why didnt the first Holden motors have blue flame heads?

JOHN.K. wrote: A question for the Holden experts.......why didnt the first Holden motors have blue flame heads?.....the other GM cars did..........even Toyota copied the blue flame head.

John K, in my opinion the Holden grey motor was a scaled down 1940 era Chev motor, which was pre “blue flame” era. Even the overall shape is a scaled down 40 Chev.

Blue flame head was advertised on Chev 6s in 1929..........the first Vauxhall 6s also had blue flame head,Bedfords too.....all the 30 s Chev 6s had blue flame heads...........but GMC truck engines slightly bigger didnt................the idea of the head was to give the smooth quiet running typical of SV 6s in the 20 s and 30 s.........

The Grey motor, built between 1948 and 1962, earned its name as the engine block was painted grey. This overhead valve engine was first fitted to the Holden 48-215 and mated to a three-speed column change gearbox. A three-speed GM Roto-Hydramatic 240 automatic transmission was an option fitted in the latter EK and EJ series. The engine was based on a Buick pre-World War II design, and saw only minor changes throughout its 15-year life.

It displaced 132.5 cubic inches (2,170 cc) in its original form as used by the 48-215 (1948), and remaining in use until the FC. Holden replaced the FC in 1960 with the FB series, and its engine was bored out to 138 cubic inches (2,260 cc). It developed 60 brake horsepower (45 kW) at 5000 rpm, providing superior performance to the competing four-cylinder Austin, Morris, Vauxhall and Ford of Britain vehicles. The grey motor featured a compression ratio (7.5:1, low stress design with a view to high reliability. Due to sheer ubiquity, they were popular for racing, and were fitted to many open-wheelers, as well as racing Holdens. With the engines' low-end torque, they also found their way into boats and machinery such as forklift trucks.

This engine ran a seven-port non-crossflow cast-iron cylinder head. There were three Siamese (shared) inlet ports for cylinders 1–2, 3–4 and 5–6, two individual exhaust ports for cylinders 1 and 6, and two siamese exhaust ports for cylinders 2–3 and 4–5 in a layout on one side of the head casting. The inlets were fed by a single-barrel Stromberg carburettor in common and fitted with a traditional Kettering ignition by coil and distributor. The electric system was six volts in the 48-215 and FJ. The earliest grey motors (approximately 100,000) were fitted with Delco-Remy accessories, although Lucas and Bosch equivalents throughout the motor’s lifetime replaced these.

The very first production grey motor (1948) was number 1001, and they continued in a single sequence until July 1956, when the prefix "L" was introduced.[1] The change affected all engines numbered L283373 and above, signifying the 12-volt negative-earth engines as fitted to the all new FE model.[citation needed] The prefix "U" was introduced for motors with the original electricals as fitted to the FJ utility and panel van models, which ended in February and May 1957 respectively. The change was effective from engine U283384.[1] The prefix "B" was introduced and the number sequence reset with the introduction of the 138 cubic inches (2.3 L) displacement engine, and ultimately this was replaced by a "J" prefix for motors fitted to EJ vehicles in 1962.

Great info there thanks Lang.

What is the "story" behind a "Canadian block" grey motor? Was there such an animal or not?

I had an uncle who said my old FX had one in it but I could not tell the difference at the ripe ol age of 12 and paddock bashing it.

There is a quite large book about the development of the grey and some of it is based around Canada however the book is about as exciting as the engine.

While looking for grey motor history I came across the "Canadian Block". No such thing. It appears that GMH looked at producing the grey motor for a Canadian vehicle and a batch were produced to send over on trial. They never were sent and went into the normal line.

The "Canadian Block" project was talked about in the factory and the myth may have started there. The change in the number of welsh plugs also took flight as a "Canadian Block" but all BS.

Here is the expert.
Early Grey Motor History:
Submission by Dr Terry (Bebbington)

1. All Holden Grey motor blocks were cast at Fishermans Bend, with the except of the hand-full of prototypes. 2. Similarly all Grey cranks were forged at Fishermans Bend, except the prototypes. 3. The prototype blocks were cast in Michigan USA (by the company CWC), not in Canada. 4. There were several changes made to block castings over the years, but a major change occurred at Eng No. 37832, where the cylinder walls were reduced in thickness for improved cooling. The change in welch plug size also occurred at this time. In those days casting techniques weren't as precise as they are today & cylinder bore centering was always an issue. Obviously some improvements to this were made between 1948 & 1951 when the 'improved' block was introduced. 5. Speaking to many old speedway & racecar engine builders of the era, their aim was to find an well-centred early block (with the thicker cylinder walls, which they identified by the welch plug size) to gain maximum bore size. They had no concerns with overheating as you would in everyday traffic usage & besides by the time they bored out the block it would have had thinner walls than your average stocker. They often bored a dozen or so blocks before they found a good one, which didn't go thru to the water jacket. 6. I have seen a picture of the CWC casting logo, which David Hayward has mentioned, but that was many moons ago & I'm damned if I can locate it now. You could understand how it could be mis-read as CWO. 7. I've never seen anything in official literature or in the flesh to prove the existence of a Canadian block. 8. If I was building a performance Grey motor nowadays, I would find a good EJ block. As others have said it is 15 years younger, most likely would have 15 years less water corrosion damage & made using more improved techniques than in 1948.

Regards Dr Terry (Bebbington)

Another article with Dr T posting.
Check post 11 by Detective, refers to a newspaper article where the writer had been to the GM foundry.
Cheers Steve
www.fastlane.com.au/forum/postst22691_Gr...otor-casting-ID.aspx

I was very interested to read in Lang's posting about a "standard Kettering ignition." Was this developed by Charles Kettering, the man responsible to the infamous 1924 "Copper Cooled" Chevrolet that was air cooled and took in it's cooling air from around the motor and exited it, after collecting heat from the motor, FORWARD through the grill that in a water-cooled car, held the radiator!
Obviously when the car was moving, the air could not exit.
Only seven cars were delivered to dealers and only three sold. One of them, of course ended up in the Henry Ford museum.
Louis Chevrolet ordered all the cars recalled but could not get the one from Henry Ford.
I read about this in the book "Sixty Years of Chevrolet" by Howard H Damman. (I think his first name was Howard, it was many years ago I read the book)

The book did not say whether Kettering was sacked but if I were the boss, he certainly would have been.

JOHN.K. wrote: Blue flame head was advertised on Chev 6s in 1929..........the first Vauxhall 6s also had blue flame head,Bedfords too.....all the 30 s Chev 6s had blue flame heads...........but GMC truck engines slightly bigger didnt................the idea of the head was to give the smooth quiet running typical of SV 6s in the 20 s and 30 s.........

Thanks John I was going by the decal on the tapper cover of the 50s Chevs. Never new they started in 29.

An improved ignition system was developed by the Dayton Engineering Laboratories Co. (Delco) and introduced in the 1910 Cadillac. This ignition was developed by Charles Kettering and was a wonder in its day. It consisted of a single ignition coil, points (the switch), a capacitor (to prevent the points from arcing at break) and a distributor (to direct the spark from the ignition coil to the correct cylinder).

The points allow the coil magnetic field to build. When the points open by a cam arrangement, the magnetic field collapses inducing an EMF in the primary that is much larger than the battery voltage and the transformer action produces a large output voltage (20 kV or greater) from the secondary.

The capacitor suppresses arcing at the points when they open; without the capacitor, the energy stored in the coil would be expended at an arc across the points rather than at the spark plug gap. The Kettering system became the primary ignition system for many years in the automotive industry due to its lower cost, and relative simplicity.