auto trivia

bobbaily

...or the ZR-1 (or was it ZL-1) engine option that made its way into some COPO Camaro's for drag racing also?

well your closer than anybody's ever gotten, and I figured this would be an easy one as it's one of the holy grails of the Chevy world. It was known as the 430 CanAm motor. Similar to an L88 Chevy engine in design (there were actually several differences in them besides material); this motor predates the ZL-1 by a couple years. The ZL-1 used iron sleeves, where the 430 engine used a high silicone aluminium block with iron coated pistons. The blocks were also found to be unrebuildable after a race, and there would be piles of motors laying on the ground out back of their shops. By the way the ZL-1's were prone to oil leaks and warped gasket surfaces during their lifetime. It was common to see one in the showroom with a puddle under them, and dyno pulls were found to be making about 3% less horse power than the iron blocked version.

Here's one for the masses: We al know about the Mod. T, Mod. A, and Mod. B Fords; what other early Fords had a letter identification?

gary

...or the ZR-1 (or was it ZL-1) engine option that made its way into some COPO Camaro's for drag racing also?

Stab in th edark here. Was it the Ford -Cosworth V-8's?

squeakie

kenjitak:

Do you mean the Buick 215 aluminum v-8 that was used in Rovers and Jack Brabham's F-1 cars?

 

 

the 215" Buick / Olds aluminium engines did have iron sleeves in the blocks. These were actually part of the casting core when the blocks were poured. There have been quite a few alloy blocks out there over the years, and the one I'm refering to borrowed heavilly from the motorcycle industry, but did not use the chrome plated cylinder bores. In otherwords it was all alloy.

gary

P.S. Here's a big hint: Jim Hall

hint number two: CanAm racing

gary

kenjitak

Do you mean the Buick 215 aluminum v-8 that was used in Rovers and Jack Brabham's F-1 cars?

 

the 215" Buick / Olds aluminium engines did have iron sleeves in the blocks. These were actually part of the casting core when the blocks were poured. There have been quite a few alloy blocks out there over the years, and the one I'm refering to borrowed heavilly from the motorcycle industry, but did not use the chrome plated cylinder bores. In otherwords it was all alloy.

gary

P.S. Here's a big hint: Jim Hall

jetmodeler

Did it happen to be the 283.

no it wasn't, and the 283 was nearing the end of it's production life span during this era.

gary

Do you mean the Buick 215 aluminum v-8 that was used in Rovers and Jack Brabham's F-1 cars?

Did it happen to be the 283.

I'm sure by now everybody that's a car nut has heard the story of the all aluminium cylinder blocks on the old Chevy Vega that didn't use an iron sleeve in them. The motors lost ring seal very early in their life span. But there was another engine that used the same style of block, and for a brief time period was well known. Hint: eight cylinders

gary

Good guess, Gary! The OHV configuration required a much higher hood line than the car designers were willing to provide, so it was tossed on the junk heap. The floor is yours!

Bgrigg

Huh? The OHV 250  six was 175 hp with the sprint being 215 hp (230 hp with manual tranny).

But horsepower was not the reason. Try again!

this is just a guess, but I'm thinking the engine was too tall to fit under the hood. Also was probably too long as well

gary

shoot&scoot

OK, this one should be pretty easy for you guys as you seem to be into the esoteric off the beaten path stuff:  This American auto company offered an aluminum block overhead cam inline six engine in their midsize passenger cars starting in 1966.  One version even sported a four bbl carb pumping out 200 hp.  Name the company and the year the engine was discontinued.  

                                                                                       Pat.

that would be the Pontiac Tempest with the OHC six engine

gary

shoot&scoot

G.M.'s 4.3L V6.  They just lopped off the front two cylinders of their 5.7L, 350 C.I.D.  However, the dynamics weren't that simple due to the timing idiosyncracies of V6's.  They couldn't just lop off the two forward lobes from the crankshaft, but instead had to come up with a completely new crank featuring offset crank lobes.  This led to a sustantially weaker crank than that of the 350 and in my experience, the only way to get max power out of the design is to use a forged and pinned crank.  

your thoughts are interesting. But the real problem with the 4.3 engine is not the crank design, but in the 90 degree banked engine with a 60 degree firing order. Yes you can make it fire right with a computerized ignition, but it still won't draw air right. Should have been a 60 degree block from the start (or maybe 120 degrees)

gary

simpilot34

Still no takers?

Ok, this might be easy for some.

If you took two cylinders off a 350, what fairly modern engine would you get?

4.3 V6 I think

gary

actually nobody did, which surprised me! Set yourself up a link to the SCTA, and start monitoring speeds and classes in early August as well as October. Rumor has it that the new 347" engine may push that car to 450mph! Still an exit speed of 401mph out of 176" four cylinder (over head valve at that) is hard to fathom.

gary

Huh? The OHV 250  six was 175 hp with the sprint being 215 hp (230 hp with manual tranny).

But horsepower was not the reason. Try again!

Well quick research shows that the Pontiac 250 I-6 was only rated at 100hp, and it's Chevy replacement was rated at 155hp, so I will just say, do the math.

OK, keeping with the Pontiac OHC 6...

This engine, while largely successful, was dropped for the 2nd gen Firebird. Why?

Close enough!  The lower hp versions were all aluminum, got a friend with one in his stash in his garage waiting for someone to pay way more than it's worth.  Over to you.

I don't know if this is right, but...

Pontiac introduced the iron block-aluminum head OHC inline 6 230 ci (3.8l) in the Pontiac Tempest in 1966 and discontinued it in 1969. I had a 68 Firebird with the Sprint 215hp 4bbl version for about six months in the mid 70s.

OK, this one should be pretty easy for you guys as you seem to be into the esoteric off the beaten path stuff:  This American auto company offered an aluminum block overhead cam inline six engine in their midsize passenger cars starting in 1966.  One version even sported a four bbl carb pumping out 200 hp.  Name the company and the year the engine was discontinued.  

                                                                                       Pat.

YES!!! The 4.3L is correct!!! Tried to get an S-10 with a Vortec 4.3, 5speed, and a 3.05 rear end at one point. Until I found out how much they wanted for it, which at the time I couldn't afford. Anyways, over to you Scooter!!!!

I'd like to amend my answer:  Chevy 4.3L.  Too late at night for this kind of stuff.

G.M.'s 4.3L V6.  They just lopped off the front two cylinders of their 5.7L, 350 C.I.D.  However, the dynamics weren't that simple due to the timing idiosyncracies of V6's.  They couldn't just lop off the two forward lobes from the crankshaft, but instead had to come up with a completely new crank featuring offset crank lobes.  This led to a sustantially weaker crank than that of the 350 and in my experience, the only way to get max power out of the design is to use a forged and pinned crank.  

hint: it is a V-6, hence the phrasing of the question, and it has the same bore and stroke.

Still no takers?

Ok, this might be easy for some.

If you took two cylinders off a 350, what fairly modern engine would you get?

After this much time, pretty much anybody's!

Who's turn is it?

that fastest four banger in the world is the Speed Demon. There was another car that went 367 a few years back, and a motorcycle that went 357. But the Speed Demon is regarded as the top dog by a wide margin. I might add here that the land speed record they set with the 120" engine broke the long standing record held by the Honda factory using their F1 engine. Many considered the record to be unbeatable. The fastest one pass ever by a wheel driven car was actually done by two different cars with similar speeds. One was powered by a gas turbine and the other by two late model hemis. Both cars went 457, but only one was ever able to make the return run to certify the record (Don Vesco in the turbine). Jet powered cars are not recognized by anybody but themselves, and really are not welcomed by any of the several land speed racing organizations.

gary