[SuperNovaSS]

Happy New Year to All,


This site is a wealth of knowledge and I am hoping someone can help me find some more info on this engine. I bought this from a guy who got it in a package deal from a friend years ago. From what I understand, the friend was into vintage race cars, exotics, Ferraris, etc. The friend was refining his collection and offered the guy I got this engine from a deal he couldn't refuse on a bunch of parts he had in storage. This engine was part of that deal. The guy I got it from was under the impression that the engine was fresh and ready to run. When looking the engine over, I noticed it did not have any head gaskets installed. Once we pulled the pan, it was evident that he was mistaken about the engine being fresh. It has spun 2 rod bearings and the rods and pistons from those cylinders are MIA. The damage appears to be isolated to those journals on the crank. This did not concern me much since I was mainly interested in the block. Where it gets interesting is the crankshaft itself. It is not your standard SBC crank, it is a 180 degree, AKA flat crank, as found in Ferraris, etc. This of course also requires a special camshaft, etc. I had never seen a flat plane crank in a SBC and googling the subject only pulls up one such example that was custom built in the 50's.

I am hoping someone has had experience with this casting number or knows of a flat plane crank that was run in some sort of race car of this time period such as Chaparral, etc. Speaking of time period, I am not even sure of the era the block,heads, etc came out of. The heads are very early Brodix castings and have what look to be self made stud girdles. The oil pan is a dry sump setup and the front drive components look to be Summers Bros. I am hoping someone has some knowledge of this engine since it is so unique. That said, if it is a period race piece, things were pretty hush hush most of the time.

I was only able to find one other block online with this casting number and it was posted by Jim at Heartbeat City and was built as a 302 engine. I remember Charley put a GM aluminum block in a 67 Z/28 but I was not able to find the thread.

Please post any and all comments.


Thanks,


Jason