The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop '53 Corvette engine

Those Corvette engines almost appeared to be made from a bunch of spare left over parts. They have had three different air cleaner scenarios from three little skinny ones to three flat round ones, to a couple of bigger flat round ones (with a sheetmetal "manifold") spanning all three carbs. Have never seen a side by side set of pictures to see if perhaps the three distinctive setups were per model year. Same thing with the painted and chrome valve covers, both two bolt and four screw type. I seem to recall in the parts books the 'vette valve covers did have diff numbers from the pass and trucks and I assumed because of the decals and finish only. Never heard of the hood clearance problem needing a "lower" cover, but it sure is possible. (did you know that a '56,'57 hood will fit a '53-'55 vette? who would know by looking at the two bodies? The 'vette triple setup usually requires sawing off the choke linkage on the rear carb when installing it on a lot of say '49 thru'54 pass cars (because of the vertical firewall rib, I put that setup on a '56 Chevy pickup (rear carb had already been modified) without any other problems. They are crude but work just fine with 261s. The old 'vettes were 235 PowerGlides with 3.55 rear gears, but only weighed 2800 pounds-I drove a stock '54 model and it had snappy response even with the PG. Anybody know if they had a definite plan when they were dressing those engines?
Google up a '54 Corvette body number 276-this vette has a three speed stick and a 261 engine with a bunch of McGurk stuff-valvecovers and cam etc, and a '57 hood with the finned aluminum Sting ray wheels and was used and driven maybe 200,000 miles-its a veteran. This is mysterious stuff!
The 150 to 155 hp jump may or may not have been due to the 261 cam addition-I do remember reading that the 155hp engines did have dual valve springs-261s never had dual springs but then with their single carbs they neve reved much either.