I chose to share the time we’d decided to “tailor” a handful of intake manifolds for John Lingenfelter, notably the early small-block Camaro he was campaigning in NHRA SS. I’d had the foundry Edelbrock was using at the time provide me several sets of “solid” port cores for the type manifold John was then running, for the purpose of“shaping them” in a way more favorable to his specific engine/powertrain combination. With specific instructions to notify me the moment all machining operations were completed on the finished castings, the plan was to ship John the parts for confirmation testing.  But that didn’t happen… the bit about letting me know when the parts were done. Consequently, these same parts were completed, de-greased, packaged and shipped… along with a batch of other manifolds not thus modified. The result? I never heard from any unsuspecting Edelbrock customers who mistakenly received the parts. Sorry about that Vic….

Right on the heels of my revelation, Donahue had one better. It seems, shortly prior to when Chevrolet produced any aluminum big-block cylinder blocks and during GM’s Cam-Am era, Penske had decided to produce some “lightweight” blocks for the program. To do so, Mark said, about a dozen un-machined 427 iron block had been button-holed and sent to the “West Coat” for acid-dipping.  Since it was unknown how long to leave them in the acid vat, the instruction had been to simply begin with one block and progress through the group by increasing the vat-time for each succeeding block. It turned out all the blocks “survived” the treatment and were then shipped to GM’s Tonawanda plant for machining. 

Once again, the instructions were explicit; keep the blocks in a group while on the machining line, remove them as a group when all machining operations were complete, crate them and ship the batch to Penske Racing in Reading, PA. Nice place. Should have worked, but there’s always a flaw. It seems, during running of the line, there was a problem that required it be temporarily shut down. A shift change occurred, and when the machining was completed the blocks became included among normal production parts and were then built into completed engines for passenger cars. Score on stories; Jim zero, Donahue one.

Now, let your imagination run for a bit. Not only did Penske Racing fail to get their “lightweight” blocks for its Cam-Am program, there were a dozen owners of new Chevrolet vehicles on the threshold of catastrophic block failure. Here’s a possibility. Imagine how you might respond if you’re a Service Manager at a Chevrolet store. Early some morning a retired teacher gentleman stops by with a piece of cylinder block that fell out of his engine, causing an entire cooling system dump in his garage the previous night. The little piece of metal he offers you is about 0.020-inch thick and was part of the block, right next to a freeze plug bung. I have no suggestions… and, very probably, neither did such a Service Manager.

Is this another story behind the story? Well, it appears there’s always one, including those that are the basis for the skewing of best laid plans....