True Connections

This month we will continue with our tribute to the 40th anniversary of the 1966 Chevelle and El Camino. Last month we talked about the rare cowl air cleaner. We want to talk about the 375hp 396 motor parts such as the pulley system. The crank pulley is a cast iron unit with 3 deep grooves. The alternator had a deep groove pulley also. The water pump pulley also is a deep groove style. The crank pulley and alternator pulley are in repro now, the water pump pulley is going to be in repro soon. The other rare pulley is the idler pulley which is mounted on the right head. This was used to try and not throw belts. The last pulley is the power steering pump pulley which is deep groove and cast iron. We get asked constantly about the power steering setup. This setup is very unique and used a remote reservoir system. The pump is mounted on a unique bracket that mounts on the front at the block with 2 bolts. The pump mounts with a bolt in front and back on the bottom portion of the pump. The rear adjuster was some what of a mini horseshoe which mounted at the exhaust manifold and adjusted on the top back section of the pump. On top of the pump was a large outlet where hose mounted and went all the way over the remote reservoir that was mounted by a bracket at the joint of the fender and core support. The reason for this was the way the alternator mounted a conventional power steering pump with a tall opening to fill it would not fit under the alternator. The steering box was the standard Saginaw box. When you change over to power steering you also will have to change to a power steering pitman arm. Fortunately all these parts are available repro and we have them in stock. The 1966 exhaust manifolds were basically the same as the 1965 z-16 with slight differences. Most 1966 big blocks had the bosses on the top of the manifolds and were not drilled for big horsepower motors and drilled for lower horsepower motors. The other often asked question under the hood was the radiator shroud. All big blocks used a fiber style fan shroud. We get asked all the time if they had a steel shroud which they did not have. Next month and in the future months we will be going into other rare 66 options and installations along with new updates on some of the old articles.