1967 Chevelle SS396 L78 Deep-Groove Water Pump Pulley Stamp
A surprising place that you’ll want to check on an SS396 before you make the purchase is the water pump pulley. The L78 had a high level of horsepower over the outgoing models. When it came to serious performance, the SS396 was a beast. Yet it’s also important to verify that a car is legitimate. With clones all over the place, taking these steps is important (via Hagerty).
There were only 617 examples of the car built for the 1967 model year, so finding an authentic one is difficult. The pulley will have the code “3862774CW.” stamped onto it, and this will show you if the car is authentic. Any real authentic classic will need to be a number-matching car because you don’t want to invest in the wrong one.