The engine was not correct for the year of the car because it has the full flow oil filter and the heater outlet at the front of the head.

I was pulling the oil pan to replace the oil pan gasket which was leaking, so I thought. Turns out it was actually the valve cover gasket at the rear of the head that was leaking. Any way I drop the pan about three inches and it stopped. No matter what I did I couldn't get it off. I have done a few of these so I knew what to expect. So I got a small mirror to look down into the pan. I couldn't get the pan off because the oil pickup tube went into a hole in a piece of metal over the sump in the pan. There were also these slotted sheet metal rails along the sides of the pan. I unbolted the pickup from the block and I was able to remove the pan. When I got the front filler block off I found that it was a fabricated piece made from steel (beautiful work and very magnetic). Looking up inside the engine it was exceptionally clean. 

Undersides of the pistons were bright metal with no deposits.  Bores looked like polished metal, no marks and no discoloration. Pistons appeared to be thicker in the skirt and looked much different compared to stock pistons.  I wiped off the rear most counterweight on the crankshaft and got the suprise of my life. Normally the machined surface is smooth in one direction and rough in the other. This was smooth in both directions.

 Extremely fine machining all over the exterior portions of the crankshaft. Noted notches in the bottom of the piston bores and got really excited. It has a stroked crankshaft; 4.38 inch stroke. Forging number doesn't match the 185 numbers so it may be a special forging.


I had to pull the head to see what else was different. Well it has V8 sized intake valves and it appears to have the V8 exhaust valves. When I pulled the head I found a copper head gasket, which I was able to save. Head has no casting number but instead has X-21 B-62 stamped into the head where the casting number would be. Intake and exhaust ports are larger than a stock gasket and it still has the casting parting lines in the passages so it was cast this way. The manifolds are the stock size. I checked the bore with a bore gauge and it is 3.10 inches. Stamped into the top of the small depression in the center of the piston is the word "FORGED".



Oil pump gears are larger than stock. Instead of using the 5/16" bolts to hold oil pump on this has 1/4" grade 8 bolts and the body is machined for slightly larger diameter gears and gears that are about 1/4" longer.  While I was wire brushing the outside of the engine prior to painting I was able to uncover the engine serial number, X-21 B-62. Checked with Andy Beckman at the Museum and he emailed me back that the B-xx engines was the designation given to the R engines that Paxton was developing. He also stated that a similar number was on the OHV6 that was run at Bonneville.


He also stated that the stroked crank was not something that he could explain.  I am speculating that Paxton in CA was doing the mods on some engines that would be sent back to SB. This engine may have been replaced by the dealer and rather than ship one from SB, this one may have been sent from Paxton but got mixed up between a non-modified engine and a modified engine.  The old color under all the paint was silver with a black cylinder head.  Silver was correct color for 61 so maybe that contributed to the mix-up. Or heck maybe they did it deliberately.

Cam shaft gear is aluminum and cam is a 273 duration camshaft (steel instead of iron).  I am thinking that this engine may have been built this way to try supercharging on an OHV6. All of the work has been done for me so sometime in the future this baby is going to get a turbocharger.  I have been having some problems with engine dieseling but I may have gotten that sorted out with much colder plugs.  That is about it.  Paul Villforth