The old guy i got these from said they were of a canadian pontiac.They look like early corvette covers with no raised letters in the middle.He said that when he cleaned them up the pontiac decal that was in the center came off.He thought the car was a star chief or a power chief and had every option avaible from poniiac in canada.
There was a "Strato Chief" model but I do not recall ever seeing those valve covers on a stock Canadian Pontiac. The engine would have been a Chev so I guess it is entirely possible that his story could be legit. Has to be a Canadian Pontiac specialist somewhere on the HAMB.
Monsterflake, that is a really neat find. It looks like the "mercruiser" was a decal, somebody restoring a boat would probably love to have them.
The two cars you mentioned were not CDN produced but may have been imported here. Someone can measure their valvecovers and compare the mounting holes. The hold down holes look offset, which were used in the early chevs/ pontiacs. Basically whatever was available in a Chev was available on a Canadian Pontiac. They had a Pathfinder, the Strato Chief and the Larentian, someone can correct me. There is a Canadian Pontiac site called http://canadianponcho.activeboard.com/index.spark
Every Canadian Pontiac I have seen, had tin Chev valve covers with a Pontiac decal. There was no Pontiac Corvette. Those look like aftermarket valve covers.
On the canadian poncho site they show a 1958 full size Powerchief canadian pontiac with a 283 cu.in. fuel injection 250 h.p. engine option being avaible.
Is it possible some aftermarket seller/dealer ran off some Canada only Pontiac valve covers using decals like the Mercruiser covers?
I have some NOS Pontiac decals for Canadian Pontiac valve covers. The aluminum ones shown are staggered bolt pattern aftermarket finned ones for a 5-6-7 chevy head. The decals were added. I also have a set of staggered stock tin embossed ones like the ones shown earlier. They were off a 56 Canadian Pontiac with a 265.
-------------- Not likely that anyone would tool up to make them when you could already buy them exactly like that, made by General Motors and sold over the counter at any Mercruiser Marine dealer for very reasonable prices . (Even as late as the early 1970's jobber price on these covers at a Mercruiser dealer was about 24 dollars and change for a pair!) Somebody mentioned that the 250 and 283 hp 283 Fuel Injection engines were an available option on Canadian Pontiacs in 1957. Yes they were - (see the attached 1957 Canadian Pontiac engine availability chart) - but just like their Chev passenger car fuel injection counterparts, even the fuel injected 283 'Pontiacs' came with the standard stamped steel valve covers, albeit, stamped with "Pontiac" in script, rather than "Chevrolet" of course . The only fuel injection (or other) 283 engines that came with cast covers were the Corvettes ..and as somebody also pointed out, there was no Canadian Pontiac counterpart to the Chevrolet "Corvette" The covers may have come off of a 1957 Canadian Pontiac passenger car at one time, but regardless of what you have been told, they are 'Mercruiser Marine' covers and they were not put on that or any other car by the factory. All Canadian Pontiac passenger cars, just like all their Chevrolet 'non-Corvette' passenger car counterparts. came with with regular stamped steel covers. Mart3406 ==================
either way I still want a set, I've got some stamped steel mercruiser SBC covers, and a pair of cast aluminum pontiac trans am SBC covers, and a pair of chrome mercruiser covers. non of which are what i really want.......
*As far as ( know*, except for the early '55 through '58 style with the staggered bolt holes, these covers with the '59 and up straight across bolt pattern are still available through Mercruiser. The price has gone up quite a bit from when I was buying in the early 70's for 24 dollars and change a pair though!. I think they retail for closer to 170-200 dollars a pair, now. Mart3406 ===========
Did the merccruiser valve covers have staggered hold down holes?The merccruiser covers seem to have a raised oval in the center?The ones i have are plain.Got any pictures of those corvette engines that came in the full size Canadian pontiacs?
51bird- Those, are cool. I need to find some, and the search is on. Posted from my office while pretending to work!
i saw a set that went for $101 a couple of weeks ago, but it wasn't my old ones. this picture is of the 'bad' one, the other one had really nice graphics.
OK so here it is, I'll PAY $150.00 for a pair if anybody comes up with some. oh and just to be REAL clear, this is for the cast aluminum, finned, corvette look-alike, covers., NOT the steel with pontiac stamped in them. yeah this post should probably go in "Wanted" but this thread is already here.....
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