American Big Block By Cal Products – BonnevilleRacing.com

Blast From The Past

The Future That Never Was! In 1977 The Bob George conceived, Jammer Streamliner, sponsored by EasyRiders was in BIG TROUBLE! We were breaking the stock 1 inch flywheel shaft at the sprocket spline. A bigger shaft would require bigger bearings and there was no room in the engine case for bigger bearings. The engine case has a steel sleeve cast into the aluminum case to support the bearing. I machined up larger sleeves and took them to Larry owner of Cal Products to see if he would cast the larger sleeves into his engine cases. Larry is very sharp, and said he could, but it would fail for a lot of reasons. Like I said in 1977, we were in big trouble. Larry in just two minutes said he could fix the problem. Larry would make two all steel L/S engine cases that would be bullet proof! And 322 mph Bonneville Fastest M/C for 16 years demonstrated that the cases were indeed Bullet Proof!

: H20 cooled, alternator, 5 speed trans, 21 plate Barnett clutch, Hilborn Fuel injection, turbo, one coil per cylinder, divided intake, HiVo chain drive, Cal Product case. Back in 1980!

: R/S Where the Chevy Trans bolts up.

: American Big Block, 454 Chevy top end, Harley lower end, Fitting in a 1955 Pan frame with out mods to the frame to make it fit. 120 cu in.

: Chevy big block rockers and valves in Larry’s American Big Block head. This model engine was called “Bandit”.

: This was the First American Big Block built and made to run, after the original prototype engine was built. I still have parts.

: Factory Chevy Pistons and Cylinder, with “Mods” to fit the American Big Block Harley. Larry’s creation came alive. 1976 date on manual.

: The American Big Block used two male Harley rods. The Harley female rod is twice the weight of the male rod, making it hard to balance. The Big Block ran smoother than a Harley.

: Harley “74” crank balance for the Chevy 454 top end. The off set pistons ran great.

: Output side crank, the output shaft was welded to the flywheel. The HP & torque would spin the shaft in the wheel and fail!

: The Cal Products V4 Harley engine cases.

: One piece center case, primary,& trans support.

: My Running V4 Harley. Cal Products supplied one special case for this bike. 1980 running and licensed for street in California. 148 cu in, stock bore and stroke. Ran 190 mph against a 180 class record in 1983 at SpeedWeek. (Keny’s)

: Left side engine, one piece pan, fitted for a Munce Corvette trans.

: Designed for a one piece crankshaft to drop in.

: Left side showing where the HiVo chain would run in the center of the two engines.

: Special L/S engine Cam made by Andrews.

: 3/4 rear view

: Rear view, One piece to support the chain loads!

: L/S “Normal” engine, showing trans support area and engine pan.

: 3/4 R/S top. I want one, Oh! I do have one that runs! Who is going to build this one into a runner? Love to see this project finished.

: 3/4 right front. The pan is divided for the one piece crankshaft.

: Front view, showing where the pan fits the center case. All was cast by Cal Products and Heat treated, ready for machine work.

: Inside of all cases. The HiVo chain runs down the middle of both engines to share the load equal.

: Pencil Drawing of Gyronaut X-1 done in 2008, before the project to restore the Gyronaut had started. Who’s going racing with us?

: Old Bonneville Racer, 1940 EL, The Rods broke on more than once, blowing case out in front and on the bottom. Repaired and put back on the street.