Magnesium block?!?!?!?!?!
#23
Team Owner
#24
Le Mans Master
Thread Starter
Member Since: Oct 2007
Location: Richmond Kentucky
Posts: 5,722
Received 1,244 Likes
on
458 Posts
2022 Corvette of the Year Finalist -- Modified
2021 C2 of the Year Winner - Modified
2021 C1 of the Year Winner - Modified
2020 Corvette of the Year (stock)
C2 of Year Winner (stock) 2019
2017 C1 of the Year Finalist
Now I'm hearing that there were magnesium big blocks. Can anyone confirm this?
#26
Le Mans Master
Looks like an irrigation pump motor.
#27
Le Mans Master
Don't know about SB V8's, but know magnesium engines have been tried. Was at a magnesium showcase a few years ago, and had a manesium V6 block on diplay, I could pick up with one hand. Had no cylinder liners, and vender said didn't need any, except for current anti-freeze corrosion problems. Not sure of this, as magnesiun is known to light off at certain temperatures. Thing sure was light though.
#28
Le Mans Master
Thread Starter
Member Since: Oct 2007
Location: Richmond Kentucky
Posts: 5,722
Received 1,244 Likes
on
458 Posts
2022 Corvette of the Year Finalist -- Modified
2021 C2 of the Year Winner - Modified
2021 C1 of the Year Winner - Modified
2020 Corvette of the Year (stock)
C2 of Year Winner (stock) 2019
2017 C1 of the Year Finalist
The "potential" fire danger associated with magnesium is relevant to the dust particles, as in "grinding or sanding".
#29
Team Owner
Ya! Magnesium. A little startup company known as Porsche tried them for a few years!
Don't know about SB V8's, but know magnesium engines have been tried. Was at a magnesium showcase a few years ago, and had a manesium V6 block on diplay, I could pick up with one hand. Had no cylinder liners, and vender said didn't need any, except for current anti-freeze corrosion problems. Not sure of this, as magnesiun is known to light off at certain temperatures. Thing sure was light though.
#31
Team Owner
Member Since: Oct 2000
Location: Washington Michigan
Posts: 38,899
Received 1,859 Likes
on
1,102 Posts
About 80 million VW Bugs had magnesium crankcase halves; lots of basic research on machining coolant fluids for light alloys was done in Wolfsburg, as they made about 6,000 of them every day.
The following users liked this post:
ptjsk (01-31-2023)
#32
Hi I have a block just like yours. It is a Magnesium block produced by GM there was 31 of them cast by GM. the one I have was used by Mickey Thompson in his 1963 Indy 500 cars and he used it again in 1977 for his Baja single seat race car. As far as fire is goes this one was in a fire. the fire was so hot the card was a lump of aluminum in the intake. and the plug wires were just the core. One of the fuel tanks which is only inches from the side of the block was gone except for the mounting straps.
Pat
Pat
#33
Magnesium Block
Thanks everyone, especially Viking427 and Jim Lockwood, for the valuable information and photos. I had "heard rumors" of a magnesium block floating around and wanted to pursue it for my collection of "weird" stuff. If anyone knows the where abouts of one of the mag or aluminum blocks, please let me know and thanks in advance for your consideration.
Rex
Rex
#35
#36
Drifting
Member Since: Apr 2014
Location: montague michigan
Posts: 1,744
Received 77 Likes
on
61 Posts
C2 of Year Finalist (stock) 2019
somewhere i have pics of a auction i was at.1800lastbid was the web site in ran on. the guys was a huge gm engineer, and if i remember right involved in hot rod magizine . he had warehouses full of GM PARTS. the auction was ran through a seller out of grandrapids mi. miedema auctions . about 3 yrs ago.. on a stand he had alum or mag sbc that was complete. it sold for aprox 10g if i remember right. it took several weeks to complete the sale of all the items. there where several crate GM blocks. it was a amazing sale to be at. im sure if you contact these people, they could tell you who bought that engine. troy
#37
Le Mans Master
Thread Starter
Member Since: Oct 2007
Location: Richmond Kentucky
Posts: 5,722
Received 1,244 Likes
on
458 Posts
2022 Corvette of the Year Finalist -- Modified
2021 C2 of the Year Winner - Modified
2021 C1 of the Year Winner - Modified
2020 Corvette of the Year (stock)
C2 of Year Winner (stock) 2019
2017 C1 of the Year Finalist
I have some photos of literature on them but it is saved as a .BMP file and I can't convert it to a JPEG file. If someone can tell me how to convert from BMP to JPEG, I will post pics.
Rex
#38
Race Director
Member Since: Feb 2007
Location: northern california
Posts: 13,666
Received 6,610 Likes
on
3,030 Posts
C2 of Year Finalist (track prepared) 2019
Rex, send the .bmp to me and I can convert it to a .jpg.
Happy New Year,
Jim
Happy New Year,
Jim
#40
Le Mans Master
Thread Starter
Member Since: Oct 2007
Location: Richmond Kentucky
Posts: 5,722
Received 1,244 Likes
on
458 Posts
2022 Corvette of the Year Finalist -- Modified
2021 C2 of the Year Winner - Modified
2021 C1 of the Year Winner - Modified
2020 Corvette of the Year (stock)
C2 of Year Winner (stock) 2019
2017 C1 of the Year Finalist
My NOS magnesium small block (cast by GM for Mickey Thompson) weighs 36 lbs without the main caps.