Now i have been talking to a dude who was going on about the old aussie gray motors. he raced speed way with them.
He said the first have casting letters on them like in the fashion of the red 202 were cast on. but it is GMH or GMV or GLV or some thing i cant remember. this casting is either to the right or left of the fuel pump side.
Most he said were just on the left but some GMH on the left rear of pump and had LPV ? on the right.
He recons that they are more of a vauxhall motor then a chev. and he could bolt a vauxhall cyl head on a holden gray and use a vauxhall crank to with some mods i think.
But he reckons the blocks with the castings both sides of the pump were a vauxhall made casting and the proof is in them there makings.
Has any one seen these markings.

Yes peter.
I have never really given a hoot about the gray motor my self. in my day the red motor was the go. but if it has to do with history i am interested.
For some reason i can remember a gray motor block with a GMH casting on it i think it was in a magazine.
I know holden made 10 motors a day at the start.
This motor was descendant of a chev design. the first 3 prototypes were built entirely in Detroits experimental shop.
The first 150 blocks were cast in Canada or maybe by vauxhall in the UK.
The early ones had a hole running up through the conrod.
Old mate recons we hear in aus did not make the forged crank or rods, because we did not have the ability thing to make them hear at the time.
So maybe its possible that Holden did souse some blocks ect from vauxhall to keep up with demand ect.
The 1948 Vauxhall has a 138ci motor and a 4 cyl that is the same motor, but just with 2 cyl cut off it.
The 1948 Vauxhall Velox is a 138.89ci 2276cc bore 2.74 Stroke 3.125 motor.

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Originally posted by castellan
Yes peter.
I have never really given a hoot about the gray motor my self. in my day the red motor was the go. but if it has to do with history i am interested.
For some reason i can remember a gray motor block with a GMH casting on it i think it was in a magazine.
I know holden made 10 motors a day at the start.
This motor was descendant of a chev design. the first 3 prototypes were built entirely in Detroits experimental shop.
The first 150 blocks were cast in Canada or maybe by vauxhall in the UK.
The early ones had a hole running up through the conrod.
Old mate recons we hear in aus did not make the forged crank or rods, because we did not have the ability thing to make them hear at the time.
So maybe its possible that Holden did souse some blocks ect from vauxhall to keep up with demand ect.
The 1948 Vauxhall has a 138ci motor and a 4 cyl that is the same motor, but just with 2 cyl cut off it.
The 1948 Vauxhall Velox is a 138.89ci 2276cc bore 2.74 Stroke 3.125 motor.

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As the DR states there is no evidence of any Canadian blocks. The first 150 cast in Canada is a complete myth, although to this day cannot be proved or UN-proven!

All the block were cast at Fishermen bend, not outside GMH.

Every single Holden grey motor crank is drop forged! Go look in the workshop manuals .

The 2.2 liter Vauxhall 6 from the Cresta is the one you are after. They are actually not stronger but allow more flex and therefor less likely to break!

The heads can be usedon a grey also which takes it from 7 port ( 3 in 4 out ) to a full 12 port head. Here is one running: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0djH_ks9yA

CWO, or CWC? I thought it was Campbell Wyant Cannon.

They were a big customer for a business I used to work for. I think they were bought by Textron, but still run a foundry in the US.

i think that's where the confusion began. The CWC looked like CWO on some of the rougher castings. I'm not sure how many blocks have CWC on them. Could it be that the first few months (or even years) Australian production used these US casting mould masters.

I believe that the early Falcon 6-cyl motors were fully imported up until around XM or XP.

Dr Terry

...I'd like to suggest there are facts we know to be certain...

....the first ten prototype GMH blocks were produced by Campbell, Wyant and Canon for use in the five prototype vehicles as envisaged by GM for the testing of their "New Australian Car"...these engines had CWC letters cast into the RH side of the block, and rightly so, as they were also experimental engines for that firm too...if they ended up being a dud GM would just have said..."thanks but no thanks"...

...that not being the case, and when GM decided the powerplant will be all good, is when they literally paid CWC for their work and along the way purchased the rights to manufacture these engines which by this stage could now just have the GMH logo....knowing that the costs invoiced to GMH by the parent company would be handsomely reimbursed over the life of the Holden product...all this came to fruition with the full manufacture of the all Australian engines in the middle of 1948 at Fishermans Bend and in all probability using the casting boxes and moulds purchased by GM from CWC for initial use in the newly setup foundry at Fishermans Bend till around that 38,000 engine number mark...

...the "Canadian Blocks" in all of this was never any more than a vicious rumour that had its origins placed right at the release of the first Holdens in 1948 and will quote a paragraph from a lengthy article written in a long running Australian publication called "The Pastoral Review" dated December 16 1948 with the heading "The New Australian Car ...with the important bit highlighted in capitals by me

..."I purposely spent a lot of time in the foundry, which by the way is the most modern in the southern hemisphere and which was laid down at a cost of about 340,000 pounds. I made this thorough inspection because I had heard that IMPORTED CYLINDER BLOCKS WERE BEING USED. Well I witnessed the casting of cylinder blocks, from the pouring stage to the opening of the core box, and not only did I see cylinder blocks, but almost every other casting used on the car, in fact in a short space of time i saw fifty or sixty items leave the foundry for the various "finishing" departments and followed them along to the stage where anyone would have been pleased to have had them on the home mantelpiece, mounted on a nice piece of blackwood. They were a delight to the eye that appreciates a "high finish" in metal.

...end quote

...as can be seen these rumours started with the inception and release of the first Holdens, (this article had been written a week earlier on December 8, and only a week after the introduction on November 29) so with this revelation, it has to be no surprise the rumours have been around for so long...

...i will attempt to somehow scan the whole article, but all up I'd say it is the real "smoking gun" that will hopefully squash these rumours once and for all....cheers