The Pontiac 194 - 4 BANGER - a history lesson

OK, I tried to get E-6 to do this to no avail.

Definitely worthy of a thread if you ask me.

I got a kick out of the second post he made on his [thread=246800]classified ad[/thread] ..........

.........so i'm taking upon myself to show you the great pics he put up, look at this!

A blown, M/T Hemi head 194!
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So then E-6 puts up this great shot, a twin engine digger, two 194's.
Clearly it may have been easier to put a single 389 in it, but that had been done.



Here's what E-6 went on to say......

So let's have some more history on the 194 and any cool pics!!

God Speed Mickey Thompson.......

 

The Engine for 1961-1963

Pontiac's standard big car engine: the 6,374 cc 389V8 was cut in half.

The right cylinder bank yielded a unique 45° inclined 4-cylinder engine, which was named the "Trophy 4" engine.
So this was a 194.5 cubic inch ( = 3,187 cc ) four cylinder engine.

Tempests got three versions of the engine:

1. a low compression version breathing through a single-barrel carburetor [115 bhp @ 4000 rpm & 144 Newton-metre @ 2,200 rpm],
2. a high compression version breathing through a single-barrel carburetor [140 bhp @ 4400 rpm & 153 Newton-metre @ 2,200 rpm] and
3. a high compression version breathing through a four-barrel carburetor [166 bhp @ 4800 rpm / 159 Newton-metre @ 2,800 rpm]

If one wanted the whole 389V8, that was available too. It was named the "Trophy V8" engine and would come with automatic transmission only.
That had a 4-barrel carb, 10.25:1 compression and put out 185 bhp @ 4800 rpm & 170 Newton-metre @ 2,800 rpm.

 

Mickey sure did make some cool stuff. Notice the price. $1000 a pair in '62... good reason to build a 194.5!

 

My uncle had on of the 62's with a four barrel carb (factory). I think it was called the Super Duty, like the V-8's. That little turd would really run, surprised a lot of Chevy's. No one believed it was a four cyl until he lifted the hood.

 

I had a 62 Tempest with the 4 cyl. What was weird for me was the torque converter hanging exposed out the back of the transaxle. I still have the engine, but not the car.

 

That is Killer Sweet

 

Here's a link to thread started by the late Dave Johnson (White Warrior), he was a Nostalgia Super Stock racer.

http://forums.performanceyears.com/forums/showthread.php?t=423313

He built and raced one of these little Tempest 4-bangers, it got his '63 Tempest into the 11.60s.

Now his car is for sale, hopefully someone who loves racing these old Pontiacs will buy it and run it hard like Dave did.

http://forums.performanceyears.com/forums/showthread.php?t=540881

 

I never knew Dave passed away.
I kinda stopped following his progress.
That car rocks and he FIXED the vibration problem.

 

FWIW, Tempests never came with a 389, only the 215 aluminum V8 in 61-2, and a 326 Pontiac in '63, in addition to the various 194-4 options. Considering the transaxle was a modified Corvair piece, I'd have to think there'd have been a lot of broken ones if they'd sold the car with a 389 in it.

When I was in college we had to do a report on a drivetrain system, I forget what the exact assignment was, but I was the only one to turn one in on the "rope-drive" in these Tempests.

I'd love to read a write-up explaining the reasons for the vibration issues - and how to cure them - in detail. I know it has some to do with the balance being off simply because it's half of a V8, but thats about it. Always meant to buy a clunker to play with and never got around to it, the place I could have gotten the whole works cheap is scrapped out now.

 

In 1982, I drove a '62 Tempest 2 door, 1bbl engine with an automatic for a winter car that I bought for $80. Not very quick, but it would outdrag my brother's 170/automatic Falcon!

 

No, they didn't put a 389 in them but 12 recieved 421SD engines from the factory late '62 for the '63 model year. 6 were coupes and 6 were wagons. Yes, the transaxle set up was the main problem with theses high output cars and most racers changed to the "big car" rear end.

 

We have one of those 4 cyl pontiacs it is a 61 with a stick. If any one is interested i am fixing to post it in classifieds. OldWolf

 

I had a '62 Le mans, it had the 194 an 4bbl. and a 4 speed, so add that to the list of transmissions offered... When it was a 25 year old car, it could still crack 100... Surprised the hell out a BMW M3 driver one night.

 

Just a note; the 4bbl was a 4GC. My bro-inlaw Jim had a new '62 convertible when he married my sis. That thing shook at idle, the Motors Manual shows a tension spring on the timing chain, musta been Hellish in there, I remember Jim had trouble with the timing gear. Pretty car, and it did cruise well, though I was too young yet, I did ride in it with one of my brothers up and down the main drag, checkin' out the pre-hippie chicks. Damn the hair styles!!!!!!

 

I bought a new one in '63 after I got out of the Army. Neat car but yes I did have to replace the tensioner at 20,000 miles alomg with the chain and gears. After that I just replaced the tensioner at 10,000 intervals. Not that hard to do and saved the chain.

 

More history: Mickey T ran a fleet of these little engine once to sweep up speed records in odd classes. Several versions, including destrokers and blown jobs, and a TWO CYLINDER job, engine cut in half AGAIN and sealed off at the front with an aluminum plate. There's an old Fawcett annual with pics of all of them, and the drag and speed cars they were used in.

 

My sis, God rest her soul, had one of these things, my nephew was about 3 years old, she had it backed up the driveway unloading groceries one day, my little nephew got back in the car, somehow released the e-brake rolled down the driveway hit the house across the street knocked the old woman off the couch while taking an afternoon nap, she promptley gave me the car, the entire neighborhood had declared it UNSAFE because of no "Park" in the tranny. I drove the wheels off of the thing until an unfortunate Gran Prix crossed my path. Don't make'em like they used to...maybe a good thing!

 

I always thought that Pontiac was being cheap by "cutting" a 389 in half. (Why wouldn't they just put the old 153 Chevy 4 in there, even though it came out in 62? The same goes for International, didn't they do that with a Chrysler (Plymouth) 318 poly? (159 cid) for the old scouts?

Ah, GM and their wonder stories: Corvair, Pontiac slant 4, and all those wonderful automatics. Hey let's not forget the Vega.

Does make for conversations though!

 

I need to go watch "My Cousin Vinny" again.

 

I always liked the concept of playing with half an engine

http://video.google.com/videoplay?d...=52&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=1

Heres half a Corvair been converted to OHC with variable valve timing and variable valve events AND variable compression

 

Just finished some research into these cars. rustynewyorker - there's an article in Special Interest Autos #48, if you can ever get your hands on that issue, that details the decisions behind the rope-drive. Essentially, John DeLorean had dreamed up a transaxle drivetrain for the full-size cars and landed on the rope drive as a means to locate the transaxle. As it turned out, the rope drive cured a lot of torsional vibration issues, and the new four-cylinder Pontiac was playing with had a lot of vibration issues. Tab A into Slot B and thus the rope-drive four-cylinder Tempest.

As to why Pontiac went with half a V-8, it was basically DeLorean and Knudsen refusing to be just another GM division. They wanted to stand out from Buick and Oldsmobile (which were getting the Special and the F-85 on the same unibody platform), and the developmental and tooling costs for the 194 amounted to almost nothing, so GM let them do it.

the four-barrel version was called the Indy. Super Duty was reserved for 421-powered cars in those years.

Bruce Lancaster, I'd love to see that annual you mentioned. I knew Mickey Thompson played with blown 194s, but I never knew he actually ran them in Tempests.

dan

 

The two and the fours are in one of the Borgeson/Fawcett hotrod books from the time when these were new...will try to find full citation this weekend.

 

yep, was right in calling Pontiac cheap. Hey wasn't it Pontiac that used the old Chevy 153 4 cylinder engine in their version of the Vega. The Astre I recall used an "iron duke 4", which was the old chevy 4. Wow, what goes round, comes round. Hope the slant 4 doesn't come back!

 

hey now, how come noones's mentioned the tiny inline 4 Hemi that they put into the jeep and people hated.?

 

Pontiac sure got the name partially right for this little hoj. Last 4 letters = PEST. The 215 was another wonder blunder. Good idea, but never got it through the heads of owners to keep cooling system maintained. Can't count how many frozens out there. 326 was a good thing though. The rope thing was (in my mind) a quick patch job. Who would allow the converter to just run unprotected. And the slip and slide glide tranny was another better idea, not. Why did they keep Pontiac (or Buick) around and abandon Olds. Olds knew what they were doing, except for slimjims.

 

Wow..this is so cool. Thanks fellas.

 

Iron Duke is a 151 CI.

 

I worked at a Pontiac dealer from 63 to 65. In that time there were 4 timing chain revisions on the 4 cylinder. The last one they used the SD421 timing chain. The 215 Olds engine was also available in the Tempest.

I did see a 62 with a 421 in it, auto trans, he ran it at the drags every week. He worked at the same dealer I did. He put the 4 cyl back in it, and traded it on a 64 Goat, which got the 421

 

These tempest 4's are really trick engines,I got one I plan on using for a rod project after I get my two current pontiac projects up and running.

What I like is the abillity to swap parts with pontiac V-8's and such,there are a ton of parts that are interchangeable with those,and that really lends itself to using some imagination and creative building approaches on these "slant 4's".

I plan on making that little tempest 4 pretty snotty and loaded with attitude!

I've got a single #48 head off a RAIII engine that I plan on using on mine,I've also considered modifying a wenzler tunnel ram manifold to mount a couple of 2300 series holley 2bbls.

The hardest part to source out will be the cam,those are pretty scarce for these engines,billet roller cams are the most likely option.

I'm thinking a real basic rod for the chassis,something low slung and real light to help with the power to weight situation,something like a track style T without the nose,I'd use a chopped down duece shell or something of that sort,maybe modify the grille shell to look like an early pontiac split grille shell as well,use some period pontiac tail lights and such to add some extra touches.

Yeah Dave (white warrior) was one of the go to guys on these engines,he answered a few of the harder questions I was looking for answers to,may god rest his soul we all miss him over at PY pontiac forums,he was a wealth of solid info.

These engines really have a killer exhaust note at full song going down the drag strip too,Dave's car was a screamer to say the least,man did that car sound good.

I've seen quite a few guys posting here that post over at PY,had I known that I would have likely been over here a while back,dont know why I never signed up,been hitting the round-ups and drag meets here for years now,just too distracted I guess???

Just dont believe anything they tell ya'll about me,it's all lies and fabrications...

 

hey a 200 inch 4 banger 5 big mainbearings, hevy duty rods, blown, with Pontiac super duty head on it! that shud be just the thing for a hamber Model A, project!