I would like to add a few things please. The Buick 215 and the Olds 215 were only different in the heads. The Olds had 4 more head bolts than the Buick and you could use Buick heads on the Olds but not the other way around. In 1952 Dan Gurney drove a Micky Thompson car in the Indianapolis 500 with a bored out version of the Buick (255 CID). In 1966 the Repco company in Australia built overhead cam heads for the 215 block and Jack Brabham won the Formula 1 championship with it. According to the figures I have seen the 340 Buick was significantly lighter than the Chevy SB. All the Buick V6 engines can trace their design back to the 215 V8. The starter carts for the SR-71 were built by famous racing car constructor Frank Kurtis who's midget cars and Indy cars were dominate in the 1940's and 1950's.
@@buzzwaldron6195 Yes and no. The blocks are the same with the same 4 bosses in the lifter valley just not drilled and tapped. Can be done with little effort. You do need those 4 bolts though as those 4 bolts also hold the rocker shafts on the olds.
Only in as much as they had the bolt hole drilled and tapped. You could do that to a Buick block if you wanted to go to the trouble. If you had Buick heads, why would you? Whole point was that you could use either block if you were using Buick heads. I expect Olds heads are a very rare item because there were many more Buicks made. The 1964 300 ci Buick still had the aluminum heads. @@buzzwaldron6195
The venerable Buick V6 was created by chopping two cylinders off the iron 300 V8. Same bore and stroke of 3.75 X 3.40. When GM bought the 225 V6 back from AMC in 1975, they bored it to 3.800, making it the 231, and having the same bore as the Buick 350 V8.
I ran the 455 in my circle track racer and won EVERY race I entered. I now have a 600 hp 430 in the BINDERBIRD. It does 80 in 1st, 105 it n second and God only knows how fast it will do in third. I smoke Teslas, new Camaros and run side by side with Hellcats/Scat packs
Dude, that 4WD Firebird ain't smokin a Tesla or a Hellcat. I have a 2wd '92 S-10 Blazer with procharged LS7 that makes 585 WHP and I barely gap those cars.
@@genefogarty5395 Older engines have a way longer stroke making way more torque instead or RPM's, Torque wins races, and one of the most important things is axle ratio, if running 3:63 or 4:11's you could whoop almost anything out there, Manual transmission would be even better too!
@@1_BlackDog_23 Understood. But I still stand by my comment. Old or new, power is power and a 4x4 on 33" tires with less HP and TQ than a car is just not going to beat it. BTW, the LS7 had more stroke in stock form than the 430 Buick. The LS7 made 505hp and 481 ft/lbs of tq stock. And that's SAE net vs. gross figures, net the 430 made far less.
Valve sizes, bore:stroke ratios, CID when added to how screwy auto manufacturers already are I’m sure there was a lot of fun to be had confounding insurance companies.
I know a local dirt track racer that ran an A body Buick who ran nothing but a Buick 455 and he dominated every week, and the last year he ran that car the engine blew, and he had a spare 350 Buick engine that he ran for the rest of the season, and although it wasn't the torque monster of the 455 it was still very competitive and won races.
The 3800 V6 was one of the best ever GM engines. They should still be running it instead of the terrible 3.6. My uncle back in the 50s had a large irrigation farm in west Texas and he ran Buick engines as pump engines and bought a new Buick every two years from Scoggin-Dickey in Lubbock. I've had three- the last being a 2001 LeSabre with the 3800. They've all been great cars.
I still drive a 1999 Buick Park Avenue Ultra with the 3800 Series II. I paid $400 for it, dragged it out of a pasture, put about $1200 into it, more that it needed. I get over 30 mpg going easy down the highway and around 24 in the city. It is the easiest engine to work on I have ever owned and the best driving car, and quick enough for any sensible driving.. You can keep the over head cam unnecessary crap with the long timing chains. I don't see any reason for that.
the 3800 was the best thats why they quit making them 400k miles on a few and cheap parts i agree been a tech for 26 years the 3800 is a stout motor that will handle even boost up to 21 psi stock and not give up... great engine
In the nail head engines, the valve push rods come up on the exhaust side of the head. The valves are vertical on the intake side. Because of this odd arrangement, the valves had to be very long and resemble nails, hence nail head. The rockers are offset too. This can be seen in cutaway drawings of the engine. The Buick V8s were high torque engines. I have owned two Skylarks with 350s (1968 and 1972) and a 1970 Riviera with a 455. They were all good tire smokers.
I put a Buick 350 in my Chevy C60 for hauling my vintage excavating equipment. It would pull not matter how hard you lugged it down, way out did the 366 truck engine it replaced.
Good job, besides a few small errors as noted in the comments. I'm a long time Buick owner/restorer, just sold my last Electra which had the 401 in it. I've built countless big block Buicks, and a few Nailheads, my favorite was the 401 for reliability, and the 455 for brute power. The 430 Big Block and the 425 Nail weren't bad either; my last 2 Wildcats had both, the 430 was a little peppier than the 425, but not by much. The nice thing about a Buick engine in a collector car, is once they're rebuilt, you never have to look at them again, they'll run forever. Modern seals and bearings are an improvement on those older engines. But what's too bad is that they killed the 350 Buick in 1980, which would have been a killer V8 if they had done to it what they did to the 231 V-6. It would have been a heck of a lot better than that miserable small block Chevy, which had being cheap to make it's only real redeeming factor.
I love my small block Chevy. 35 years of service and extremely reliable. They were in constant production for about fifty years. What other engine platform has that kind of success? It had fantastic power, reliability, and kept up with ever changing emission standards. I had a 350 Buick in a '70 Skylark and a 455 in a '71 GS. I loved them both.
The land rover 215 was also sent to Australia where the deck was raised 15/16ths , and made into a 270 CI ( 4.4 litre) engine. Cast and made in Australia, but still a version of the 215.
Lots of incorrect information stated here...All 455 4 bbl engines in 1970 made 510 ft-lb , The base model did not make 450 ft-lb as stated. The 455 bore was not 4.310", it was 4.312".Why did you mention the Stage 1was a monster especially in a Cutlass ? The Cutlass was an Oldsmobile model.
Even though it's a V6 I think the Buick 225 & 3.8L line deserved a mention. Just like the 215 V8 the original 225 would see duty in many Jeep Kaiser Vehicles. (When AMC bought the remnants of Kaiser in 1970 they promptly replaced all Buick engines with their own AMC engines.) The thought of an easy swap to a built 455 Stage 1 in a Jeep Wagoneer... Somebody must have built one. What a sleeper! 600+ torque and 4-hi lets GOOOOOO.
One amazing thing that very few folks are aware of is their use in starting a famous jet. Two of these big-block V8's were tied together and linked mechanically to each engine on the SR-71 high speed jet to spool up the turbines. In fact, later on two large Chevy V8's were employed. However, the chant "start the Buicks" was still used. Very cool, indeed.
13:01 Ford Edsel had torque ratings on their engines. Dad paid cash money for a 1958 Edsel with 361 solid lifter engine and steel crank, electronic shift, but that is all I know, I don't know model. He said that car would go 135 mph. He drove from Thunder Bay to Saskatoon in under 13 hours and that was on gravel and on the square, no highways. When he did burns, it was black tire smoke and I argued with Dad that in my age, tire smoke was blue.
Buick 215; my buddy Jack Houts put one in a porch 914. "it is so simple I just turned the intake around" he couldn't get it to cool. i pointed out that turning the intake. blocked the water flow only the first bank was getting water. Jack found a older man who made a ohc head for the 215. Jack went to see. this Old guy was hoping Jack would buy everything. Jack was so sad to see the life work about to be scrapped. the Old guy was in the Sacramento CA area. they all died and I'm next. Junk Yard Jim
I ride in my friends 64 Buick Skylark Sportwagon and it has an unbelievable amount of torque for a small 300 cubic inch V8 with a 2 barrel carburetor. Aluminum heads
This was an awesome video. My grandfather liked 1950s Buicks he owned a few of them with the straight eight. This taught me a lot thank you for making such an awesome video
These historical videos have been great. I’m learning a ton. The anecdote about the SR-71 start carts is super cool, I’ll have to find a video of one running!
I work for a classic British sports car shop. One customer ran a 215 Buick/Rover in his `68 MGB GT at Lemons. It fit really well, and light weight made it handle fantastic. I was the only guy in the shop who knew how to tune this engine. Most had never worked on a Holley before. The car did great in the race.
Buick was actually the engineering department of general motors up till about the 80s. Cadillac was the art and color design department and I believe Oldsmobile was a kind of test bed department for new ideas and concepts before other divisions would receive them.
The 1953 Special used the straight 8. In 1953 the Roadmaster, Super and Century used the 322 V8. The 264 V8 was exclusive to the 1954 and 1955 Special. In 1956 the 322 was used "across the board."
IN THE 6O,S I learned to drive in a 53 v8 . Drove a invicta and a 65 buick skylark GS . One practice day a 365 hp corvette was beating everyone . He challenged a black bubbletop buick .The guy opened his headers and rolled up. His windows that had a decal stating National Record Holder . HE WON EASILY WAS A 401.
I use Lucas in oil pumps, they can sit for a year,. And still get instant oil pressure. Mostly SBC pumps , but with Lucas it's just like the engine had been running , all but instant oil pressure!
My 72 Buick 350 rocket engine that I got for 200 bucks off a little old lady. I threw a four barrel on it done a few other tweaks and I would smoke my friends trans am and which really pissed him off… Lol… Great show… Keep on rocking
I liked the 350 "Fireball" V-8 they used from 1968 to 1980; it was the third iteration of the original 300 V-8 (essentially the 225 V-6 with two more cylinders, as it had that engine's 3.75" bore and 3.4" stroke) that came out in 1964 to replace the aluminum 215 V-8 which, in turn, whose design and tooling was sold to the English automaker Rover.
About 21 minutes into your presentation there is a picture of a man with the Olds 215 V8 on the left and the Buick 215 V8 on the right. I recognize him, Phil Baker of Seattle. Note he figured out how to install a Buick electronic ignition distributor in the Buick 215 V8 in the picture. I have met Phil. He also figured out how to install the crank from a Buick 340 V8 into this 215 V8, brining it up to 262 cu in. I personally saw his vehicle so equipped. More: he figured out how to adapt a Turbohydamatic 350 to both of these 215 V8s, I find to be a hug improvement over the auto trans the factory offered on these 2 engines in the early 1960s., My last contact with Phil he was in failing health, I believe he has gone onto car heaven now. Phil built racing engines for number of years, too. He was recognized as unusually smart anything cars related.
My knowledge of American vehicles is limited. The early Fords and Chrysler were side valve but even 1920s Chevrolet were using OHV 6,s i do not think they used sidevalve i could be wrong. Yes the alloy 215ci Buick/Rover in the UK it is still a very popular engine it has found its way into many Many different vehicles. Buicks V6 3.8 was used in Australian Holden Commodore around 1990s, it was a good stong powerful engine!! A guy in Australia with a Rover SD1 car it had a bored and stroked V8 from a Leyland P76 same engine but 4.5ltr instead of 3.5, it was 5ltr in a light weight wedge shape car it should have gone very well!!
I'd love to have an old big block Buick 455 to put in my 1996 Roadmaster sedan. The 2nd gen small block LT1 engine is okay. But a big block torque monster would be a lot better. Especially the way I drive. I don't need high speed. I just like to jump off the line quickly
The 1996 Roadmaster gearing isn’t that great from what I recall. Maybe the 9C1 gearing (3.42 or 3.73 instead of 2.73 or 3.08) would get you more punch? But a 455 would be a lot of fun.
I had a Buick Lesabre, 1969, with the 350 in it and a 4 barrel carburetor. That thing could pass anything except a gas station. Idled as smooth as glass. It's a shame that all Buick sells now are look alike SUV. Not one car in their lineup.
Love old Buicks! David Buick was a plumber and inventor. He invented the valve in head design. Buick never ran a flathead. When David Buick sold the company it became the first car division of GM. Top Dog! This is why the Skylark GS got away with 401 c.i. and why the GSX of 1970 closed out the muscle car era smoking all of the competition. The GNX was also allowed to smoke Corvette like a brisket. Carol Selby got the idea for the Cobra from the Buick 401 powered Ole Yeller he destroyed the competition with. Great video 👍
Love all your reviews and information on all series of the American V-8 engines! Cool background information on the years they came out and calling out the bore and stroke of each one. One suggestion I have if you plan to do a revised series is to include in the technical information the bore center and deck height measurements, as well as dry weight of the long block assembly. This allows a basic comparison of the physical dimensions of each V-8 line. For example - Looking under the hood and seeing a Chevy 454 it seems to look physically larger than all the other GM V-8's. However, the 472 series Cadillacs seem to look smaller than the BBC but they are physically larger with their 5 inch bore centers and 10.8 inch deck height.
I've had two 455's resting on a rack in my garage for about 32 years. Both are .030" over, so 463 Cu. In.. The first one used for circle track racing is high compression with flattop pistons, zero deck, stage 1 heads cut .100", mild cam, and requires a minimum of 100 octane gas. Compression is over 12:1 so this is a torque monster & would work great in a Skylark bracket car. Can't remember whether there is a TH300 or TH400 transmission attached. The second engine and trans was built for my Suburban tow vehicle, so designed for 89 octane regular gas, dished pistons, custom towing cam, external oil cooler ports, & MSD ignition. It has a Buick case TH400 built for a Suburban style bolted driveshaft yoke. Rat rod or two, anyone?
The distributor and oil pump assembly being mounted at an angle across the front of the engine - was this a Buick design that looks like it was used by Cadillac for their 472 series engines? All other GM V-8's had their distributor and oil pump mounted vertically toward the rear of the engine. Each GM division did have their own engineering at that time but there was some sharing of design concepts so would be interesting to know who came up with the front mounted distributor first - Buick or Cadillac?
I love these engine history series, but also miss your machining videos too. I'd absolutely love to see you start building some of these awesome vintage engines. I particularly love the early hemis, the Buick engines and I'd love to see you do a Packard V12.
The 401 came out for the 1959 model year through 1966. The 4bbl version had 325 HP. The 425 from 1963 model year through 1966 had 340 HP with the 4bbl and 360 HP with the 2-4bbl (Super Wildcat) both had the 465 torque rating.
A friend had a jet fire complete and a matching straight regular car,both for 2000. But I couldn't find anything about value so I didn't buy them. I have thought I made a mistake not buying the pair. A very interesting show,thank you.
Back in the day when nail valves were readily available we put them in early 50's Ford coupes. The 322 was cheap and made WAY more torque than any flathead. You could run around town with a docile idling engine that kinda sounded like a flathead. But if somebody called you out, it was usually your race to loose. HP sells cars, but on the street TQ rules and Buick motors did the job for pennies from a wrecking yard 😁
I can't wait for the rocket series ! I bleed GM v8. One note about 68-70 Buick 350. 4bbl heads and intake are only for those 3 years. 2bbl 68-80 & 71-80 4bbl intake and heads are mix and match. Mikel
Thanks for the info and Buick engine history. With all due respect I must point out to you that you got some oof the details wrong about the Buick engines that they used for the SR71 Blackbird start carts. According to this former "skunk works" engineer hired by the Air Force back then, it was the Buick 400/401 nail head engines that were used, and not the 425 engines that you claimed. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-KoD6kFb85co.html
I had a 1962, Buick Le Sabre with a 401 Nailhead, 2v. I think it was rated about 275 hp. It had dual valve springs. It was easy to work on. Its big problem was its camshaft gear was nylon coated to be quite. The nylon coating came loose at 50 mph and the cam went out of sync. The distributor quit turning. The valves hit the pistons and the push rods were bent. The mechanic did not find the bent push rods and it would overheat. The transmission with one gear was awsome.
I grew up on the Buick’s my pops worked for a Buick dealership for 17 years and I was fortunate to be able to see all the new models. Fabulous cars all of them.
You didnt mention the other version of the BOP alloy engine The Leyland P76 ,4.4 liter V8 .its a taller deck height than the other versions and with better pistons,they became very reliable . There were more engines made than leyland p76 cars . So for years i saw new engines sitting.in crates in all sorts of places .
The 215V8 was awesome in the little cars. They put it in, they would haul ash the 430 I had in a 67th wild catand that car had no topping. I swear it was going a 135 miles an hour, no problem. The only thing that cart add for a problemwas tickets. It was so smooth. You didn't. I'll just bring you to a 120 or more. Great car, absolutely great. As far as I'm concerned in 1973, they quit making card. Then they started building garbage. I think this was a Communist plotto make it. So people started to buy that foreign belt garbage. They put America's manufacturing out of business. Buy american b american
Several things he said is wrong. 1: The 322 came first in 1953 as a replacement for the big body upper class Super and Roadmaster. The 264 came in 1954 to finally put the straight 8 to rest in the entry level models Special and Century. The 401 first year was 1959. From 157-1958 the only engine available was the 364 in their respective forms. The 350s also have front mount oil pump integrated on the timing cover. By far the most reliable Buick v8 is the 364 and 401 nailheads. 425s tend to run hot and the 350s and big blocks oil pump design leads to weak oil pressure due to excessive wear on the oil pump.
The SR-71s fuel was not very flammable similar to a diesel fuel and the engines had to be turned up to get enough compression for them to light off and they still had to use triethylborane aka TEB which was a mono gothic rocket propellant to provide the equivalent to a glow plug to kick the engines off. The TEB was a button press to get a single shot of it once the turbine RPM was high enough and the fuel would be turned on at the same time as the TEB was dispensed the TEB was in limited supply The engine's high operating speeds and temperatures required a new jet fuel, JP-7. Its reluctance to be ignited required triethylborane (TEB) to be injected into the engine to ignite it and the afterburner. Above -5 °C, TEB spontaneously ignites in contact with air. Each engine carried a nitrogen-pressurized sealed tank with 600 cm3 (20.7 ounces) of TEB, sufficient for at least 16 starts, restarts, or afterburner lights; this number was one of the limiting factors of SR-71 endurance, as after each air refueling the afterburners had to be reignited. The two Buick Wildcat engines turned the J-58 engine through a single common shaft via a gear reduction and the turbo jet engine speed was 3200 RPM at start up. Some modern jet fighter aircraft (F-16) also use a mono gothic rocket propellant called hydrazine to make it possible for them to be able to self start even if they are away from ground power carts and airports so they can operate from freeways or any road large and long enough for them to land and take off. These rocket fuels are extremely hazardous due to their spontaneous combustion properties similar to the German ME-163 in WW2 that used concentrated hydrogen peroxide and alcohol the hydrogen peroxide was at or slightly above 70% purity realize that even the stuff you can order from a chemist supply is only 30% concentration and the drug store stuff is 3% hydrogen peroxide is a powerful oxidizer and in high concentrations such as used in the ME-163 would spontaneously combust on contact with any organic material including human flesh grease or oil no ignition system is needed with alcohol and peroxide rocket engine only two pumps and a combustion chamber and valves
The 264 cu in came out in 1954 and was used in 1954 thru 1956 the Roadmaster and the Super got the 322 cu in in 1953 but after the that Century, Super and Roadmaster.
Another awesome video,,,buicks and olds are my favorite cars god knows i had alot of them growing up,,,cant wait till the olds video comes out,,,keep up t awesome work and thanks for sharing😊
l love your videos. One small tip. Engine output is meaaured in pound-feet (lb-ft). That's different from when you torque a bolt, you apply force in foot-pounds (ft-lb). It has to do with the direction of the lever. So you say the engine has 445 lb-ft of torque.
My first car was a 1972 Buick skylark sun coupe with a 350. It was a unique car due to the sun coupe folding soft vinyl top, huge sun roof more or less. Ya it was leaky by the time I got it some 10 years after dad had the car restored. The sun coupe roof was a pain during restoration because unlike today in the early 90’s you couldn’t jump on the internet and google search for companies who now make kits to rebuild the kinda complex cables and vinyl top that it’s made up of. The ole Buick would destroy one tire for super long burnouts on local roads and was as tuff as nails. I drove that car like it was a pro mod and only recall blowing a head gasket one morning on the way to school. It would run consistent 10:32’s in the 8th mile and I even won some cash bracket racing it on test and tune weds night at the local track. They would test and tune almost all afternoon and night but in the middle have a small bracket race that usually didn’t have the more serious local bracket racers in it and I took the small pot more than once at either 16 or 17 years old. That ole Buick was really a lot of fun and was great to learn to drive in.
I have a question I don't think you mentioned...my brother bought a used 66 skylark and supposedly it has the original engine and it was a all aluminum V6 with a 2 bbl. That thing ran like a champ...or was it a Pontiac v6?
that 401 may not have been the fastest engine but in a big wildcat land yacht, you could completely shred a brand new set of rear tires in 10 minutes or less and while it wasn't quite as cool as watching smoke barrel roll off the front wheels of big old toronado, watching tons of smoke bellows off the rear wheels of a big long wildcat was still pretty hot. there was just something about cooking tires in those big luxury style land yachts that couldn't be matched in a performance car, GTX, Super Bee, road runner, SS BB Camaro & Chevelle's, i had more fast cars than i can even remember and still cooking tires in the big old wildcat and toronado was the best of the best..........
Thank you for the video.. You really though should of had a proof watcher or reader.. Or taking your time to put it on youtube. Many many spec mistakes and incorrect info and non matching pictures of the subject. Still a nice thank you..
David Buick and his team created the over head valve engine. He then sold Buick car company to William Durant with Buick becoming the first car brand in what would become a stable of car brands making up General Motors.
The Air Force later went to the Buick 455 for the SR-71 start carts. As the cores of available 455s became scarce, they had to switch to the Chevrolet 454.
I had a 455 built to stage one spec but never could get the thing to stay running for longer than maybe a minute. Something wasn't right and I never figured it out before someone made me a offer on it and I sent it down the road.
Oh so they went from straight 6 to straight 8 to increase displacement with standardized parts? I don't see why they would not simply increase the bore and stroke on a 6 cylinder..
AMC has the same thing on the oil pump looks like that Buick. I wandered if they are the same thing. I had to buy a new cover because someone eat mine up .
