[Marks63PontiacGasser]

OK guys. You know that I'm a very shy and reserved person, HA! I just brought home a 1962 Pontiac 4 cylindr 194 cubic inch motor. It is cast from a 389, with the drivers side lopped off. It uses 389 pistons (4), 389 rods(4), the bottom end of a 389 with the full 5 main bearings, one of the V8 heads, one V8 exhaust manifold or header. It uses a 3 inch main bearing (V8 bearings) but a purpose cast 180 degree firing order crank. I'm going to get it out of the truck and on the stand tomorrow so I can get some close up pics of it for you. I'll talk more on it later but it may find itself in the Catalina as an optional cruising motor between drag strip days with the 406. We'll see how it all works out. Going to bed now. Gunna dream of little buzzing 200 cubic inch Pontiac 4 cylinders.
Oh, and this is a just a teaser of that build thread I linked to on another section.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeC42O_Xcv0&feature=plcp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O29QyH7gq78&feature=plcp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMs0v1Y68pU&feature=relmfu

It did make 442 hp on the chassis dyno. That equates to a little over 500 HP (using 15% for driveline losses) at the crank, and it turns out number four piston was hurt. He has fixed the piston but I don't think he has redyno'd it yet. He has been running it at 20 psi since the dyno runs which should be putting him around the 600 crank HP area. That is my target as well. Mark L

 

[Marks63PontiacGasser]

Here are that pics of the block so far. I've taken off the front timing cover, the timing set and pulled the cam and lifters. Front shot.

rear shot.

And looking down into the interior at the single rod throw crank journal. Versus a double throw V8.

Just looking straight at the rear bellhousing flange, crazy shape. But supposedly the V8 bellhousings bolt up to most of the bolts??? We'll see.

The crank is a cast armasteel crank but because of the single jounal, they are pretty stout, plus the 180 firing sequence of the 4 cylinder seems to help it last??? we'll see. Mark "Buzz" L

 

[mt94ss]

That is such a cool project! I'd run one. Looks like they are a stout engine. How much boost are you going to run? 20PSI? How much turbo do you need for that? Sure sounds cool. It looks like the starter goes where the other bank of cyls should be. Other than that I can see where the trans would mount.

Outside the box for sure!

 

[ProMetalShop]

This will be interesting, will you take the four banger racing too ? And what's your targeted H.P ?

 

[Marks63PontiacGasser]

Hey guys. Yeah it's a "little" out of the box. But something I've always wanted to do since I saw an old time Super Stock racer run one in his '63 Super Stock Catalina. You're talking 1969-70. The guy had the car off but the was taking a season off of NHRA racing so he thru it together for fun. Way back then if my memory serves me correctly, he had the full sized '63 Cat running in the mid 12's with the 4 cylinder. Pontac had been heavy into the Super Duty engine developement since '60 and had really come up with stout forged parts and (for the time) good flowing heads. With the 4 cylinder using a lot of the V8 parts it was natural that the V8 parts came over to the 4 cylinder. Anywho. Listening to that 4 cylinder back then wail it's way thru the 1/4 mile was crazy. Back then is was very unusual to hear a 4 cylinder at the strip, unless it was class racing. But most of my time at the strip was test n tune nights, or grudge night, where most cars if not all were V8's.
With the aftermarket making so many new parts for the V8's and many of them cross over to the 4 cylinder, they are capable of a lot of HP. As long as they can physically handle the power. The bottom of th eblock is the V8 casting thickness, plus these are still a thicker cast block than the later V8's. So they are pretty stout.

This is a vid of Nunzie's recreated Super Duty 4 cylinder Tempest as a reference. He is still sorting it out but I believe hes well into the 11's now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1Th2JG4h9g

That is N/A with old technology heads. The new aftermarket heads blow the old Super Duty heads out of the water. The previous vids of the '64 is using newer Edlebrock E-Heads.
I plan to run my 406 with twin 76MM turbonetics ball bearing turbos, 81 exhaust A/R. They are easily capable 1000 HP by themselves. I lpan to use one of those turbos on this. Unless I place it into it's own car than I will have to get one for it. Right now I'd be lucky if I can afford to actually build it let alone get it into a seperate car. The engine is getting popular with the Pontyiac guy again. My plan is to get with other guys building one and we can go in together to buy rods (4 each, splitting a set), custom pistons, again splitting a set, even buying and cutting a tunnel ram in half, one side for each of us and finishing the plenum to what ever configuration the individual wants. I've started looking around at people that have broken a rod in a set and are selling the remaining 5 or 6 rods. I can cut down the rod journals (2.20 inch BB Chevy versus 2.25 for the Pontiacs) to use Big Block Chevy rods, hence the custom pistons. If someone broke a piston in their 400 Pontiac, they may be sitting on 5 or 6 good pistons and I can getthose for a great price. Lots of choices and lots of good parts, maybe very affordable too. The only real problem I see is the stock cast crank. Pontiac cast cranks are very stout. They can take a lot of pounding (HP) and survive when properly prepped. The 4 cylinder crank is an unknown. The bellhousing flange accepts almost all of the V8 bolt locations and the back of the 4 cylinder crank is identical to the V8 so all normal flywheel/clutch or flex plate autos will bolt up. Very easy. Just have to adapt a different starter since the original is meant for a small diameter flywheel so you have to move one out farther for a V8 flywheel.

The guy in the first videos (Charlie66) is still using a stock cast crank. It's making over 600 HP now and he beats the hell out of it. He built the 4 cylinder just for fun and now wants to actually push it till it breaks. He's at 25 PSI now on E85. It will be a long precess for this 4 cylinder to get running since all my money has to go towards getting the '63 on the road. But hopefully as I let it set these parts like 6 good rods or 5-6 good pistons will pop up and I can get them at a good price. We'll see. Mark L

 

[1937Austin]

Very strange looking engine! At first glance it looks like a broken 389!

 

[19mach69]

These engines always intrigued me. I look forward to seeing what you do with the thing.

 

[Marks63PontiacGasser]

The only real drawback to the motor is the weight versus the cubic inches. But for a high HP combination, all that extra weight is good thick cast iron. It does take getting used to after looking at full Pontiac V8s all the time. I'm really looking forward to getting it built and running. I'm just not sure how long that will take though. Mark L

 

[Marks63PontiacGasser]

I pulled it apart tonight. How's this for a stout cast crank???

3 inch mains, 3.75 stroke, 2.250 rod journals, 180 degree configuration.

Mark L