should be President.

I never knew that, sorry Topside I guess you were also right! But I’m sure the Chevelle in question is *claiming* to be an L89/L78 haha.

Same as the old days in Na$crap. The way it was supposed to happen, a tech inspector would tell you which spark plug to pull, at least for most teams it was that way. Some teams already had a plug pulled to check volume... and surprise, the engine was in spec/tolerance. That was the only cylinder that was in spec!


Most of the time the 396 chevies need deep gearing to run well.