Yeah. Plus, I'm halfway through a Buick 350 swap in my regal with a 3.8. Plug n play. Literally. And yes, the poopy metric trans is going too. Man I beat that thing up. Still shifts mostly fine though. 😛
1981 cutlass 3.8 v6 rebuild?? or swap??
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I'm not trying to be a chevy fanboy. I can appreciate when someone is turning wrenches on their car. My whole reasoning behind the sbc advice is that if your asking for opinion on what to put in your car, engine wise, your looking to go with the popular opinion. If everyone is running sbc's, then that would be the most popular. Nothing wrong with any other options, even the turbo 3.8 would be cool if you could find a cheap donor car. I kind of feel like if someone wanted to be different, they wouldn't ask others opinion. When I came up with the idea for my build, I told my relatives, who are all modern GM muscle guys, and they laughed about it. "Truck engine in a grandma car". 70% through my build and no one is laughing.
I hear ya. Can't even count the number of times I've heard "Just JUNK the car! It's not even worth it. Just rebuild the V6...blahblahblah". How is this car not worth it? lol Just about done buttoning up my 350 Buick. Very neat looking motor.
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That color is called Torque 'N Teal. I only painted a valve cover to see what it'd look like. Might just go with GM Blue for a correct look. Was gonna paint valve covers, block, and heads that color and leave intake silver and paint timing cover and waterpump to match. pulleys will be black with brackets, black aircleaner housing, and yellow accel wires.
I have heard oiling mods are needed to make any Buick live, of course they say that about the Olds too, a lot of it BS. The 455 must be built measuring everything very carefully, even then many fail. The 68-76 Olds 350 is much more forgiving and give many more trouble free miles than any other engine from the 70's. Great running mid 70's cores can be found near free. Just replace the timing set, both mid 70's 350's I got for near nothing still had the plastic teeth intact and were in great shape. Of course early heads with big valves and something bigger than the stock pathetic cam will wake it up big time.
As far as oiling mods go for Buicks, really just a quality rebuild with the correct bearing clearances (buicks like to be very tight, tighter than a typical SBC anyway). An oil pump rebuild kit with the steel booster plate and adjustable regulator that TA perf. out in Arizona makes and sells are all it really needs. Yeah, you can do the oldschool tricks like enlarging the oiling drainback holes and whatnot, but it doesn't help that much. It's not as bad as everyone makes it out to be.
The one thing to watch for is timing slop. When my head gasket blew on my Electra they found the timing case was trashed. Guess it's a hard part to get. "Pre internet" took the garage 10 days to locate and ship the case. Definitely a different motor with the front distributor. When I wrenched on it there was no cams or intake manifolds. So I guess there is new parts available for the Buick 350? Lol I know where one has been sitting since I parked it in 01 lol. Not sure If I should pull it and sell it?
Yeah, the Buick engines used Aluminum timing covers which also housed the oil pump assembly. Sad thing is though, the gears are steel. Steal gears eat through the aluminum over time and you lose oil pressure. That's 99% of the reason why the Buicks die. You can buy brand new QUALITY repop covers from TA Performance and a few other places. TA is the only company I trust with this part. I've heard so many horror stories of people getting warped or cracked covers from the other manufacturers. Downside to the TA cover is you have to buy a separate timing tab or make your own. Also need a new distributor hold down. The new covers from TA come 100% assembled, ready to pop on and go. Sorry if it seems like I'm a sales rep, but they're just a damn good company lol On the bright side though, Buick 3.8 timing covers, even form the turbo V6s will swap onto a 350 and vice versa.
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