 Repco racing engines were designed and built by a small team at a Repco subsidiary , Repco @-@ Brabham engines Pty Ltd , in Maidstone , Australia . Repco 's 620 series engine is a normally aspirated unit with eight cylinders in a ' V ' configuration . It uses American engine blocks obtained from Oldsmobile 's aluminium alloy 215 engine . Oldsmobile 's 215 engine , used in the F @-@ 85 Cutlass compact car between 1961 and 1963 , was abandoned by General Motors after production problems . Repco fitted their own cast iron cylinder liners into the Oldsmobile blocks , which were also stiffened with two Repco magnesium alloy castings and feature Repco @-@ designed cylinder heads with chain @-@ driven single overhead camshafts . The internals of the unit consist of a bespoke Laystall crankshaft , Daimler connecting rods and specially cast pistons . The cylinder head design means that the engine 's exhaust pipes exit on the outer side of the block , and therefore pass through the spaceframe before tucking inside the rear suspension , a layout which complicated Tauranac 's design work considerably . The engine is water @-@ cooled , with oil and water radiators mounted in the nose . 
