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History 1963 Chevrolet Mystery Motor

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by wrench409, Nov 4, 2010.

  1. wrench409
    Joined: Oct 16, 2006
    Posts: 372

    wrench409
    Member Emeritus
    from Here

    Here are some photos of the 1963 Chevy Mystery Motor. I've collected these pictures in my journey across the internet. If anyone has more they can share, please post them so I can add them to my collection.

    It's a nice bit of history for the early 60's and as we all know what it grew up to be.

    Study the subtle and obvious differences on it from later big block Chevy engines.

    The first 4 are assembled engines. The rest in the series are 63 pictures that are of a teardown of the engine with lot's of details.

    Disclaimer - I do not know who owns this engine.

    That said....enjoy!
     

    Attached Files:

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  2. wrench409
    Joined: Oct 16, 2006
    Posts: 372

    wrench409
    Member Emeritus
    from Here

    Tearing it down.......
     

    Attached Files:

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  3. 64cheb
    Joined: Sep 27, 2010
    Posts: 74

    64cheb
    Member

    The mystery engine bared a strong resemlence to the Big Block, but had different flow characteristics. Try looking up on Smokey Yunick. He has fiddled with a few of these back in the day. When he brought them to the races, they said he was cheating, since the motor was an all new type to the circuit.
     
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  4. wrench409
    Joined: Oct 16, 2006
    Posts: 372

    wrench409
    Member Emeritus
    from Here

    More..........
     

    Attached Files:

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  5. wrench409
    Joined: Oct 16, 2006
    Posts: 372

    wrench409
    Member Emeritus
    from Here

    Even more........
     

    Attached Files:

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  6. wrench409
    Joined: Oct 16, 2006
    Posts: 372

    wrench409
    Member Emeritus
    from Here

    And finally...........
     

    Attached Files:

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  7. wrench409
    Joined: Oct 16, 2006
    Posts: 372

    wrench409
    Member Emeritus
    from Here

    I hope the Chevy fans enjoy these pics.
     
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  8. is that the mystery nascar motor GM produced prior to the commercial release of the big block?
     
  9. Uh.., in case you didn't know, Smokey died 8-10 years ago.
     
  10. dbradley
    Joined: Jan 6, 2007
    Posts: 1,036

    dbradley
    Member

    I would think that "Speedy Bill" owns one. There is an amazing collection there in Nebraska.
     
  11. El Caballo
    Joined: Mar 3, 2001
    Posts: 6,283

    El Caballo
    ALLIANCE MEMBER

    Those exhaust manifolds must have been pretty trick back then. Impressive.
     
  12. oldblu65
    Joined: Jan 29, 2009
    Posts: 121

    oldblu65
    Member
    from Tennessee

    I have an old issue of Hot Rod , from that era , that had an article about this engine. I'd have to look around and find it if there is any interest ?
     
  13. bobwop
    Joined: Jan 13, 2008
    Posts: 6,115

    bobwop
    Member
    from Arley, AL

    thank you for the great photos. I just love the exhaust manifolds. With the mufflers, they look perfect for an X-frame full-size GM car.
     
  14. Deuces
    Joined: Nov 3, 2009
    Posts: 23,753

    Deuces

    Hey Wrench. Thanks for posting these pictures buddy! :) I do have a few questions about these engines... Do any of the parts interchange with the 396-427 big blocks??? How about a complete gasket set?? Are there places that stock them??? How about the production run?? How many of these were produced??? And last but not least... Were there any special intake manifolds made for these engines??? Like maybe a Moon style intake with side draft Webers??? Thanks in advance!! :)
     
  15. texoutsider
    Joined: Jul 6, 2005
    Posts: 826

    texoutsider
    Member
    from Frisco, Tx

    I was once running a Speed Shop in south Georgia...back in the late 60s and early 70s...........had a few things hanging on the wall..........one was a Mystery engine intake that came off of an engine that we had run in the Modified class in Nascar...We had 2 of these.........A couple of guys came in to browse on thier way from Iowa to Daytona for Bike week/Speed week.........saw the intakes and asked if they were for sale........I told them sure, but they would not fit anything that they had.........explained that they were for the Mystery engine, not a 396/427. They argued with me about it...said I did not know what I was talking about...asked the price..I think I said 75 bucks each........They bought one...........a bit later they stopped back in and bought the other one..........We again traded opinions about he lineage of the intakes.......I knew for sure about one as I had blown up the engine under it...About 2 weeks later I got a letter from one of the guys wanting his money back because it would not fit his 427...........soon a phone call from the other guy also wanting his money back.......I told them to pound sand. I had explained that although they looked similar to the current BBC intakes, they were a bit too long and too wide........They had argued with me about it for over 30 minutes...I finally just sold them the intakes and said "take em, no refunds if you don't believe me".........wish I had em back now...

    Mark
     
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  16. wrench409
    Joined: Oct 16, 2006
    Posts: 372

    wrench409
    Member Emeritus
    from Here

    I think it's been pretty much determined this engines parts are incompatible with the Mark IV 396/427 series. The engine did have a 409 type lower end, the oil pan appears to be Z-11 type. All the other parts seem to be one off and very unique to the MM only. The difference are subtle but most familiar with W and MK-IV engines can see them.

    I'd think it's a fair bet there are no aftermarket parts produced. As for gaskets, that's hard to say.

    I remember an intake listed on Ebay some years ago. I saved some pictures (of course).
     

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  17. Deuces
    Joined: Nov 3, 2009
    Posts: 23,753

    Deuces

    Thanks Wrench! :)
     
  18. rusty76
    Joined: Jun 8, 2009
    Posts: 882

    rusty76
    Member
    from Midway NC

    I'm no engine guy but the intake almost looks dual purpose. Like it could be used for both a two and four bbl. Though I doubt it. Now looking at it it almost looks as though the carb could have been mounted sideways for rodchester carb. I have no clue. Cool engine though.
     
  19. I found this info............
    Development of the second generation big-block started with the so-called Mystery Motor used in Chevrolet's 1963 Daytona 500 record-setting stock cars. This "secret" engine was a substantially modified form of the "W" engine, and was subsequently
    released for production use in mid-1965 as the Mark IV, referred to in sales literature as the "Turbo-Jet V8. .
     
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  20. spiderdeville
    Joined: Jun 30, 2007
    Posts: 1,134

    spiderdeville
    Member
    from BOGOTA,NJ

    junior johnson had 10 wins with a mystery motor in 1963
     
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  21. Neat, hadn't seen pictures of a complete one before.

    Sure looks like a smallblock with splay valve heads. Water pump, fuel pump and the boss it's attached to look SBC. Pushrod guides look way overkill!

    Neat-O!
     
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  22. Thanks for the pics. Very interesting! :cool:
     
  23. wrench409
    Joined: Oct 16, 2006
    Posts: 372

    wrench409
    Member Emeritus
    from Here

    I think Johnny Rutherford (who lives about a mile from me) drove one as well.

    Well I never got to meet him. I always meant to stop by driving the '62 but life got in the way. I bought a house across town (I even considered the property behind his while I was house hunting!).
     
    Last edited: Oct 13, 2012
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  24. wrench409
    Joined: Oct 16, 2006
    Posts: 372

    wrench409
    Member Emeritus
    from Here

    The manifold in these pictures is the standard dual plane design used on all Chevy V8's.

    However the manifold on the teardown job shows to have been machined for performance.

    Late in 62 GM offered an open plenum design for Nascar use on the W series engine. That manifold apparently went through several stages of design changes as well as seen below:

    NOTE, THESE ARE 409 INTAKES!
     

    Attached Files:

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  25. biscaynes
    Joined: Mar 16, 2008
    Posts: 1,647

    biscaynes
    Member

    thanks for sharing wrench! :cool:
     
  26. wrench409
    Joined: Oct 16, 2006
    Posts: 372

    wrench409
    Member Emeritus
    from Here

    You're welcome everyone.

    If you find any more, post here or in a PM to me.

    I'd love to have pics of the build up of this engine.
     
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  27. Thanks for the pics. Very cool indeed >>>>.
     
  28. Deuces
    Joined: Nov 3, 2009
    Posts: 23,753

    Deuces

  29. Too cool. Love those exhaust manifolds. Thanks a ton for posting these pictures.
     
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  30. jcmarz
    Joined: Jan 10, 2010
    Posts: 4,631

    jcmarz
    Member
    from Chino, Ca

    Wrench, thanks for the photos. I had always read with great interest about the mystery motor and how blazing fast it was but this is the first time in my 47 years that I have seen a actual photo of the fable motor. Chevrolet U.S.A-1
     
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