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Pontiac Brodix Cylinder Head Development

3:24
50:34
69.7K views

At 3:24 in

Former Pontiac Motorsports Manager John Callies: Epic Golden Era NASCAR Stories & Garage Tour!

What happens here

The discussion shifts to Brodix cylinder heads. John explains how Pontiac partnered with Brodix, a company owned by JB (likely JB Brodix), to develop aluminum cylinder heads for NASCAR and Pro Stock racing. This was a groundbreaking move, as Chevrolet teams at the time were modifying existing cast-iron heads, which were less durable. John's collaboration with Brodix allowed for purpose-built aluminum heads, fundamentally changing Pro Stock racing by offering superior performance and durability. He shares an amusing anecdote about catching fellow NASCAR team members using their newly designed heads before they were officially approved, leading to a humorous confrontation with a technical official.

Goal: Detail the innovation and impact of Brodix cylinder heads in racing.

Tools and materials

  • Pontiac Brodix Cylinder Head Brodix — Example of innovative aluminum cylinder head design for racing

What they say

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new NASCAR head and then I also did uh was that the brodix through boatx yes okay yeah we we need to talk to you about those yeah exactly because I I thought I'm sure it's about that's the same what 87 that was the the aluminum Pontiac brodix and and JV who is the owner of brodex I called JV because the Chevrolet was using another Factory and about all they made was sprinklers out of a cylinder head at 500 miles so I flew down to cjv brought prints of what we wanted and it's so funny because JB at that time an era wasn't used to seeing Prince and so there was an adjustment of trying to get everybody on board of what we were doing so we had a lot of fun because he just was a great guy and then I ended up putting the cylinder heads in gmpd so we really kind of changed Pro Stock racing at the time because it used to be you take a Chevy head roll it over weld it weld it and last a couple of races and then it was junk so now you can buy a hand that was already there the ports were not they were small so you could do what you wanted and we just changed at the time of Pro Stock racing we'll change NASCAR yeah I mean I I remember when at my dad's shop when those things first showed up even though we were an Oldsmobile team we got these Pontiac kids and I remember we were like wait that shipping address isn't Detroit it's Arkansas that's interesting but but man they put them on and they made horsepower out of the box they were already better and it changed NASCAR Big Time everybody was running yeah it uh at Charlotte funny story but we at NASCAR had the original hat now of course the teams were taking it and doing crazy things in others they were right rolling it from a 23 to an 18. anyway in Charlotte he says John College come to the NASCAR trailer and I go oh boy so and it and Rusty Wallace was parked next to Junior and I looked over Junior's car and he's got our heads on his car so I thought that was funny so I walk in the trailer and they have my original head and then they had the heads off juniors well Juniors bottom of his Port somehow got raised and so the next the NASCAR technique guys going what's that and I go what's what right there look at that I said look at what so he goes down he says he points to the bottom floor and then goes to the original head and I said well I said you

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