Buick 3.8 to Buick 350-1981 Century Wagon Build

[Blake442]

nice sleeve. im still not sure why you routed the hose that way but that's added insurance. do keep and eye on it though just in case.

I routed it that way because it was the only way that I could. The hose was not long enough to route it the way it was on the V6.

do let us know all the changes and little things you had to do to make this work. i want to put a buick 350 in my car and all that info will help me avoid mistakes and delays. a write up would be awesome. like chuck norris awesome.

That's what this whole thread is about...

 

[G_Body_Enthusiast]

i meant in a more condensed version like an actual write up without all the back and forth banter here. just the facts as it were.

 

[Blake442]

Oh, I gotcha... Meh, maybe later I'll sort thru it all when I inevitably get bored this winter... :lol:

 

[Lue]

Looking good Blake 8) , that's going to be one nice looking wagon

 

[Blake442]

Picked up a V8 radiator and upper and lower hoses this morning.
It's an aluminum core/plastic tank unit, not copper like o.e., but that's fine with me.
I even have a V8 fan shroud from my old Malibu to complete the front the motor...

Carb kit to rebuild the 2-jet should be on it's way, so I can get on that probably next week.

I'm taking the 442 to a car show/cruise tonite with some pals, so I'll have to wait til saturday to get the new goodies in the car. I've only put like 250 miles on the poor thing all summer... 😳

 

[Blake442]

Got the radiator in and hooked up on Saturday.

I used V6 hoses and ended up shortening each of them about 3-4 inches each.
In retrospect, I probably should've gotten them for the 350 instead... 😳
Trans cooler lines went right in place with a little persuasion.

Only problem I ran into is the bottom of the fan touches the bottom of the shroud.
I should be able to re-adjust it and get it to clear, but I ran out of day light...

Got the carb kit today, actually it came saturday and they left it inbetween the front door and screen door.
Since I never use the front door, I didn't know it was there... :lol:

I hope to get the carb taken care of and in place this weekend.

 

[Blake442]

Tore the carb apart tonite.
Letting the big parts soak in a bucket of carb cleaner overnite, and tomorrow I'll cross my fingers and put it back together... :lol:

 

[tobyp]

Blake,

For what it is worth I took the v6 kickdown cable bracket, chopped the bottom side of it off and welded it into the rest of the bracket. It works fantastic. I have a pic below but doesnt really show you how I welded it, just the concept. I am out of the country right now, but when I get back I can post different pics.

 

[Blake442]

I have no welder so I grabbed a kickdown cable bracket off another 350-2bbl from a '73 Apollo at the yard.

Got the carburator back together and on the car.
Still have a few odds and ends to work out, but once I hook the fuel line up from the pump to the carb, fill it with coolant, and rig up some exhaust pipes it's ready to fire up. I can sort thru the other stuff later.

I also fixed the problem I was having with the fan hitting the bottom of the shroud.
For starters I split the top and bottom halfs apart so I could see where the problem was.
I ended up having to trim the lower corners a bit and got the room I needed.
I screwed the driver side back together snug, and the passenger side I used a 3/8 nut as a spacer inbetween the two pieces. Got the clearance I needed.

 

[Blake442]

Got the car running on friday evening. Runs good, and no leaks so far.
Pretty much everything is together except for the exhaust.
My laptop got another virus so I'm stuck back at the damn library to get online... I'll try and get my pics up soon.