a lot of the can am blocks did not have sleeves. they used a tin/iron coated piston and the block was honed to yield a high silicon rate in the aluminum bore. easily identified. jim halls ( chaparral )block i believe were cast by reynolds aluminum themselves. jim was a secretive guy about everything. did the GM 430 "can-am" block have a winters mark?
the early blocks couldve been reynolds or alcoa sleeved blocks from the can-am lineage. as far as distinguishing them apart i have no idea.
Doug Meyer Shadow team engine builder
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> I was an engine builder for the UOP Shadow Team from 72 through 75 and built these engines almost exclusively. Engines I assembled were driven by Jackie Oliver, George Follmer, Vic Elford, James Hunt and Peter Revson. I was trained on them by Lee Muir who came to Shadow directly from McLaren. I've got loads of photos and, if I dig deep enough I can probably dig up my track/tuning notes.
In the early Can Am years only three teams had the Reynolds "390" Aluminum blocks. McLAren, Shadow, and Chapparral. Later they became more common, but most of the "lesser" teams didn't use the all-aluminum 390 blocks, but iron sleeved castings. All were Lucas injected.
McLAren did their own porting, as did we. The usual well known California head guys did most of the rest.
We rarely built 510's, almost always 495's. Race trim hp was about 735with flat tappets. We bult some roller tappet "Qualifyers" that did about 775 hp. In '73 we built a 1200 hp turbo 495 (I could change those head gaskets in my sleep!) to compete with the 917K. We were faster at Laguna Seca but ran out of brakes. Vic Elford was driving- Donohue came over to Lee and I after the race and told us "he'd NEVER seen anything accelerate up the hill like that beast". THe tires on that car were 24 inches wide and it would leave giant blackies all the way up the hill. I've built lots of engines but those are still my favorite. Nothing in motorsports sounds like 20 of those things at the green. I'll never forget it.
We got our parts directly from GM racing. The sleeveless blocks were all Reynolds since Reynolds was the developer of the high Silicon 390 alloy/iron plated piston technology. Could be that the sleeved blocks the "regular people" got were Alcoa castings.
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GM #'s
3992038..Block, 4.44" bore AL W/Liners
3993803..C/Shaft, 3.47" stroke
3963642..Rod, connecting 6.405" C/C
3992042..Sleeve, cyl liner (for 430" AL)