Lee Root, of Washington, machined 7075 aircraft grade aluminum to produce the crankcase, heads, rods and pistons for this Chevy Corvette small block V-8. (Courtesy of Margarita and Al Root, and Rhetta and John Hopfauf.) No castings were used in the 1/4 scale engine.
Lee used a full-size corvette racing cam for the cam profiles. The cylinder liners are cast iron, the crankshaft and cam are heat-treated 4340 steel. The engine is 13”-long, 9”-wide, and 9”-high.
Construction of scale rocker arms proved to be the greatest challenge; however, he conceded the carburetor and electronic ignition were problem areas as well. Lee developed an electronic balancer to balance the engine and preliminary tests showed the engine to exceed 10,000 RPM. Watch a video of the engine running below.
