Mercury MerCruiser Introduces New, More Powerful Big Block

my3sons said:
I was catching up on the news papers as I have been out of town, and thought of this old thread when I read this article yesterday. The last of the 496 / 8.1's came off the assembly line here this week. Let's all hope that the merc. replacement will be as good (or even better?)
http://www.buffalonews.com/cityregion/story/899075.html

Merry Christmas everyone
Mark
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Thanks for sharing. I remember the decal on the valve covers of the hot Chevys from the '60s & '70s: "Tonawanda..Team..No1"
I had a '70 Chevelle SS 454 LS-6 and I remember all the 396-427-454-502 engines came from that plant.

Sad to see it go.:smt009
 
sprink56 said:
I had a '70 Chevelle SS 454 LS-6 and I remember all the 396-427-454-502 engines came from that plant.

Sad to see it go.:smt009
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'70 Chevelle, NICE CAR.
I had a '69 Z-28, sold it in '76 to buy a new '76 Chevy pick-up in order to advance my position on the job.
Missed it enough to buy another southern '69 Z-28 in 1985 and did a complete frame-off resto. Sold it in '93 for a new leftover 290 sundancer. Between the Z and my 220 trade, I was at about even money.
Never did have one of those big blocks in a street car. Had my share in boats though :thumbsup:
Merry Christmas
 
The Z28 was my favorite car as a kid, never owned one though. Later I got a couple Vetts only to have nothing put constant problems, moved on to Porsche and have never looked back. Have a couple 911s now, one is an 97 993 C2 last of the air cooled 3.6L engines, the other is a 2007 997 Twin Turbo which has the famous bulletproof GT1 split block. These are absolute masterpieces of engineering, winning the world engine of the year a couple years ago. The turbo has pretty much been outlawed from racing by the ACO because they favor the NA engines (seems the French and Italians could never figure out the turbo, don't think US figured them out either).
 
my3sons said:
'70 Chevelle, NICE CAR.
I had a '69 Z-28, sold it in '76 to buy a new '76 Chevy pick-up in order to advance my position on the job.
Missed it enough to buy another southern '69 Z-28 in 1985 and did a complete frame-off resto. Sold it in '93 for a new leftover 290 sundancer. Between the Z and my 220 trade, I was at about even money.
Never did have one of those big blocks in a street car. Had my share in boats though :thumbsup:
Merry Christmas
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Hey 3sons...I did a body off on this one...1968 Camaro Coupe RPO Z/28...sold it in '95...miss it badly....I feel your pain.:thumbsup:

picture.php
 
Did anyone ever see the Z427? They had one at Sebring in the later 60's. Ford had a Boss 427 Mustang there as well. Those were 2 great cars, don't think many of either car were produced though.
 
mawyatt said:
Did anyone ever see the Z427? They had one at Sebring in the later 60's. Ford had a Boss 427 Mustang there as well. Those were 2 great cars, don't think many of either car were produced though.
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I heard about it...never saw one. This is about as close as I have seen

68L78.jpg


There are those that will ask..."what has this got to do with Sea Rays?"'

OK...this is why.... the Chevrolet Mark series of engines was the most mass produced engine of it's size and power in history. It became the natural choice for big torque power using a gasoline engine. Because it was installed in many Chevrolet Hi-Performance cars and also in trucks...it was produced in large quantities and became the best "bang for the buck" for economical marine applications. Ford (427/428/429/460) and Chrysler (413/440/426 Hemi) had engines that were also well suited for marine applications, they were never built in large enough quantities to make them a "better" choice than the Chevy.

The factory in Tonawanda NY was the only place (as far as I know) that these engines were built. The fact that GM has come to the end of the line with the production of this engine series sort of kicks the door open for the next Gasoline powered "Big Block" to take over.

Regretfully...or thankfully...depending on your viewpoint, there may never again be anything like the Big Block Chevy built that will replace it for marine applications. Chrysler hasn't built a big displacement V8 in years and their V10 that was used in the Viper and the Dodge Hi-Performance trucks is scheduled for it's end. Ford has a golden opportunity here to bring back a modern version of the 460 V8. The 460 is a great performer and was used by Merc and OMC in the '80s as an alternative to the Chevy. I would not be surprised to see Ford jump on this.:thumbsup:
 
You guys are killing me.....in my mis-spent youth, I had a "70 1/2 Z28 rally sport....it had a 302 bored .030" over with 12.5:1 pistons, off road cam, headers....on and on. Oh, for the days......I guess when I get older, much older, I'll tell my grandkids about my Sea Ray.
 
Didn't the Z28 302 have a 327 block with a 283 crank for shorter stroke...or something like that. I recall that the sports car limit for the class the Mustangs and Cameros ran in were limited to 5L or about 302CI, thus Chevy and Ford created the 302 from other components...think the Ford was a 289 crank with 350 block.

BTW I am telling my grandkids about SeaRays, have 4.
 
mawyatt said:
Didn't the Z28 302 have a 327 block with a 283 crank for shorter stroke...or something like that. I recall that the sports car limit for the class the Mustangs and Cameros ran in were limited to 5L or about 302CI, thus Chevy and Ford created the 302 from other components...think the Ford was a 289 crank with 350 block.

BTW I am telling my grandkids about SeaRays, have 4.
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You are close. The Gen I Camaro Z/28 engine was a 4 bolt main 327 block with a 283 crank. They had Corvette "fulie" heads that were also called "double hump" because of the casting mark on the front & rear of the head...last 3 digits of the part No. was "186". These heads had 2.02" intake vales and 1.65" exhaust valves. They all carried solid lifter cams and a dual plane aluminum intake with a 780 CFM Vac. Secondary Holley carb. They were under rated at 290 horse at 6000 RPM.
They would reliably spin up over 7000 RPM and were making about 400 HP. There was an available dual 4 bbl carb version that was a dealer install.

The Boss 302 Ford was a 289 block bored to 4". It came with the "Cleveland" heads that were also used on the famous 351 Cleveland hi-po engines. They were also rated at 290 horse.

The 2 engines were comparable power wise.

The last Z/28 with the 302 was the 1969 model...and that year model ran for 1.5 years.

The 1970 Z/28 came with a 370 horse 350 that was identical to the LT-1 Corvette engine. It was produced only one year at that power level. EPA banned leaded gasoline in 1971 and all of the compression ratios/horse power ratings dropped as well.
 
Thx for clearing my foggy thinking up. We should start another thread on cars/engines so we don't get into trouble with Jim for hijacking this one.

Merry Christmas
 
mawyatt said:
Thx for clearing my foggy thinking up. We should start another thread on cars/engines so we don't get into trouble with Jim for hijacking this one.

Merry Christmas
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Yeah...I hear you. I thought about that too...but then again...90% of all gasoline I/O and inboard boats have small block or big block Chevy's...so we pass the "6 degrees of separation" test:thumbsup:

I'm all for a car/truck thread as it relates to engine cross over and tow vehicles.

After all...when these engines and basic parts are cast and forged...no one knows what service, auto or marine, each is destined for.

Merry Christmas:smt001
 
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