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Mystery Engine

3K views 12 replies 8 participants last post by  RWL11 
#1 ·
Hi All,

I recently found myself a Whipple supercharged scat pack and found that the engine was painted beige instead of hemi orange. I was able to find that the shop who installed the whipple does not paint the engines they work on.

Does anyone know if the beige color has any meaning or know of an engine that comes beige? I bought the car from the owners children. He was building the car to drag race but passed away. No one seems to know.

Thx,
Sam
 
#2 ·
WAG is the owner painted the block that color. Some owners are very diligent to paint the block with right color. Others just use what's handy or what they want to use.

Believe Cummins engine blocks were painted beige at some point. Maybe the guy had some of this engine block paint around.
 
#4 ·
I suspect that before the Whipple build, he had the engine built, or stroked, or perhaps replaced

A Guy
 
#9 ·
Do an internet search on the VIN, maybe someone posted online what they were building.
Or you can maybe find an old for sale ad for the car, and get an idea of dealers that might know more about it.
 
#10 ·
And the tune. Did you get the tuner? If not, you no doubt have some mystery tune. Not that it's bad, but you don't know about it, and certainly don't have the stock tune stored. You said you found the shop that installed, so if they also tuned it, they may be able to enlighten you

A Guy
 
#12 ·
SamB I don't know what your mechanical abilities are, but a degree wheel and dial indicator and a dial caliper can tell you few things about what's been done to the engine.
Set the degree wheel at zero with a pointer at top dead center of number 1 cylinder( pull at least one spark plug out of each cylinder to make it easier to turn over), put the dial indicator on the intake valve spring retainer and set the needle to 7 on the small dial and zero on the big needle.
Slowly turn the engine clockwise till the dials big needle reads .050 lift, record number on wheel, keep turning engine till the dial reads .050 before closing valve(or when valve is just about all the way back up), record that number, these two numbers from the wheel added together plus 180 will give you your cam duration @ .050 lift, do this same procedure on the exhaust valve to get its duration @ .050.
Now when turning the engine over the big needle will keep turning in one direction till it gets to full lift and then reverse stop at the point the needle stops, read the dial indicator. "Example" if the big needle is on .090 and the small dial needle is between 1 and 2 (remember you set the small dial to 7) you subtract 2 the last number the needle past from 7 then add the .090 to that(5) to get .590 lift on the intake for the cam, now do the same for the exhaust valve. Now you have an idea what the cam is.
Now to see if it has been stroked or not, put the degree wheel back on zero at top dead center, put your dial caliper down in the spark plug hole for number 1 cylinder and extend it till the slide arm touches the piston, record the inches and thousands on the caliper. Now turn the engine till the wheel reads 180 degrees, take another depth measurement with your caliper. Subtract the first number from second and this will be the stroke of the engine. If you drain the oil out of the engine you can can go in the drain hole with a borescope camera to see if the engine has factory connecting rods and pistons or aftermarket rods and pistons.
Oh I forgot to say, when you add the two numbers from the opening closing of the valves and 180 to find your cam duration, take that number and divide it by 2 and then subtract the smaller of the two numbers from the degree wheel readings, that will be the cams installed center line. Do the exhaust installed centerline the same way, the number that is directly in the middle of these two installed centerline numbers is the centerline the cam is cut on.
Good Luck with your new Challenger.
 
#13 ·
How about asking his family if he has any friends that also build cars, they'd know what he was up to, and maybe helped him. Check any local car clubs, if he was a member, they would know.
 
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