A while back I found a photo of a 153 chevy with a SBC head on it. I happen to have one of thoes motors and need some info and help with it. Any body know anything about them?
i know that they're junk and you don't want it. i'll take it off your hands. should be some markings somewhere on it. does it have an aluminum block? if it doesn't and it's iron i would be very surprised. that means someone adapted a sbc head to a chevy ii which would take a lot of work. it's probably a fontana or a gaerte or a kansas racing or something. post up a pic.
They ran midgets with small block heads on a chev II motor. I belive that pushrods run out side the block . One head bolt comes right in the middle of a water passage. Try midget racing site for more information
It is a iron head that has had a lot of work done on it. It is going on to an iron block. I am looking for front distribtur drive and motor mount setup for this think. i have just about everything else for it but the intake.
That was the hot setup back when, but today a Mercury inboard-outboard boat motor head is better. Lots of fabbing to make the SBC head fit the banger.
around 1970 a guy out here was cleaning house on and off the track with a chevy II called the "Mystery Four".It had a head that was made up by cutting and welding several SBC heads together I saw him run the car many nights in street races and never saw him loose way too many guys under estimated this little car and engine.I can't give exact details of the head but do know he had a shit load of money in it.
When I went to Centennial College in Toronto/Scarborough there was one on a motor stand in the engines department.
HeeHee....yea.....I brazed that head together.....We gritted our teeth everytime we started it!....Was a handgranade with the pin pulled but it ran its ass off!!!!!!!!!
Yea....sorry....gotta run my business........yep, the head was made up of 4 different sections, these cylinders were cut usuing a bandsaw, after the 4 sections were cut, we mounted them on a angleplate on a bridgeport, sawed ends were then milled square. Then we got 2 pieces of 1/2" plate....drilled the hole patters thru them........beveled the edges.......and put 4 good tacks on them, on the intake and exhaust side with the plates torqued down top and bottom sandwiching the head. When enough brass was laid in so it wouldn't fall apart...........the plates were removed and brazed the crap outta it. Then we returned to the bridgeport, indicated the bed in really close and with a large milling head, we made everything flat, true and square. We then trued up the guide holes, seats, etc. Then we surface ground it We then had to sleeve a hole where it ( a head bolt) went thru the water jacket, drilled 2 lineup dowel holes in the block and the head. We then took the bare block and head, and put the head bolts in......we indicated in on the seats and valveguides.....Zero'ed out the dials, moved to where the pushrods were to be.....laid all that stuff out on the mill and clearenced for the pushrods and corrected some valvetrain geometry.............it was kinda complicated.....then we started on the intake and exhaust systems................
Oh we gotta have more... You can't just stop there! I'd love to see some pics of that thing. How did you keep the crank webbing from self destructing? I had one that was a time bomb. You knew it was gonna blow up, you just didn't know when. Kevin Ooltewah Speed Shop
These little 4's were made from '62-70 in Chevy II's/ Novas. I think they were also used in some postal Vegas, but im not so sure. They are actually pretty scarce nowadays. I got one stuffed in the corner of my shop thats going into a 2 door sedan im building. They use the same pistons as a 230ci inline 6 or a 307 chevy v8. <table border="0" width="580"><tbody><tr align="center" bgcolor="red" valign="middle"><th width="30">Year </th><th width="40">Size </th><th width="40">Type </th><th width="30">Carb (bbl) </th><th width="35">RPO </th><th width="95">HP @ RPM </th><th width="110">Torque @ RPM (ft-lbs) </th><th width="110">Bore & Stroke (in) </th><th width="90">Compression Ratio </th></tr><tr align="RIGHT"><td>1962</td><td>153</td><td>L4</td><td>1</td><td> </td><td> 90 @ 4000</td><td>152 @ 2400</td><td>3.875 x 3.25</td><td>8.5:1 </td></tr></tbody></table> They are the same specs from 62-70. I wouldnt bother with the SBC head because it would cost a fortune to build. Your best bet is to collect a bunch of the MERCRUISER boat speed sparts, they came in 153ci and 181ci. If im not mistaken theirs a 8 port head with 1.94 intakes instead of the stock 5 port with 1.74 intakes. I would also see if you can adapt one of the lump port kits from the 6 cylinder chevys and use it on the 4. two 1 barrels, and 4 barrel intakes, and headers show up on ebay all the time. You can use a stock mercruiser rebuild kit to bump the motor to 120hp. I think some of the claims of the super wild motors are more circle track specific. Even a well built 153 motor is going to get its ass beat by a similar built v8. An L32 283 makes(according to the factory specs) 195hp @ 4800, and 285ft-lbs @ 2400 Cool and unique motors though, and Ive seen them run on only 2 cylinders. You dont even need a cherry picker to install them.
I ran one in a Marine Corps mity-mite. I used 283 fueler pistons (one bank) and a marine (merc cruiser) distributor. It's citrifical advance. the rig was aluminum and went like hell until it broke - which it did every time out.
vinniez, Back in about 1970 I ran into Cliff Collins at a party. Remember Harmon Collins Cams and Harmon Collins mags? We got to talking about the 4 cylinder Chevy II that I had in my '32 roadster. He took me to a warehouse where there were about 25 bare high performance 327 V8 heads that had been modified to fit on the 4 banger. Every bolt hole was relocated. There was a side plate that allowed the pushrods to pass outside of the block. If I remember correctly he said the racing rules changed and they couldn't be used. I bought one but later sold it. The hot thing now seems to be reworking the head from the 181 Mercruiser. Charlie Stephens
Fontana Automotive use to sell the hot set-up to bolt on their aluminum head to the chevy II. ran em for years in the midgets. even got an old Dugan aluminum head. Dugan heads and blocks were all cast in Australia for racing. there is a guy in indianapolis that bought all the stuff.Joe Deppe is his name. hes a bunch of stuff and some aluminum 6cyl stuff also. no contact info just working from memory.
Charlie, I have one of the heads that you have described with the side cover. I know the hot setup is the Mercruser but I have never been one to take the easy way out. I want to get this thing built and running. Thinking about putting it into a 33 pickup that we are building for a grocry getter for the wife.
vinniez, Where are you in California? I am in Culver City. I have one in a '32 roadster and you might want to look at it for ideas. Charlie Stephens
FINALY somebody that doesn't think i'm nuts and remembers this car!now I notice you are a long way away from from here so did you live out here back then?It just might be possible we met but i would have been a 16 year old kid hung around there as long as I could get away with it even flagged off a couple of those street races in front of the shop.One race I got to start was between the Mystery and some guy with a hemi powered early 40s Ford pickup in the street at the shop they lined up up the street and once set i started them with a blink of a flash light.I don't remember the Mystery burning rubber on the launch just screaming engine the car rose straight up like it was on a lift and launched he had 3 lenghts on the pick up before the guy reacted and then he just punched that truck and smoked the tires off it never got close to the Mystery!300$ changed hands that night and when it was done. I got a free gas fill up and handed 20 or 30 $ before the 300 went into a pocket I was one rich kid that Saturday night!the other race I remember being at was between Mystery and some MG or something (It was foreign I didn't care what it was!)That guy came closets to getting Mystery but he had wire wheels and on one of his shifts he ripped the wires out of his back wheels and had to shut it down.OK ultimate test for you when I knew the Mystery 4 it was at a gas station with an office full of trophies can you tell me where ?
Yep.....lived out there then....was getting all that experience for building race CARS!!!! I bought a bunch o land out here........put up a racing shop..........( a big prefab building with all kinds of mysterious goings ons)......windows painted black......and the howl of blown mountain motors in a specially muffled room way in the back......late in the afternoons are right after dark......................you hear the coyotes howl, then you'll hear a AA/FC engine howl as it makes a couple of passes on the stand..........WWWWWwwweee...........
Yep....we know it was gonna go one day........I told the owner (I was the machinist puttin this terror together)......this dawm thing is gonna fly apart one day and kill about 5 folks then we're in for it! Ha!..... Head gasket was the thinnest felpro we could find..........Pistons were at '0' deck height.........smallblock chevy valves in it.......2.050 and 2.020's would not fit.....I tried.....because of us having to unshround the valves putting the dawm things in, we milled the deck on the head .035.........put just enough valve clearance to clear.....ram anout 350lbs of spring pressure so the valves would not float and destroy everything..........most everything else depended on prayers...........most other things you can kinda guess about.........and yes.....the pushrods were hanging out in the breeze.............we pust a sorta harley davidson pushrod cover at the top and the bottom......with a really big thick O'ring stype seal pressed into the tube to keep the crud outta the engine......oil pump shimmed up (more pressure), crank offset ground slightly, different lighter rods with a shorter centerline done up since we had to put bushings in the small ends and remachine the big ends.......
DAMN I finaly meet the guy responsible for THE MOTOR of my younger years and your way the hell out there ain't no way I kin hang around the shop that way !I"ll never own a motor that good but YOU are the reason I still like 4S sneaky little surprises they are and I got a couple merc motors in waiting for my 27 T.Do you remember the Hot Sparks A/Altered out of Putnam ct.?or the Aristocrats club out of Danielson I belonged to both clubs used to hang out every Saturday night I could get away with it at Jacks Atlantic station where the Mystery 4 was kept on Rt 6 just over the R.I. line or around Mahalskies on Rt 12 in Killingly Have you got any pics of Mystery 4 I'd like one to show my boys
Well Leon......the pics are long since gone.....I went thru a divorce or 2, left pics and cloths and lost a house. I'd build a couple of other little monsters also......lost photos of them too.............. Here about 2 weeks ago.....the harddrive on myPC crashed.....luckily.....I had things backed up......but yes.....I remember the cars and all the racing. Those were the good ole days when we'd race for serious money back then out on the desolite roads................we were doing all that underground racing stuff before that underground racing stuff was cool! Ha! I'd never thought in all my life I'd meet up with some of the old racing gang!!!! Ha!..................
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