496 crate motor?

[hotrodchev]

All this talk about big-block crate motors got me thinking about a story I was told approx. 12-15 years ago. The father (now deceased) of a close friend of mine use to tell us the story about a "496" crate motor he and his partner had purchased at a local dealership to run in their 1968 Chevelle drag car in the early to mid-1970's. He claimed, it was sold as a marine motor, so they had to change the intake and a few other components in order to set it up drag racing. Apparently, they could never get it to run right mated to an automatic, so they switched to a 4-spd. manual and it ran like a charm at high RPM. When the drag strip closed down in 1979, the car was parked and the motor was sold to a neighbor who apparently tucked it away in the corner of his garage. I don't know if the motor still exists today, but I might possibly still be able to track down this person if it's worth persuing. I recently paged through a Big-Block Chevy catalog I have and there is brief mention of a 496 Big-Block engine along with several other "rare" high performance engines. I'm very curious if anyone else has any further information about the 496's and if it's true that many of these "big" cubic inch motors were always sold over-the-counter as marine motors.

Thanks,
Tim
"HotrodchevII"