Hi Folks, This neat 62 Bubbletop at the Dallas Autorama has a fuel injection setup like no other. The owner has no Documentation From GM or Borg Warner but it is really cool and original looking. I should have taken a pic of the info/history board beside the car.... I apologize for posting the thumbnails--I have never figured out how to post pix at full size. Check out the timing cover, if you can see it..this unit is cam driven! Not an "authentic" factory feature but it was sure drawing a crowd on set-up nite!
Its actually a Chevy project designed with Borg Warner, Marvel Schebler and Rochester for 409's. It would have probably been n option for the 409 in the early 60's but the project was scraped due to other new engines coming out at the time, such as Mystery motor and 396ci. This particular system was on a GM truck that belonged to employee at the time.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/3GlNQqJWG1A" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
one day I'll get some pics posted of my first "hot" car - an ex 409 1964 SS that I sold back about 1979....my old buddy built a few '09's and we street raced his 62 around Dallas till about 2001....his old lady got it....sad story there...
We talked to the "handler" about the car. I totally dig the car and the experimentation of the big three in their hayday.
Here ya go. <iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/HDE-UlXtK7E" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" width="420"></iframe>
One thing that doesn't seem to make a lot of sense. One of the reasons that Chevrolet and Borg-Warner *supposedly* stopped development and scrapped this project was because the 409 was near the end of it's production run and was very soon. to be replaced by the new 396/427 "Mark iV" engine. It would seem to me, that other than casting up a new, dedicated FI intake manifold, that all of the technology and most of the hardware could have been very easily and quickly adapted to work on the new, soon-to-be released. 'Mark IV' engine. My guess is that real reason this project wasn't pursued and developed further - and also, not eventually adapted to the new 396-427, as well - was simply, cost. 'Back in day', carbs were cheap for the OEMs - the 'Big-4' were probably paying something on the order of 7 or 8 dollars apiece - and maybe even much less - for 4-bbl carburetors - and in the end, the 'bean-counters' at GM were probably the ones responsible for killing this project. It's a real shame too, because, just like an arms race between countries., if Chevy had put this into production, Ford and Chrysler and the other GM divisions as well, would have followed suit with their own fuel injection systems too. Who knows were that might have led and what we might have been driving??!! Mart3406 ==========
The Jalopy Journal
