74 Valve cover brackets for spark plug wires

[CamaroNmotion]

My VIN is 159084 - out of curiosity, how close is it to yours?
I contacted the second owner's wife of my car who's husband inherited it from the original owner. The woman who bought it new moved to AZ shortly after when retired and the car went back to IL after she passed away 30-something years later . The second owner's wife said the car was originally purchased new by her husband's aunt at the same time the aunt's husband (uncle) purchased an identical one. It would be funny to see if that car (sibling) is out there. Maybe I should make a post in this.
The second owner's wife sold the car to a local kid when her husband passed away and then I bought it from that third owner. Zfool checked this car out at one point in IL and posted pictures of it with the air cleaner on it. When I got it, the carb and air cleaner were in the trunk and there was an Edelbrock carb on it. I'm curious if Zfool checked the car out when the second owner was selling or the third owner.

We are 145 off. Interesting story. Charlie's 979 mile car is a 2C.

 

[Z28PILOT]

I have two sets of the valve cover bolts and both sets have the "R" with the ridged heads like in your photo. One set came off a car with HEI where I got the HEI wire holders and the other from my car which was not HEI. Learning about the hood ground clip, which I don't have, is another way to help me confirm it was not originally HEI. Oddly, my air cleaner has the HEI dent and since I didn't have the correct points distributor, I went and found the correct HEI distributor just to make it pointless. My car is 02B, second week Feb.

That’s interesting history you have knowing all the prior owners history. But one easy way to tell if your car had Points or HEI L82 are the three letter Suffix engine codes , as the set of latter codes are for the HEI engines . My engine burns very clean with the HEI , i have the original dizzy and 74 dated wires , I put the plugs in it 12 years ago and they look fantastic. I’m hoping they ll go 20 years .

 

[mallard]

That’s interesting history you have knowing all the prior owners history. But one easy way to tell if your car had Points or HEI L82 are the three letter Suffix engine codes , as the set of latter codes are for the HEI engines . My engine burns very clean with the HEI , i have the original dizzy and 74 dated wires , I put the plugs in it 12 years ago and they look fantastic. I’m hoping they ll go 20 years .

Do you have a pic of what codes you mean? FWIW, it appears the changeover to HEI occurred with cars date coded 04C. My point car is 04B (Canadian docs say April 15/74 which is actually Monday of week 3) and Bigt74's car is HEI with a date code of 04C.

 

[Jonesy]

I have two sets of the valve cover bolts and both sets have the "R" with the ridged heads like in your photo. One set came off a car with HEI where I got the HEI wire holders and the other from my car which was not HEI. Learning about the hood ground clip, which I don't have, is another way to help me confirm it was not originally HEI. Oddly, my air cleaner has the HEI dent and since I didn't have the correct points distributor, I went and found the correct HEI distributor just to make it pointless. My car is 02B, second week Feb.

My original 74Z has the same bolts for the Valve covers recessed with R letter. Its an 03C non HEI car. Im sure all 74Z came with that style.

 

[Z28PILOT]

Do you have a pic of what codes you mean? FWIW, it appears the changeover to HEI occurred with cars date coded 04C. My point car is 04B (Canadian docs say April 15/74 which is actually Monday of week 3) and Bigt74's car is HEI with a date code of 04C.

No not the cars build code ….silly rabbit …the engine suffix code chart it’s located on Nasty in the 74 technical. data tables section. The engines build date and suffix is stamped in large letters on the engines pad to the right usually of the vin , my manual cars Z28 engines stamped suffix code is a” CMS “engine this was done at Flint engine plant, the non HEI manual tranny cars had “CLJ “suffix after the engine assembly date . The tables are in this sites 74 Camaro data. The set of points Z s had their own set of engine three digit suffix codes . These suffix stamping changed with the addition of HEI . I think it was very important for these engines to be quickly recognizable and tracked , as the Z28 was one of the test bed vehicles for HEI in 1974/.


Also …..I m very curious to know ??? , if anybody’s CMS code engine Z28 car came factory with a Muncie transmission. So far all I ve seen the CMS - HEI car s are paired with the Warner transmission s …..my original technical service bulletin includes both at the same time . Or does anybody have a CLJ suffix engine points car with a Warner instead of a Muncie ? So far I haven’t seen this combo in threads either.

 

[Jonesy]

As far as I know, they were using up the Muncies in the 74z's until they ran out. My 03C car has one but it is dated late October 1973 and has VIN XXXXX out and my VIN stamped. I have seen several 74 Z's around my build with this same date. P4R24B. Also the tailshaft and shifter linkage cover are dated 1973. Their intention was to probably put T-10's in sooner, but they must have had a surplus of Muncies to get rid of.

 

[zfool]

All of the bolts are the recessed with the R on the car. As far as the number of Muncie cars with the HEI as opposed to the WG M21’s I would say it’s very, very few. I’ve seen some released with HEI in March I believe then some with points after. I was talking to a guy that worked for AC-Delco at the time. He put me in contact with the division head but he would never return calls or messages. He’s obviously an older gent. The guy that worked there said there were issues with figment and availability of parts that would work with the HEI. But couldn’t specifically recall. It seems most CLJ cars are Muncie with points and CMS cars had HEI and WGD Trans with most being NB2 and YF5 California Emissions.

 

[zfool]

I believe that car was between the second and Third owner Younda. I think it was at a trailer park or the people lived in a trailer. That care was totally untouched. I figured if I didn’t get it, it would be butchered. I talked to him several times on the phone and was going to go. I think he was trying to get 4-5K for it. It just all fell apart because I was 8-9 hours away. Then I saw it again and it was missing parts. I thought we’ll the clips and air box are gone and so is it’s soul. lol. I’m glad you got it.

 

[Jonesy]

Heres another example. This one is in 14N192910 which I think it well into April production. This one is dated 1 day (P4R23B) before my trans and in a later car than mine. Also has XXX'd out VIN
I also have another one from a car 14N193xxx that is dated P4R24B. This has been discussed in here before. Muncie installs were going on well into April and probably mixed in with T-10's

 

[mallard]

View attachment 128743 Heres another example. This one is in 14N192910 which I think it well into April production. This one is dated 1 day (P4R23B) before my trans and in a later car than mine. Also has XXX'd out VIN
I also have another one from a car 14N193xxx that is dated P4R24B. This has been discussed in here before. Muncie installs were going on well into April and probably mixed in with T-10's

That sure is odd. Mine is 4N189 built 04B and has T10 and points. Anything I had ever heard about the Muncie transmissions was they were no longer installed after January '74