Quote:
Originally Posted by Carleen
Heres what I have found out.
And I thought WDC means Winter die casting
Can-Am blocks 68/69 - Winters
# 0-294550 = 4.250" bore with steel liners Experimental Prototype 67-68 Dry sump (427 ci)
# 0-321270 = 4.440" bore with steel liners Experimental Prototype 68 no boss for mechanical fuel pump(430, 465 ci)
# 0-326711 = 4.440" bore with steel liners Experimental Prototype 68 (430, 465 ci)
# 3946052 = 4.440" bore with steel liners (430, 465 ci)
# 3946053 = 4.440" bore with steel liners (430, 465 ci)
Can-Am Block 70 Winters
# 3946052 = 4.440" bore with steel liners (494 ci)
# 3946053 = 4.440" bore with steel liners (494 ci)
Can-Am blocks 71-72 - Reynolds
# O-399204 = 4.5" bore and steel liners (509 ci)
# O-495102 = 4.5" bore and no liners
ZL-1 Factory blocks - 1969 - Winters
# 3946052 427 ci.
# 3946053 427 ci
ZL-1 Factory blocks - 1997 & up
# 3946053 427 ci.
# 3992038 may be 4.44" bore w/ Liners - era?.
# 3946052 Yenko Casting LC 427
# 3946053 Yenko - Casting has YENKO
# 3946053 Yenko - Casting has Y E N K O
# 394605Y Yenko - Casting has Yenko Crest Logo
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I know this is a slightly aged thread, but for my first post here in this forum, I can help this history. Covering the Yenko blocks, the first batch commissioned by Yenko was thru the Winters people, so they had the snowflake. Then Yenko bought the molds and Winters asked him to knock off the snowflake for his personal production.
For the 1967 year, Chevrolet was building limitedly 427 Aluminum engines, going out to Chaparral/Hall. So 0-294550 were this batch. They lost about 11 of them in race testing! First ran at the 1967 Daytona 24 where one 2F was fitted, and one 2D modified was fitted, due to the other Team 2F, not being ready. They won Brands Hatch with this engine in 1967. Also these could be configured either internal dry sump or wet sump. I have put up some pictures up of this in the last thread on Corvette Forum (TCracingCA) showing this, in the recent thread talking of a White ZL-1 clone selling on Ebay.
For 1968 to the dissatisfaction of Jim Hall, Chevrolet opened it up to offering supply to all Teams with the next version 0-321270 (I believe 20 produced). They were working on revisions, and due to supply demand, they released 0-326711 upping production and supplied to more outfits, 60 units out to Can Am and like Drag Racer Grumpy Jenkins got 3 initially, might have acquired 2 more, along with other outfits like Motion. As these could be built with the famed short stroke and big bore, in 430 or 465. These were the first of the Chevrolet units, that get confused as being Reynolds 390 units.
For 1969-onward, these Chevrolet units made using 356 aluminum (preceeding the Reynolds 390 Alloy program), Chevrolet finally gave them a Part # and made some available to select Dealerships over the counter. As these were designed to go 430, 465, they are as said with the proceeding 0-dash units, confused often with the Reynolds 390 units that would come later. And this engine was thought to be the 454 version of the ZL-1 mistakenly. I have to study the 0-326711, the ZL-1, and this #3992038 block side by side, but I think this latest has some of the characterics of both the Chevrolet 356 Alloy series and the ZL-1. The ZL-1 needed some clearancing for 4.0 stroke and this latest engine had that done.
Part #3992038.
They had problems with the larger displacement sizes 441 (.060 overbore) & 509/510 (.060 overbore) especially, due to the cylinder bores being so close to the head bolts, so they would get fracturing. I can elaborate more on this later, like core shifting. Therefore to solve a number of issues, they went with Reynolds and their improved Alloy and better production casting techniques.
Reynolds 390 only offered a Block which became Chevrolet Part #3965755 for 430, 465, 495
Next Chevrolet was working with Reynolds for bigger bores and plating techniques, different piston plating, etc. they had larger bore development happening under
0-399204 & later 0-495102, but the Can Am series died.
A few ZL-1 units were found to be able to be built in large displacement, in an attempt to keep competitive to the Porsche 917/30 & 917-10, until the last year of the old Can Am in 1974, when a gas consumption formula negated the sheer horsepower advantage of the Porsche Turbos in 1972 & 1973, and thus Shadow won that final year.