Sand Cast Aluminum Components

[Joe L.]

A recent discussion reminded my of something that I'be been wondering about for a long time. Over the years of 1953-82 Corvette production, aluminum components have been used to varying degrees on Corvettes. Except for various major engine components, most of these pieces have been die or permanent mold castings. Among these are things like auto transmission cases, all 63-81 bellhousings, manual transmission extension housings, 63+ alternator cases, and many other pieces.

Major engine components have been sand castings. These include cylinder heads, intake manifolds, and, rarely, cylinder blocks. Through at least 1982, virtually all of these pieces were cast for GM by Winters Foundry of Canton, OH. Incidenatlly, if you've ever seen Winters Foundry, it's amazing that all of these pieces could come out of a plant so seemingly small. However, there really weren't a lot of aluminum engine pieces used by GM during this period in the whole scheme of things. I believe that Winters Foundy ceased operations quite some time ago, but I'm not sure.

The die and precision mold cast parts were cast by Central Foundry Division of GM and also by outside suppliers. GM had, in those days, only 2 aluminum foundries operated by Central Foundry Division. Those are located at Bedford, IN and Massena, NY. Both are still in operation today. As Mark Gorney reported recently, the Saginaw Gray Iron Foundry has now been fully converted to aluminum casting, although it didn't do much aluminm casting in the 53-82 period (the late 59-60 period "experimental" aluminum heads for small blocks are all that I know of).

Other than the sand cast aluminum engine parts mostly manufactured for GM by Winters Foundry, there were 3 other sand cast aluminum parts used on Corvettes. One was the transmission case for 1961-63 and 75-81 Borg Warner 4 speed main cases. Of course, these transmissions were a Borg Warner product and the components therefore were not manufactured by GM.

The other 2 aluminum sand castings used on Corvettes were the aluminum bellhousing used for 1960-62 Corvettes and the main case used for 1963-74 Muncie transmissions. Having thought about it for quite awhile, and aside from the engine components described above, I can't think of any other aluminum SAND castings that were ever used on 1953-82 Corvettes. If you can, I'd be interested in knowing.

So, what am I wondering about? Well, I wonder where those aluminum bellhousings and Muncie main cases were cast? As far as I know, the Bedford and Massena foundries did primarily, if not exclusively, die and permanent mold castings. At the same time, I think that these 2 pieces were cast internally by GM. I've never seen a Winters Foundry "snowflake" on either the bellhousings or the Muncie main cases. So, I don't think that Winters Foundry had any part in their "birth". Also, the main cases often have the "bi-sected circle with dots" casting mark. This is something that I think is unique to GM foundries.

So, the question is: where were the 60-62 aluminum bellhousings and 63-74 Muncie main cases actually cast? Inquiring minds want to know.

Calling Mark Gorney!!! Might you have (or, be able to obtain) any information on these pieces? The casting numbers were as follows:

bellhousings:

3764591
3779553

Muncie main cases:

3831704
3851325
3885010
3925660
3925661

[Harold #43147]

Casting

All the Alu sand castings could have been jobbed out to any small foundry They were match plate & core simple operation for small foundrys. GM would have supplied the Patterns. I deal with small foundrys in the Chicago Area and they can produce a lot for there size. Starter nose auto trans I think were castings.

[Jim S.]

Re: Sand Cast Aluminum Components

Who is this really?
Everyone here knows that this is the type of questions that Joe answers every day !
So whomever you are ,you better stop posting questions under " Joe Lucia " !!!
This is your last warning,
Jim

[Patrick H.]

Re: Sand Cast Aluminum Components

Joe,

I spoke with someone this weekend at the Judging Retreat who stated that their company still receives casting from the Winters Foundry, so I suspect it is still in operation even if not in the exact same physical plant.

Now if I oculd only remember who said it. I could guess, but I'd hate to be incorrect.

In any event I remember them saying it and me being surprised.

Patrick

[Joe L.]

Re: Casting

Harold-----

Yes, the starter nose for 63+ with 12-3/4" flywheel or flexplate was an aluminum piece. Also, the starter nose for 69+ with THM and 14" flexplate was aluminum. However, I believe that both were die or permanent mold castings.

[Joe L.]

Re: Sand Cast Aluminum Components

Jim------

It's really me and I gotta' confess; this is one for which I don't know the answer. But, I hope that I do soon.

[Joe L.]

Re: Sand Cast Aluminum Components

Patrick------

It's very possible that they're still around. I know that they were still supplying sand cast aluminum engine parts to GM as of 1992. The manifold on my 1992 LT1 is a Winters casting. Later LT1 manifolds that I've seen, though, don't have the Winter's "snowflake", so I think they ceased to be a supplier sometime after 1992. As far as I know, none of the current GM aluminum engine parts, PRODUCTION or SERVICE are Winters pieces. There might be some, though. No big block items, at all, however; I'm sure of that. Even the GM #3933163 intake manifold, which definitely used to cast by Winters, is no more cast by them. There's the casting mark (I don't recognize) of some other foundry on the piece now, which is still available from GM.

I went by Winters Foundry in Canton, OH several years ago. It looked semi-defunct. However, I think that I was there after-hours on a weekday or a week-end so that may have made it look so. It was MUCH smaller than I had envisioned it would be. At the time, Winters was a subsidiary of Kaiser Aluminum.

[Duke W.]

Re: Sand Cast Aluminum Components

Another cast aluminum part that I don't think was mentioned is the side cover on Saginaw steering gear housings. My Cosworth Vega is so equipped, and from its surface finish, it appears to be a permanent mold casting, but I don't think '63 to '82 Corvette steering gears ever got aluminum side covers.

A few years ago I interviewed Bruce Crower to document his design, development, and production of the 2.6 liter turbocharged and 4.5 liter naturally aspirated V8s using Cosworth Vega cylinder heads for Indy Car and Sprint Car use. Bruce said he personally did the design drawings, and the tooling drawings and castings were produced by the Buddy Bar Foundry that is east of LA in a long industrial corridor that extends from nearly the mountains to the harbor.

I had never heard of the Buddy Bar Foundry before, but back in that era there were probably a lot of aluminum foundaries scattered around the country, and most of their work was probably for the aerospace industry. I don't know if Buddy Bar Foundry is still around, and I expect many of the smaller aluminum foundrys across the country have been closed or consolodated into larger enterprises.

I would bet that Borg-Warner T-10 and Muncie sand castings were provided by a midwest commercial foundry.

Another interesting question is: Who cast the Allison V1710 blocks and heads back in the thirties and forties, and I suppose a correlary question would be: Where did Packard get the castings for the V1650 Merlin that they built under license from Rolls Royce. Allison was a GM division, but did they have their own foundry? Given Allison's experience with sophisticated cored aluminum sand castings I've never understood why the 1960 SB aluminum cylinder head castings were failures! One would think that GM had the technology or knew where to contract for it, but the Allison experience apparently did not cross-pollinate over to the auto divisions.

The US obviously had a very state-of-the-art aluminum casting industry during the war years since all the radial and inline aircraft engines utilized sophisticated aluminum castings, but for some reason that technology never crossed over to the auto industry in the early post war years -maybe it was "too expensive" back then - so it apparently had to be reinvented by the auto industry long after the war was over.

Duke

[Joe L.]

Re: Sand Cast Aluminum Components

Duke-----

I don't know where the aircraft engine castings came from, either. I expect, though, that they were from foundries that produced parts pretty much exclusively for the aircraft industry. While I'm sure their numbers have been "thinned out" dramatically, there still must be some out there. Most of the reciprocating aircraft engines in use today use sand cast aluminum or magnesium cylinder cases and cylinders. All of these are opposed 4 and 6 cylinder designs, though------no radial aircraft engine has been produced in this country in MANY years.

As far as Corvette steering boxes go, they did get aluminum side covers. This happened in very early 1969, if not from the beginning of the model year. My car has an aluminum side cover (late build 1969) and a friend of mine with an original owner early build 1969 (October, 1968) has an aluminum sidecover, too. So, from 1969-on, all Corvette steering box side covers were cast aluminum, die or permanent mold. These covers are also SERVICE for 63-68 Corvettes although, obviously, not correct for those years.

[Frank H.]

Re: Sand Cast Aluminum Components

3-4-59 aluminum 283 block? to go with the heads?

[John H.]

Re: Sand Cast Aluminum Components

Joe -

I believe Winters was absorbed by Ohio Aluminum, who supply the Viper block, head, oil pan, front cover, and water pump castings, all of which are CNC finish-machined by "Uniboring" in Livonia, Michigan.

[Joe L.]

Re: Sand Cast Aluminum Components

John-----

Thanks for the information. Do you know what sort of casting mark/insignia that Ohio Aluminum uses on their castings?

[Mark G.]

http://www3.sympatico.ca/atkinsom/history.html

The cases may have been cast using the Shalco core process; we used that on the cast iron trans case. It is a hollow (shell) core that used less sand and shakes out better. http://www.acmefoundry.net/Equipment_list2.htmhttp://www.afsinc.org/afs.html

[Joe L.]

Re: Sand Cast Aluminum Components

Mark-----

That sounds GREAT! I hope you can come up with something. This is something that I have been curious about for years. Some people might wonder why it's important, at all. To me, though, the history of the components and, in particular, WHERE they were manufactured is of major interest. It's really part of the overall history of the Corvette that's often ignored. Not by me, though.

[John H.]

Re: Sand Cast Aluminum Components

Joe -

Honestly, I never noticed; we started with the bare block, and if they got past the computerized cold-test and six minutes in the roll-test, we were happy Next time I'm back in the plant I'll look for the Ohio Aluminum casting logo.