I did not realize you did not have matching motor in the 63 z11 the first time you restored it. Do you know what that motor was in???
Colbert Z-11 News
- Thread starter Blk61409
- Start date
Thanks everyone. Great history unfolding. I discovered a 320 casting date head and an 8 casting date. Possible for production but not plausible. So, I called Dave Colbert. He said, oh, yeh, forgot to tell you when Jan-Cen began blueprinting the engine they discovered a cracked head. Dave had to call his dealer to tell Chevy to get him one. The Jan 8, 1963 casting is what they shipped.
Also discovered there were 2 shim head gaskets on each side! That was crazy. I know the 62 409/409’s were assembled with 2 head gaskets to lower the compression because they were afraid of kids like us
Maybe whoever had the engine remembers this and added them, a mystery.
The engine does have the Eonic cam as I have shared, and 7 of the 8 pistons look great.
Considering going back together all original as Dennis Jackson has so many NOS parts, rocker arms, balls, nuts, cam bearings, rod and mains if they turn out std, same with rings, etc.
Lots of work still to be done before I get to that point, but it looks entirely possible we could build a Z-11 with NOS Chevy parts.
That would be cool, a numbers matching engine with NOS parts!
More later!!
Also discovered there were 2 shim head gaskets on each side! That was crazy. I know the 62 409/409’s were assembled with 2 head gaskets to lower the compression because they were afraid of kids like us
Maybe whoever had the engine remembers this and added them, a mystery.
The engine does have the Eonic cam as I have shared, and 7 of the 8 pistons look great.
Considering going back together all original as Dennis Jackson has so many NOS parts, rocker arms, balls, nuts, cam bearings, rod and mains if they turn out std, same with rings, etc.
Lots of work still to be done before I get to that point, but it looks entirely possible we could build a Z-11 with NOS Chevy parts.
That would be cool, a numbers matching engine with NOS parts!
More later!!
I built it from spare parts I had.
Did you remove the heater in the 63 so it would be correct as from factory z11?
Probably only a hand full of people in world have spare Z11 parts to build an engine.
Yes, and behind the heater was a chalk marking “11”. Not Z-11 but 11.
So did you have all the delete plates ,if that's what they had. Had to be some rare items.
Yes on the NOS delete plates
I sourced some of the NOS parts from Jody Anderson for parts I did not have.
Great guy.
I'm just happy we still live in a time where we can get some of the knowledge first hand on these cars. The supply of knowledge on these old girls is so helpful in decoding their history. Finding a head with a different casting code seems strange until we are able to get some first hand insight that a cracked head was found so a new head was installed. That is priceless information. I'd be more upset if the heads were matching on the engine now that I know that part. Super cool information Pat.It’s great to have friends at the head of the
Z-11 supply chain
Thank you. I do remember back in the “dark ages” (1984) when Frank Sanders called me looking for his car. He had heard I had some of his parts. It was a time when you kept copious notes with names, phone numbers, info, etc.
Today it’s so much easier to share info, that’s what I think is so great, share the info, if you know the facts, share them.
409Kid
Well Known Member
You’ve got to also remember that these engines started out at 13.5:1 compression ratios that were at the limits of available pump fuels of the era. They didn’t have the race specific fuels available as we do today without some custom mixing of compounds as tolulene or other hexanes to boost octane levels. Not that it wasn’t done. Likely it was. I don’t know if the SS/ and FX classes underwent fuel checks back then. I was barely out of diapers when these beasts were competitive. Just my 2¢ worth of ignorance