best swap

[Longroof79]

I'm also a proponent of the Buick 350. I think it's a powerful little engine that is lighter than your garden variety SBC.
My old '71 Skylark with a 350 2-barrel would boil the sh*t out the tires. I too think it would be a good transplant for a Regal.
Chevy V-8's are done to death.. I hate seeing Chevy engines in Oldsmobiles and Buicks. That's just me.

I think the later Buick 350's were slugs, but still could be built to perform. The '70-'72 engines would be a good candidate.

 

[MrHernandez]

Put a 500 Caddy in it and call it a day

 

[Blake442]

Buick 350's are complete turds :!: My '83 Regal had this engine in it when I purchased it. It ran great but had no take-off power whatsoever. If you ever even want to put headers on it, there is one company that makes headers for a Buick V8 in a GBody. $700 just for headers, uncoated. The only thing you will gain from putting a Buick 350 in place of the 3.8L will be worse gas mileage. Unless of coarse you buy some '68 Buick 350 for top dollar, that had decent power :idea:

No 'take-off' because of your stock 2.29 gears probably... My Chevy 350 doesn't have any power either... :lol:

 

[papabearxl]

We could debate this all day. Yes, SBC's are cheap and the aftermarket is huge. If I had a Chevy I'd drop a Chevy mill back in it. Otherwise don't be afraid to explore the rest of GM. I needed some "excitement" and went with Pontiac myself :lol: Olds are great engines too. I wouldn't hesitate to go 403 or 455 if I had another Cutlass. A Buick 455 would be even better for the Regal. I had the Chevy blinders on in my early 20's and I'm glad I stepped outside of my comfort zone to experience other makes.

No doubt the BOP stuff costs more but the parts do exist.

I'm not anti-Chevy, but everyone and their brother automatically puts an SBC in anything. There's just nothing interesting about them anymore to me, therefore I encourage people to try something else.

In the end it's your budget, your car and your taste. Good luck on what you go with!

Right on the money! for me anyway!

 

[papabearxl]

Buick 350's are complete turds :!: My '83 Regal had this engine in it when I purchased it. It ran great but had no take-off power whatsoever. If you ever even want to put headers on it, there is one company that makes headers for a Buick V8 in a GBody. $700 just for headers, uncoated. The only thing you will gain from putting a Buick 350 in place of the 3.8L will be worse gas mileage. Unless of coarse you buy some '68 Buick 350 for top dollar, that had decent power :idea:

No 'take-off' because of your stock 2.29 gears probably... My Chevy 350 doesn't have any power either... :lol:

What you said, Blake. Gearing is the weak link for most of our cars, for the "feel" of power. I am going to keep the 2:56 gears in mine, if I ever get it on the road, just to see what mileage I can get. If it's decent I may drive it to work....90% interstate driving....200-4R and 2:56 gears, with 300-400 hp (somewhere in that area), and keep the foot out of it, and see what I can get.

 

[G-Body_Vet]

Put those same BS gears in a Monte SS and see how well the 190HP L69 305 does :lol:

 

[CHRIS.O]

Probably about as good as a 165hp buick engine 😀

 

[G-Body_Vet]

Probably about as good as a 165hp buick engine 😀

For the sake of fairness, the L69 had a 9.5 to 1 CR
A '71 Buick 350 had 9.0 to 1. That was 230hp/350ft-lb.

The one you owned must have been a complete dog or something was wrong. They made them until 1980 so I'm sure they were on a serious decline in those years.

 

[CHRIS.O]

Thats what I mean easiest to find are the mid to late 70's ones which those years werent pretty for any make. I have no doubts some will haul *ss. I have owned a lot of different cars with different engines. I went through the whole purist thing with oldsmobiles. Really wished I hadn't wasted to the money just to stay "pure." Everyone in the purist crowd told me the same thing, "man the torque from an olds will smoke a chevy" I felt that way for a while, had a olds 350, headers, intake, mild cam all in an 84 cutlass. Blew around town running down ricers saying the same thing, the torque is awesome. Then I got smoked by a jeep grand cherokee. Haha. I know what your saying and I dont terribly disagree with ya. It is cool to open the hood and see something other than chevy orange sometimes. I just think the majority of people get in over their heads when they try to set up a car with a BOP engine then aren't satisfied with the results. If you have the money, knowledge, and time then by all means pop the buford in and rock on.

 

[G-Body_Vet]

If definitely boils down to your budget in the end, in that case SBC's get the one up. What started off as a $500 Pontiac 455 for me has turned into a money pit. Not from problems, but for the fact that I didn't just want to drop a used engine in my car and frag something later. A simple cyl head rebuild turned into SS valves and porting. Factory pistons & rods are long gone in favor of forged. It just never ends. I haven't even gotten into buying a trans or considering paint yet.

On another note, I'm a little older, more established than what I was in my early 20's, and have two other cars I can drive while the GP sits. That makes a BIG difference by not having to constantly maintain a daily driver.

As for the "purist" thing.....maybe I just have a mild case of OCD :lol:
It aggravates the living sh*t out of me if the hangers in my closest aren't all facing the same direction!

I just find it aesthetically pleasing to see a corresponding mill in a BOP car. But anyway, you know what they say about opinions :wink: