This is all cool stuff ! I like the 4 x 4 engine build Panneton Bros. I'm sure the guy my dad spoke of back in the day had the real thing. My dad is a truthful, straight shooter and has taught me a ton about engine building. Wish he had some pics of the guys car and engine bur no luck. The most my dad ran in his car was a 292. He and another friend raced a 55 2dr hardtop with a 301.
That's a big bag of tricks for 500-525 HP! BUT, that's what it took back then. I miss talking to your Dad. So much knowledge rollin around in that head of his. Whenever he'd show up @ Bobs with his trunk full of HEI's & Q-Jets I'd have to go over and see what he had to say.
Howard.s Machine shop in Huntsville Alabama made up hundreds of the 3.5 stroke cranks from 1957 thru 67. The also added ballancers to the middle of the crank, All of the cranks were welded up then turned to std bearing size. After this operation the were hard chrome plated.
Never knew that little motor could be stroked that big,with all that extra work done did they hold up well or needed to be freshened up frequently when ran hard.
352s were common in the Atlanta area in the 1961-1963 era.Another popular size was 365 cubic inches.Atlanta Speed Shop sold a helluva a lot of 4.X3.625 kits.An eliminator called "Cheatin'n Four Barrel" was big at that time.It was basically gasser rules for the car and chassis and any size engine with one carb.You have to remember the biggest carbs available at that time were AFBs. The lanes would be full of 55s with one four barrel.As most eliminators go it started off with street driven cars and within a year it went nuts.
Yeah, seems like I remember an article in the early '60's (from Hot Rod Magazine?) that featured a 283 bored totally out and replaced with siamezed (wet?) sleeves to obtain a 400 cube engine. I don't remember the bore or stroke but the article mentioned cooling concerns for street usage.
I remember that article, too. Engines were built by Jack Conley in Brighton, Michigan. They were for super modifieds. The block was bored out till the cylinders were gone. At he deck, the holes overlapped. Thin wall sleeves were ground flat on the sides and the whole thing was heated in an oven, then the sleeve package shrunk fit into place. Home made Siamese block! If I remember correctly, he could get a 482" small block. (4.25" X 4.25"). Cranks by Bob Gillian (Moldex). Why settle for a mere 352 when you can have 482 and call it a 283? I didn't know Jack but Gilley told me the story and he never lied about cubic inches.
There was a guy that worked as a mechanic at Don Allen Chevrolet in Charlotte that built a 352 Chevy engine for his '57 Chevy in about 1961. It was the fastest car on the streets of Charlotte for awhile. It was a very powerful engine at the time.
As a Christmas present to myself this year I bought a stack of old HOT ROD magazines. One of the articles that caught my attention that I'm currently reading is in the May 1960 issue of Hot Rod magazine where a guy named Lawrence Jewel of the Jewel Tool Co. of Taylor Michigan Bored and stroked a 283 out to 402 cubic inches using a set of short skirt Grant pistons and Buick rods. Sorry I don't have a scanner or I'd scan the article for you guys.
That's a really impressive piece of machinery...I wonder what ever became of it? I've heard of the 301, but never knew about the 352...pretty exotic stuff back then! Kind of related, but years ago a friend of mine had an OT Chevy Monza coupe with a 262 V8/four speed in it. The motor was on its last legs, so his father swapped in an overbored 400 with a Q-jet and some other mods that I no longer recall. I DO recall that it had loads of torque and had no problem smoking off those 13" tires!
There was a bad-ass Willys coupe in San Antonio in the mid 60's that was very competitive. I believe the last SBC he campaigned was 352 cu in. I believe he said it started life as a 327, then was slightly bored and equipped with a stroker crank. It ran strong.
365's were popular in the seventies-early eighties, if you were doing a 350 and it had a couple of bad rod journals, you would offset grind it 1/16 down to 2" journals, use 327 rods and TRW 2278F's. If the crank needed grinding anyway, it didn't really cost much more than building a 355. They kind of faded away in the mid eighties when 383's started to really become popular. The article on the Jack Conley motors was in Car Craft in the early seventies, and you are correct, he was building them as big as 482.
Had a friend who had a 352 built and in a 2 door wagon, blew the shit out of it while showing me how it ran, 1965, took out the bottom end!
I seem to recall an orange Willys with a 482" Chevy in it in the opening scene of The Jackson Bros. Gasser Files 1&2 being towed by a Toyota jeep and driven by a guy named Kevin Perry whom i thnk is our very own @Kiwi Kev. I'm wondering if that was originaly a 283 built by this guy.
I had a friend with a '55 Chevy 210 tudor with a 352 in it. He bought the crank kit from Joe Reath in Long Beach. Ran 6 twos and a Racer Brown roller cam. I don't remember the times any more. I just remember the car was brutal, took no prisoners, and ate women and children for lunch!
I don't know about the Car Craft article but i found this article in the Aug. '77 issue of HOT ROD magizine.
Had a283 bored and stroked to 352 back in 1967. Bought the stroker kit from a place called speed-o-motive, crank, rods, bearings, pistons,and rings. If I recall it only cost like 3 or 4 hundred dollars. We put it in a Model A coupe and ran c-altered. Myself and 5 friends built the car in our senior year of high school. Car turned in the 12-s.
Murray and Waters removed their flathead for a Chevrolet V8 in very early 55 and had a 1/2" stroker by Howard soon after. Theirs was the first 352" I ever heard of. Don't know how it was done from a 265". I talked about with Mike before his passing one time at Bonneville.
In the mid 70's built a 301 for a hobby stock dirt track car. I used a 283 crank in a small journal 327 block. Ordered 283 .125 over pistons. You could find them every where back then. Use the 283 rods and the 327 had the 4" bore so it all bolted together without any overbore. Last I knew anything about it was still running in a guys pulpwood truck. It would pass everyone coming out of the curves but they would catch me at the other end. I wish I could buy it back and put in my 67 El Camino. I guess I am going to have to put in my .060 over aluminum head 455 in it, but thats another story.
This is a great thread. I have a small journal 327 at the machine shop right now. Makes me want to rethink what I was going to do with it. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
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