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Reply to "PANTERAMERICA"

Oso, Dan Gurney and company built some aluminum '351C's for racing, too. These blocks were made with very odd-looking 4-bolt main caps; the elongated right sides of the front two caps formed the end plates for a multistage dry-sump pump that was on a very long shaft. The shaft went thru the front of a stock oil pan and was externally driven by a vee-belt pulley off the crank. This was to comply with racing class rules against external pump dry-sump oiling, according to Gurney when I phoned him. Street guys usually cut the extended ears off the front main caps 'cause pump parts were even rarer than the blocks! One showed up at a Nor-Cal chapter meeting years ago for sale, and I caused a minor sensation when I carried it in the restaurant and set it on the head table for examination. It weighed about 80 lbs- an 8.2" deck-height smallblock that could take a 3-1/2" Cleveland crank. Had it been a 'std' 351-C deck-height block, I likely would have bought it. The N Cal owner may still have the thing....
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