[Sirrotica]

Originally Posted by U47

Was watching a old clip of the 61 Daytona 500. A sure win for Fireball Roberts/ Yunick 61 Catalina. I believe with 13 laps to go the starter falls off and bounces off the ground back up and destroys to oil pan and loses the race. Teammate Marvin Panch takes over the lead and wins the race with Roberts last years 60 Catalina. Maybe that's why a bracket was finally put there?

That was the corporate explanation of what happened, from what I've heard is the engine blew up. The starter was not the reason, it was a casualty of the mass destruction caused by the internal parts exiting the block.

This was the first outing of the new 4 inch stroke 421. SY disliked the 3.25 main bearing size because it had a tendency to heat the oil more than the 3 inch mains.

Smokey then started the stroker trend we use commonly now by turning 4 inch stroke 3.25 mains down to 3 inches so they could be used in a 389 block. He felt the 3.25 mains were excessive and lobbied the engineers to reduce the size. He wasn't successful in getting the engineers to reduce the main bearing size, and then built the successive engines to his own specs, 4 inch stroke crank with 3 inch main journals used in a 389 block.

From my recollection, the starter brace wasn't used until 1964 when Pontiac started using the block to mount the starters. Without the brace the starter bolts have a tendency over time to break the block casting where the starter bolts are tapped into it.

The earlier starter mounted either on the bellhousing or the transmission with 7/16 x1" bolts and used lock washers. The block mounted starters used 3/8 x 4 inch bolts. There is much more leverage when the starter engages on a block mounted application, than the early transmission mounted applications, having the tendency to shear things at the weakest link.

Below is an example of what can happen to the block without the starter brace on later blocks.

[U47]

Thought 61 Pontiac's were still running 389 because 421 was not offered in a production car ( NASCAR Rules ) I know Cotton Owens 61 Pontiac was a 389 for sure.