302 Hemi

[Norm reynolds]

In Jan,03 Reggie Jackson will auction off at Barrrtt Jackson
a 69 camaro with a smokey yunki mystery motor a 302 Hemi
I never heard of one
Norm

[Norm reynolds]

more pictures

[Norm reynolds]

[SS427]

Floyd Garrett also had/has one that I believe is Daytona Yellow. These engines were built by Chevrolet but never installed in a Camaro that I am aware of. Other people on here can provide much more insite to the engines.

[sYc]

Being Yellow, I would guess the one Floyd has is the one Mick Price sold a few years ago. I believe it was in Super Chevy. Tom

[Norm reynolds]

I wonder what is the H/P it must run like a bear
It will be interesting to see what this rare car will
Bring in the auction next year
Norm

[JChlupsa]

Charley is this the twin to yours???

[Seattle Sam]

Is this the same as the "pocupine motor" that clill reportedly has installed in a '69 Z?
-Sam

[JChlupsa]

No reportedly, I believe it is infact there and documented as well

[SuperCars]

Charley Lillard's is the one Mick Price used to have. They were all made-up cars from motors bought from Smokey's garage. None came that way from Chevrolet.

[JChlupsa]

Is it too late to edit my last post /ubbthreads/images/icons/smile.gif
Mahalo for the insight

[Charley Lillard]

The Reggie Jackson car just sold recently so I don't think it is still going to the Auction..

[sYc]

Charley, Am curious, what affect do the heads have on performance? The reason I ask is this. Don Yenko spent big bucks with an overseas company called Westlake, in England. They had developed a 4 valve per cylinder head. Don commissioned them to do this with a 302 Chevy head. The prototype heads were sent to Smokey for testing. The results were no where near what West Lake had promised. Don made the comment that the Westlake head did not perform much better then a good set of regular competition heads. The documents and pictures related to this project make for interesting reading. I would love to find a set, and the special valve covers that go with them. Much like the hemi heads, they are unusual looking, to say the least. Tom

[Charley Lillard]

Wow, those would be a neat find. I think I have had this car for about 5 years but have maybe only put about 15 miles on it. Kind of afraid to abuse it because if something breaks I'm outta luck for parts. I have heard reports of hp ranging from 450 to 550 hp. I also heard that when Smokey tested them he reported that there was not enough of a HP gain over a properly setup standard headed crossram car to warrant production. I also heard that Smokey kind of sat on the program because at the same time he was selling Chevrolet on his Angle Plug Head design.

[sYc]

Charley; In the Yenko folder dealing with the Westlake project are a couple of letters where Don tells Smokey to "get busy" with the heads. Finally Don tells him to just send them back. Tom

[Stefano]

This is Historic info. for certain.

[Jeff Murphy]

Yunick and Yenko weren't the only American racing icons to hook up with Weslake Engineering (no "t" in Weslake) during the 60s.

Dan Gurney turned to them to build hot rod heads for the small block Ford, the engines for his late sixties Indy cars and the engines for his efforts in Gran Prix racing during 1967-68. Apparently some of the SB Ford heads made it to the street (see Engineering link below).

The GP car won a few races but wasn't all that successful. The car was ahead of its time in many ways, including the use of titanium parts - especially notable are the most beautiful headers I've ever seen. Many consider the Eagle Weslake to be the most beautiful Gran Prix car ever built. I had the chance to see the car this summer at a historic event here and can attest to both its beauty and the amazing noise the engine makes coming out of those twisted headers. The car went straight to auction after the event and was sold for $900,000.



Road & Track Salon on Gurney's Eagle Weslake (http://www.roadandtrack.com/features/ArticleDisplay.asp?ArticleID=367&page=1)

AAR History Site (http://www.allamericanracers.com/gurney_grand-prix/eagle_f1-effort.html)

Engineering Detail (http://members.tripod.com/lyc_42/fordv8/gurney/gurney.htm)

Just got back from looking at this car. Holub had it delivered yesterday. Unbelievable car. He even let me drive it! Sounds awesome. Never heard of one till I seen it. He has a bunch of articles and documents pertaining to the hemi. It won't be at the auction!!!

[Norm reynolds]

How many of the hemi cars were there and how many are left today
It would seem that they are one of the rarest cars around. Any body know the
History on how the Hemi was developed
Norm

[Stefano]

I believe that 'Camaro Untold Secrets' has some details on the Chevy Hemi Heads.

[Charley Lillard]

Reynolds..There were no cars. The last article I read said there were 8 Engines and several sets of Heads. The Cars just make great engine stands for really Cool Engines.

[Charley Lillard]

Engine.

[Rat_Pack]

Floyd Garrett had Al Maynards Cortez Silver 69 Z with the hemi 302, crossram, JL-8, factory fiberglass hood, radio & heater delete on display for a while this past year. It may still be there...................RatPack...................

[Chevy454]

Yenko-Weslake project:

http://www.yenko.net/oldads/Weslake-Yenko.JPG

[JoeC]

Smokey Yunick discuses the Porcupine heads in his book. Trans Am racing was a fierce battle ground between Chevy and Ford. Ford had developed a Tunnel Port head for the 302 so Chevy thought they needed a big head for the 302 Chevy. The Ford head didn't work very well either.

[sYc]

I was going through the Weslake/Yenko folder and found a memo to Parnelli Jones, asking that he return his set of Weslake/Yenko heads, for the same reason as Smokey, slow progress. Also in the folder are several articles about the heads Weslake had developed for Fords, which did produce the desired results. Tom

[Norm reynolds]

Rob now that is impressive four valves per cylinder Gm now has that, Heads
were way ahead of its time ItÃs a shame that they were not to successful
with a little more work they would really perform if any thing they
ARE impressive /ubbthreads/images/icons/wink.gif /ubbthreads/images/icons/smile.gif
Norm

[JTH74]

Would these heads bolt on to the standard 302 block or was it a completely and totally different engine?

[Leonard]

Info from: "The 1969 Camaro Reference book" by John R. Hooper. The short block was identical to the Z28 302 short block. (block,crank,rods,oil pan and baffle,timing cover,balancer,flywheel,alternator,and starter.) One big drawback to the engine was that the block had to be machined down in the lifter bore to clear the exhaust pushrods. Another drawback was that in order to install the Hemi kit items, the engine had to be removed from the car. You then installed the Hemi items and reinstalled the engine in the car... The Penske-Donohue race team had won the 1968 Trans Am season and were looking for still another "Unfair Advantage". Chevrolet designed an experimental hemisperical 302 c.i. engine with the intention of selling it as an over-the-counter item in kit form. There were actually a small number produced. These engines proved to be costly to build, but they made horsepower. The engine used different pistons, camshaft,rocker arms,intake manifold,aluminum heads,pushrods,and gaskets. The magnesium valve covers featured a 7-bolt pattern.The camshaft is unique due to the reverse-lobe design. The one-of-a-kind Hemi head has the intake valve first and exhaust second.

[JTH74]

Thanks for the reply, I will have to get that book. Did the Penske team use the hemi engine in 69?

[Charley Lillard]

Chevy shipped them to Smokey Yunick for evaluation but they never went into production or got used on Cars.

[olredalert]

-------A friend of mine up here in the Detroit area(very well known)has one of these cars as well.Havent seen it in a year or so.He may have sold it,but I hadnt heard about a sale if he did......ol red!......Bill S

[Born30YrsLate]

just found this interesting...arao engineering produces 4-valve heads for chevy engines 4-valve per cylinder chevy heads (http://www.araoengineering.com/Chevy/chevysmb.htm)

[JacksonM]

Kind of funny how they say 6.86 ET on a 69 Camaro, lol, when the one in the pic is a 67 or 68 Camaro (67 front clip with 68 doors???). /ubbthreads/images/icons/crazy.gif

[68TopStock]

These heads give me an idea. What would a 370 stroker with a crossram and 4 valves per produce? /ubbthreads/images/icons/cool.gif

Wonder if Smokey ever built one like that?

[JoeC]

The porcupine 302 Chevy heads are not really Hemi heads more like semi Hemi in terms of combustion chamber shape. Zora D loved Hemi heads and owned a company that made Hemi heads for a flathead Ford before he went to Chevy. He was working on a Chevy Hemi head. Chevy built a few Hemi head experimental engines but they never made production. Said they were not cost effective.