buick 350 worth a damn?

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

Yeah, I had remembered reading that about the bores, but never had checked the Olds 350. I am not saying that any of those engines have no potential, just that they are not as popular for those brands as the larger ones. I have nothing against playing with atypical engines. I have a 1979 AMC Spirit with a 1973 AMC 360 swapped in. It has a 4.08in bore and a 3.44in stroke, btw. It also came with 2.02/1.68 valves, IIRC. Good on that engine: Heads that outflow any other small block engine of that era save the Ford Cleveland. Bad: poor oiling system design, relatively weak rods, no factory forged crank, parts availability and pricing. I'm also a big fan of the Nissan KA24DE 4 cyl while most who play with Nissan 4's use a SR20DE.

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

Yeah, I had remembered reading that about the bores, but never had checked the Olds 350. I am not saying that any of those engines have no potential, just that they are not as popular for those brands as the larger ones. I have nothing against playing with atypical engines. I have a 1979 AMC Spirit with a 1973 AMC 360 swapped in. It has a 4.08in bore and a 3.44in stroke, btw. It also came with 2.02/1.68 valves, IIRC. Good on that engine: Heads that outflow any other small block engine of that era save the Ford Cleveland. Bad: poor oiling system design, relatively weak rods, no factory forged crank, parts availability and pricing. I'm also a big fan of the Nissan KA24DE 4 cyl while most who play with Nissan 4's use a SR20DE.

 

[Floydsbuick]

I previously had a 69 Buick 350 in my 85 Regal. There are ups and downs. The upside is they fit just great in a Buick V-6 G body engine bay, they are cheap engines to buy, surprisingly lighter than a SBC.

The downsides is performance parts ain't cheap. They can be bored, but they are pretty well stroked to the max from the factory. And the lifter valleys are not for no 9000 rpms!

When mine was going bad to the tune of a quart of oil a pass, it ran a 14.14. Those rings just didn't like me shifting at 5500.

O......don't ever run one without an oil gauge!!!!!!!

 

[marcar1993]

Well, not to begin an argument. But I know many ppl who have built olds 330's for hipo builds, like 500 hp. The bop and caddy motors were built for different reasons than the chevys. Remeber bore=hp stroke=tq, tq gets you moving, hp keeps you there. The bop and caddy motors were built to get the land yaghts they built moving. They were big stroke motors, that is why (to my knowledge, don't qoute me on this) the bop and caddys are wider than the chevys, a longer stroke.

I would build a 350 buick in a heartbeat. Why not, they moved a bodys, they can move a g-body.

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

The best argument against running anything but a Chevy 350 is always going to be cost. In stock form, they have the best oil pump of the 350's, lots of factory performance parts for cheap upgrades, and tons of aftermarket support. The used parts market is huge for the SBC because so many people run them. If you own something else and can use it for cheap, by all means do so. If you are starting from scratch and looking for the best bang for the buck, the Chevy is the logical choice. It is not an original idea- you name it, someone has probably swapped a Chevy small block into it at some point. It just happens to be a good design that responds well to mods for a minimal amount of money. That was my logic behind using it in my Cutlass. If I had something else that would have worked laying around, I would have used that instead. The Buick has an awful oil pump by the way. It is also expensive to play with if you want big power. If all you want is to be a little quicker than you are now, it will be fine.

 

[hotrod86]

twin turbo buick 350

there is a guy on v8buick site that builds twin turbo kits for the buick 350. he says 700 hp or so an a stock bottom end and heads. sounds pretty good to me.