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.
