MYSTERY MOTOR & Z-11

wristpin

Well Known Member
View attachment 54247 In a few weeks I'm taking some engines to the NCRS Show in San Antonio. Taking the first production 265, an aluminum 283, Z-11 and Mystery Motor.
The Z-11 is for the Colbert car(still working on the body).
I have a white 63 Impala for the MM.

Since we had the MM and Z-11 side by side I thought I would show them.

It's interesting to see the considerable differences of the different designs of 2 completely different 427 Chevrolet engines in 1962/63
One of the first things to notice are the headers and valve covers. Keep in mind both of these were developed at the same time in the same complex, the Z-11 by Zora Arkus Duntov's team and the Mystery Motor by Dick Kieneth. While the Z was a drag race version and the MM was for Daytona Zora did make a couple of single 4bbl Z-11 intakes.
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The Mystery Motor was the first time Chevrolet had used a Holley Carburetor on any engine. Bill Howell the primary engineer on the engine told me he decided to use the carb after running it on the dyno and it made more HP than an AFB.


NASCAR Z-11 Single 4 Intake
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I know this is from years ago but gotta ask...runners for cyls 1 & 7 appear to have a larger internal cross section than all other runners. In addition the change from parallel to going towards valve is 90° turn. At that 90° turn is the inner casting curved? Is cross sections for 1 & 3 equal to the rest?
 

wristpin

Well Known Member
Has anyone done any performance work on the production Buick V6 aluminum engine from the early 1970's ( i believe that era)
 

DonSSDD

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 2
Buick never marketed an aluminum v6,but they did do aluminum v8's from 61-63.They then sold everything to Rover in England.
And they became the sbc of England. I think I read they are second only to the sbc as the most prolific of all time in terms of numbers built.
 

DonSSDD

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 2
Oldsmobile’s light, compact V-8 was held in higher regard. Australian racing driver Jack Brabhamcommissioned auto-parts supplier Repco to base a Formula 1 V-8 on the Olds block endowed with SOHC heads and a flat-plane crankshaft to produce more than 300 horsepower from 3.0 liters. That shrewd move earned Brabham the 1966 drivers’ and constructors’ titles. This was the first and last time an engine with American production-car roots prevailed in Formula 1.


Interesting read below, this engine was also the basis for the gm 3.8 v6, used in a grand national and lots of other places.
https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.hagerty.com/media/hagerty-magazine/buicks-little-aluminum-v-8/amp/
 

region rat

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 3
I'm not sure who Butrick was but Wright was a partner in P&S. The first time I went to his shop, he had some iron blocks that weren't machined.
The has 12 inch decks. He said they were for offshore boat racing. He also did the block for Wayne County after the Mopar guys in pro stock were no longer able to run a BBC block with B-1 heads.
 

region rat

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 3
I stand corrected. Saw one of those aluminum engines long ago. Forgot if it was V6 or V8. I found one for sale today....Olds V8 all aluminum...block and heads
Buick used the same block I believe. When they came out Hot Rod had a pic on the cover of Ray Block holding the entire engine in his arms.
 

Blk61409

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 9
In about 1970, I got a set of redline take off tires for free.

I traded them to a guy that needed a set of tires.
He had one of those 61 or 62 Olds F-85’s with the aluminum V-8.

It had a bad miss in the engine.

I started pulling the plugs to clean them. All was ok until I got to the hard one to remove way back on one side.

Seems it was cross threaded!!

Aluminum block, aluminum heads, didn’t matter:bang

Since I could not replace the plug and it was the bad plug I really didn’t care about the car and certainly was not going to replace the head!

So, I traded it for a mini bike.

One of the best trades I ever made:laugh
 

hogmotors

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 1
Those Mystry Motor Exh. Manifolds have got to be worth a dollar or two! I was at the 63 Firecracker 400 when it was on the 4th. All 5 Chevies were on the 1st 5 spots. Didn't last long though.
As I remember, Junior won the World 600 running the engine that he had run the previous week because they were running out of parts.
"yep, flat out the whole race."
 
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