Back in the early 70’s my brother and I were into midget auto racing. I was driving a
Kurtis midget with a 153 inch Chevy II that my brother had built. The basic engine was
Chevy but obviously the cam was ground for the circle tracks and the pistons and rods
were not stock. The head was a Merc Cruiser head that Mercury had cast across the
border in Mexico. The head had higher compression, bigger ports and bigger valves than
the stock head. We ran on 100% methanol thru a Hillborn mechanical fuel injection set
up. I don’t remember all the particulars because it was 40 years ago. Back then only the
best of the best had access to dynos so there was no way of knowing what the horsepower
actually was but estimates were well over 200 hp and some of them were reported to
pump out over 300 hp. Of course you have to take into account that RPM is a major
factor in the HP rating and you wouldn’t want to run your Stovebolt around town at 5K
plus would you?
Me at rest in my younger days:
http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/image/135614047 Me at speed in my younger days:
http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/image/135614062 A Chevy II would surely fit with no problems and with some minor mods it would put out
plenty of power compared to a stock 216. But before I would even conceder swapping
the inline six for a four cylinder I would look into some minor mods for a late model 235
or 261, a lot simpler and it would give a stock small block of that era a good run for its
money.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL
