Man that’s a hell of a story there Rat. The Navy just happened on it looking for a helicopter…..hummmm. lol. I see you all got it back on the water and sold it in 76. You have any idea where it’s at now and is it still with those motors?

Hey Sb, It’s a tall block and the intake must have been made for Mr K because it’s got a GM number that don’t come up in any books, 3963647. A guy has one on eBay from England which got me thinking about where the motors are that were in Rats boat. Like you said they are a bit rare but not impossible to find but the one on eBay also looks to have been milled so you could use a standard distributer the same as mine and it also says it was for marine.

Well here's a thing! I thought I'd ask my Dad whether he had any old photos hidden away that showed the engines in more detail...........he said I was dreaming because "back in those days we took "Snaps" for fun not for record. Most of my early pictures tended to be slides, the IN thing of the time......." Anyhow, I caught up with him this morning and he has a big bag of old photos with him, which I start rummaging through............some photos of other boats which I never knew he had but nothing new for Magnum Tornado, except this press article from back in the day which I thought made great reading and would like to share here. The bit about the displacement of the engines really caught my eye, so perhaps this is why they are subtly different to yours???

You know I have just spent the last 42 years thinking those engines were 482s, when in fact, having had a simple conversation on this website has now lead me to realise that they were in fact 496s. In more recent years my old man has said a couple of times that he thought they were 496s but quite frankly I didn’t believe him because I had always had 482s stuck in my head……..who’s the idiot now!

Yes, I do know where the boat is and unfortunately it is in a right old mess. It no longer has the original deck, or motors, or skin fittings, running gear etc………. As per the article below, the deck was modified by my father in '73 and sadly he totalled one of the original motors in August 1969 when a big end bolt failed at low RPM on the Stbd motor just before the Cowes Torquay race. He then sold both motors off to Mr. Colin Banks who owned a boat called Miss Gurnsey, as per below. He put the good engine in his boat and used the wrecked engine as spares.

My Dad and I found Magnum Tornado a few years ago and I tried desperately hard ( and still try desperately hard) to get him to buy it back but it needs a new deck, new motors and a complete re-rig, so I'm not making much headway with him. I also know where Maltese Magnum Twin currently resides but that too is in a very similar condition and also needs a new deck, etc.

Hey, does anybody out there know anyone who has an original vertical transom 28' Magnum race set up, with a deck we could copy???? That may push him over the edge........LoL!!

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Can’t help you with the Magnum.
But …. I’m still a little puzzled over the intake spacers. If they were just stroked 454’s to 496’s they wouldn’t need them. Unless some major milling or something was done but I would think as thick as they were that’s in insane amount of milling especially for a new motor. Maybe the 496 part was a mistake or a mislead from the factory, they even could still be stroked 427’s and they punched out the cylinders 60 over, that makes a 496. To be honest my 482 is now a 496 because of the need to fix the cylinders during rebuild. One of the reasons they liked the 427 tall deck is the extra thick block. You could punch the cylinders 100 over and have no worries. Some of the races will go well beyond that. Oh well I learned something and opened another mystery all at the same time again.

Bob Patterson based in L.A. developed the tube tuned exhaust system for the offshore boats. At the time the only exhaust available was the old Mercury log manifolds, So the Patterson system was a true tuned to length HEADER system. HP picked up almost 50 hp over the logs. Patterson also did a set of 45 degree headers for Gentry custom boat. The side headers were deafining, they could mesmerize you in a 200 mile plus race and you would loose the RPM perception, it was very weird. Kiekhaefer then came out with a header system out the back as did Stelling and the evolution was on. Bob Patterson was the innovator and a great guy.

Hi Richie----Roger Hanks had the first set of Patterson side pipes----After the '500' Mr. K. flew to LA and returned with a complete set---Ralph and I installed them in the '
'Aeromarine' 1--and a few weeks later won the Hennessy Pt. Pleasant with Doc--

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Don't forget, a tall deck can use much longer rods.

BTW: I really don't think you can mill a tall deck intake down to regular deck proportions. Companies making tall deck intakes don't just add material to the head side. They basically make an copy that's proportional.

Look up images of an intake for standard deck and it's 'copy' for a tall deck.

I could be wrong about your particular intake but all the ones I've seen don't have the material to be removed.....the cylinder head flange of the intake would be removed with nothing left to seal.

Gene,

Did Bob do any racing himself?

Jeff

---He did-------

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Side Exhaust
 

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Hi Richie----my newest hearing aids cost over $7,000!! That is more than Bob got for a set of side pipes. But the engines you built for me while you were doing time at Oshkosh were probably louder---and a higher frequency----42,000 exhaust pulses per minute!! On each side!!!