Like its sister General Motors divisions,
BuickBuick is a marque of automobile sold in the United States, Canada, Mexico, China, Taiwan, Qatar, Kuwait, and Israel by General Motors Company...
produced its own family of V8 engines to replace
its straight-8 enginesThe Buick Straight-8 engine was produced from 1931 to 1953 and sold in Buick automobiles. Like many American automobile makers, Buick adopted the straight-8 engine in 1931 as a more powerful alternative to the previous inline-6 engines...
. These engines came in many of the same displacements as those from other divisions, but were entirely different.
Buick "Nailhead V8"
Buick first generation of V8 lasted from 1953 through 1956. It was an
OHVAn overhead valve engine, also informally called pushrod engine or I-head engine, is a type of piston engine that places the camshaft within the cylinder block , and uses pushrods or rods to actuate rocker arms above the cylinder...
/pushrod engine like the then new Oldsmobile "Rocket V8" engine. This engine became known as the "Nailhead" for the unusual vertical position of its small-sized valves—which looked like nails. The Nailhead-V8 family employed a camshaft with higher lift and longer duration to offset the smaller-sized valves and arguably restrictive intake- and exhaust-port areas. The small-size valves and intake runners made for engines with a lot of torque, with many exceeding one foot-pound per cubic inch, which was exceptional for the day.
264
The
264 was a direct replacement for the
263 straight-8 in Buick's large cars. It was produced in 1954 and 1955.
322
The larger
322 was used by Buick from 1953 through 1956, primarily in 'senior' series cars.
Nailhead V8
Buick's second variation of this V8 was also named
Nailhead. It was produced from 1957 through 1966.
364
Apparently the smallest displacement Nailhead, the 264, was dropped when Buick introduced its new small displacement V8. Buick, like most of its competitors, continued to expand their durable V8 engine to larger displacements such as the 364 cu in (4.125in bore)x(3.40in stroke)=
.
400
The next member of the family was the
400. This was actually a 401 that had been redesignated a "400" in order to meet GM directives for maximum displacement engines in mid-size cars.
Another Buick "400" engine was a member of the 400/430/455 family and was produced from 1967 to 1969.
401
The
401 was Buick's
muscle carMuscle car is a term used to refer to a variety of high performance automobiles. At its most widely accepted the term refers to American 2-door rear wheel drive mid-size cars of the late 1960s and early 1970s equipped with large, powerful V8s and sold at an affordable price for street use and drag...
powerplant of choice, and was found in the company's
Skylark Gran SportThe Buick Gran Sport or GS was a high-performance option package available on a number of Buick models, including the Riviera and Wildcat. A special version of one model was given the package's name as its model name.-Skylark Gran Sport:...
and
Buick WildcatThe Buick Wildcat was a full-size automobile produced by the Buick Division of General Motors from 1962 to 1970. For its first year, the Wildcat was a 'sub-model' within the Buick Invicta series, mating the smaller full-size two-door hardtop Buick body with a high-performance version of the 401ci...
, among others. As unlikely as it seems, the air cleaner for the engine is annotated with "Wildcat 375" "Wildcat 410" "Wildcat 445" these inscriptions indicated not the cubic inches displaced but the ft·lbf of torque produced by the engine. The "Wildcat 410" was the 2-barrel carburated engine that was standard on the 1962-63
LeSabreThe Buick LeSabre is a full-size car made by the Buick division of General Motors from 1959-2005. For many years, the LeSabre was considered the entry level full-size Buick, carrying the lowest base price in the Buick lineup...
. The "Wildcat 375" was a no cost option on the 62-63 LeSabre that had lower compression to run on regular fuel (another Buick V8 had "Wildcat 375" written on its air cleaner but it wasn't a "Nailhead", it was the 4 barrel version of the 66-67 small block Buick 340).
The "Wildcat 445" had a single 4 barrel carb. It was the standard engine on the
InvictaThe Buick Invicta was a full-sized automobile produced by General Motors' Buick Motor Division from 1959 to 1963. The Invicta was a continuation of the Buick Century concept that mated the standard size Buick LeSabre body with Buick's larger 401 in³ Nailhead V8 engine, yielding what was referred...
, 1959-66
ElectraThe Buick Electra and the Buick Electra 225 are full-size premium automobiles built by the Buick division of General Motors. The Electra name was used by Buick between 1959 and 1990.- 1959–1960 :...
, 1962-66
Buick WildcatThe Buick Wildcat was a full-size automobile produced by the Buick Division of General Motors from 1962 to 1970. For its first year, the Wildcat was a 'sub-model' within the Buick Invicta series, mating the smaller full-size two-door hardtop Buick body with a high-performance version of the 401ci...
, 1963
RivieraThe Buick Riviera is an automobile produced by Buick in the United States from the 1963 to 2002 model years, with 1,127,261 produced.A full-size coupé or personal luxury car, the early models of the Riviera in particular have been highly praised by automotive journalists and writers.-Origin of the...
and 1965 Riviera (the 64 and 66 Riviera models had a 425 in³ engine with a single 4 barrel carb. named "Wildcat 465" as standard equipment). These were also used as starter motors for the
SR-71 BlackbirdThe Lockheed SR-71 is an advanced, long-range, Mach 3 strategic reconnaissance aircraft developed from the Lockheed A-12 and YF-12A aircraft by the Lockheed Skunk Works as a Black project. The SR-71 was unofficially named the Blackbird, and called the Habu by its crews, referring to an Okinawan...
, mounted on a trolley.
In an effort to overcome the "restrictive" exhaust port design, Buick enthusiast drag racers in the sixties adapted superchargers with a custom camshaft to feed intake air in through the exhaust ports and used the larger intake ports for exhaust outlets. Perhaps this feat of ingenuity, and the unusual appearance of the engine modified in this manner, also intimidated rival racers and added to the Nailhead V8 legend that lives upon this page of US auto history.
425
425
This was the largest version of the "nailhead". It began as an option in 1963 on the Riviera and it was later available on the Wildcat and Electra models too. The 1964 and 1966 Riviera had the 425 engine as standard equipment.
4 barrel carburetion was standard on all 425 "Nailheads" that were called "Wildcat 465". The "465" sticker on the air cleaner did not denote engine displacement as many thought, it denoted the torque rating. It was possible to order two 4 barrel carbs, which were delivered in the trunk along with the intake manifold and installed by the dealer. This version was called "Super Wildcat" and could be ordered on the 1965 Riviera Gran Sport and the 1966 Wildcat GS as RPO Y48. Toward the end of the 1966 model year, approximately May 1966, Buick offered the Super Wildcat 465 with dual 4BBL Carter AFB's as a factory installed option. This engine is coded "MZ" while the dealer installed dual four barrel setup was a "MW" coded engine. There were only 179 1966 Riviera GS cars built with the MZ coded factory dual four barrel setup, making it a very rare car. Rarer still was the 1966 Riviera GS, MZ coded engine, in Riviera Red exterior color.
Buick "Small-Block"
In 1961 Buick unveiled an entirely new small V8 engine with aluminum
cylinder headIn an internal combustion engine, the cylinder head sits above the cylinders and consists of a platform containing part of the combustion chamber and the location of the valves and spark plugs...
s and
cylinder blockThe cylinder block or engine block is a machined casting containing cylindrically bored holes for the pistons of a multi-cylinder reciprocating internal combustion engine, or for a similarly constructed device such as a pump...
. Lightweight and powerful, the aluminum V8 also spawned a
turbochargedA turbocharger, or turbo, is a gas compressor that is used for forced-induction of an internal combustion engine. A form of supercharger, the purpose of a turbocharger is to increase the density of air entering the engine to create more power...
version, (only in the 1962-63 Oldsmobile Cutlass version), the first ever offered in a passenger car. It became the basis of a highly successful
cast ironCast iron usually refers to grey iron, but also identifies a large group of ferrous alloys, which solidify with a eutectic. The colour of a fractured surface can be used to identify an alloy. White cast iron is named after its white surface when fractured, due to its carbide impurities which...
V6 engineA V6 engine is a V engine with six cylinders mounted on the crankcase in two banks of three cylinders, usually set at either a right angle or an acute angle to each other, with all six pistons driving a common crankshaft...
, the Fireball. The all-aluminum engine was dropped after the 1963 model year, but was replaced with a very similar cast-iron engine.
215
- See also Rover V8 engine
The Rover V8 engine is a compact V8 internal combustion engine with aluminium cylinder heads and cylinder block, originally designed by General Motors and later re-designed and produced by Rover in the United Kingdom...
GM experimented with aluminum engines starting in the early 1950s, and work on a production unit commenced in 1956. Originally intended for displacement, Buick was designated by GM as the engine design leader, and decided to begin with a larger, size, which was deemed ideal for the new "
senior compact carsThe General Motors A platform was a mid-size car automobile platform. The A-bodies evolved from rear wheel drive compact cars to front wheel drive mid-size cars over the course of 32 years. The switch in drive layout in 1982 spawned the G-body...
" introduced for the 1961 model year. This group of cars was commonly referred to as the "B-O-P" group — for Buick-Olds-Pontiac — or the
Y-bodiesThe Y platform, or Y body, designation has been used twice by the General Motors Corporation to describe a series of vehicles all built on the same basic body and sharing many parts and characteristics...
.
The 215 had a 4.24 in (107.7 mm) bore spacing, a bore of 3.5 in (88.9 mm), and a stroke of 2.8 in (71.1 mm), for an actual displacement of . The engine was the lightest mass-production V8 in the world, with a dry weight of only 318 lb (144 kg). It was standard equipment in the 1961
Buick SpecialThe Buick Special is an automobile produced by the Buick Motor Division of General Motors, Flint, Michigan .From 1936 to 1958, Buick's Special model range represented the marque's entry level full-size automobile. By 1955, the Buick Special was one of America's best selling automotive series...
.
Oldsmobile and Pontiac also used the all-aluminum 215 on its mid-sized cars, the Oldsmobile F-85,
CutlassThe Oldsmobile Cutlass was a line of automobiles made by the Oldsmobile division of General Motors. The Cutlass began as a unibody compact car, but saw its greatest success as a body-on-frame intermediate car....
and Jetfire, and
Pontiac TempestThe Pontiac Tempest was an entry-level compact automobile produced by the Pontiac Motor Division of General Motors, introduced in September 1960 for the 1961 model year. It shared the new monocoque Y platform with the Buick Special and Skylark, and Oldsmobile F-85 and Cutlass...
and
LeMansThe Pontiac LeMans was a model name applied to compact and intermediate-sized automobiles offered by the Pontiac division of General Motors from 1962 to 1981. The LeMans was replaced by the downsized Pontiac Bonneville for the 1982 model year...
. Pontiac used the Buick version of the 215; Oldsmobile had its own. The Oldsmobile version of this engine, although sharing the same basic architecture, had cylinder heads designed by Oldsmobile engineers, and was produced on a separate assembly line. Among the differences between the Oldsmobile and Buick versions, it was somewhat heavier, at 350 lb (159 kg). The design differences were in the cylinder heads: Buick used a 5-bolt pattern around each cylinder where Oldsmobile went to a 6-bolt pattern. The 6th bolt was added to the intake manifold side of the head, one extra bolt for each cylinder, meant to alleviate a head-warping problem on high-compression versions. This meant that Oldsmobile heads would go on Buick blocks, but not vice versa, and that changing the compression ratio on an Oldsmobile 215 required changing the heads, but on a Buick 215, only the pistons, which was less expensive and simpler. For these reasons, the more common Buick version has today also emerged as more desirable. Later Rover versions of the aluminum block and subsequent Buick iron small blocks (300, 340 and 350) went to a 4-bolt-per-cylinder pattern.
At introduction, Buick's 215 was rated 150 hp (112 kW) at 4400 rpm. This was raised soon after introduction to 155 hp (116 kW) at 4600 rpm. 220 ft·lb (298 N·m) of
torqueTorque, also called moment or moment of force , is the tendency of a force to rotate an object about an axis, fulcrum, or pivot. Just as a force is a push or a pull, a torque can be thought of as a twist....
was produced at 2400 rpm with a Rochester 2GC two-barrel
carburetorA carburetor or carburettor is a device that blends air and fuel for an internal combustion engine. It was invented by Karl Benz before 1885 and patented in 1886...
and 8.8:1
compression ratioThe compression ratio of an internal-combustion engine or external combustion engine is a value that represents the ratio of the volume of its combustion chamber; from its largest capacity to its smallest capacity...
. A mid-year introduction was the Buick Special Skylark version, which had 10.25:1 compression and a four-barrel carburetor, raising output to 185 hp (138 kW) at 4800 rpm and 230 ft·lb (312 N·m) at 2800 rpm.
For 1962, the four-barrel engine increased the compression ratio to 10.25:1, raising it to 190 hp (142 kW) at 4800 rpm and 235 ft·lb (319 N·m) at 3000 rpm. The two-barrel engine was unchanged. For 1963, the four-barrel was bumped to 11:1 compression and an even 200 hp (149 kW) at 5000 rpm and 240 ft·lb (325 N·m) at 3200 rpm, a respectable 0.93 hp/
cu inA cubic inch is a non-SI unit of volume, equal to the volume of a cube with sides of one inch.Cubic inches are still sometimes used as a unit of measurement in the United States and Canada, although SI is continuing to gradually displace non-SI usage.-Notation conventions:The following symbols...
(56.6 hp/L).
Unfortunately, the great expense of the aluminum engine led to its cancellation after the 1963 model year. The engine had an abnormally high scrap ratio due to hidden block-casting porosity problems, which caused serious oil leaks. Another problem was clogged radiators from antifreeze mixtures incompatible with aluminum. It was said that one of the major problems was because they had to make extensive use of air gauging to check for casting leaks during the manufacturing process, and not being able to detect leaks on blocks that were as much as 95% complete. This raised the cost of complete engines to more than that of a comparable all cast-iron engine. Casting sealing technology was not advanced enough at that time to prevent the high scrap rates.
The Buick 215's very high power to weight ratio made it immediately interesting for automotive and marine racing.
Mickey ThompsonMarion Lee "Mickey" Thompson was an American off-road racing legend. He won many championships as a racer, and later formed sanctioning bodies SCORE International and Mickey Thompson Entertainment Group . He also raced in dragsters and land speed record automobiles.Thompson was born in Alhambra,...
entered a stock-block Buick 215-powered car in the 1962
Indianapolis 500The Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, often shortened to Indianapolis 500 or Indy 500 or sometimes known simply as The 500, is an American automobile race, held annually over the Memorial Day weekend at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana...
. From 1946 to 1962 there hadn't been a single stock-block car in this famous race. In 1962 the Buick 215 was the only non-
OffenhauserOffenhauser was a United States of America racing engine manufacturer that operated from 1933 to 1983.The Offenhauser engine, familiarly known as the "Offy", was developed by Fred Offenhauser and his employer Harry Arminius Miller, after maintaining and repairing a 1913 Peugeot Grand Prix car of...
powered entry in the field of 33 cars. Rookie driver
Dan GurneyDaniel Sexton Gurney is an American racing driver, race car constructor, and team owner.The son of a Metropolitan Opera star, he was born in Port Jefferson, New York, but moved to California as a teenager...
qualified eighth and raced well for 92 laps before retiring with transmission problems.
Surplus engine blocks of the Oldsmobile (6 bolt per cylinder) version of this engine formed the basis of the
Formula OneFormula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1, and currently officially referred to as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . The "formula" in the name refers to a set of rules to which all participants...
RepcoRepco is an Australian engineering company. Its name is derived from 'Replacement Parts Company', referring to one of its major lines of work....
V8 used by Brabham to win the
1966The 1966 Formula One season included the 17th FIA Formula One World Championship season, which commenced on May 22, 1966, and ended on October 23 after nine races....
and
1967The 1967 Formula One season was the 18th season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 1967 World Championship of Drivers and the 1967 International Cup for F1 Manufacturers, contested concurrently over an eleven race series which commenced on January 2, 1967, and ended on October 22...
Formula One world championship. No other American stock-block engine has won a Formula One championship.
Rights to these engines were purchased by the British Rover Company and used in the 1967 Rover P5B that replaced the 3 litre straight six Rover engined P5. This engine was also used for V8 versions of the MGB-GT known as the MGB-GT/V8. This came straight from the MG Works at Abingdon-on-the-Thames. Buick 215s have also been
engine swapAn engine swap is the process of removing a car's engine and replacing it with another. This is done either because of failure, or to install a different engine, usually one that is more powerful or more modern and maintainable....
ped into countless other platforms, especially
Chevrolet VegaThe Chevrolet Vega is a subcompact, four passenger automobile produced by the Chevrolet division of General Motors for the 1971–1977 model years....
s and later British cars
MG sports carsThe MGB is a sports car launched by MG Cars in May 1962 to replace the MGA and manufactured until 22 October 1980 — originally by the British Motor Corporation and later by its successors...
including the MG-RV8 in the 1990s.
TriumphThe Triumph Motor Company is a defunct British motor manufacturer. The Triumph marque is currently owned by BMW. The marque had its origins in 1885 when Siegfried Bettmann and Moritz Schulte from Germany founded Bettmann & Co and started selling Triumph bicycles from premises in London and from...
TR-8, and various sports sedans and sports cars by the
MG Rover GroupMG Rover was the last domestically owned mass-production car manufacturer in the British motor industry. The company was formed when BMW sold the car-making and engine manufacturing assets of the original Rover Group to the Phoenix Consortium in 2000....
. The engine remains well supported by enthusiast clubs, specialist parts suppliers, and by shops that specialize in these conversions.
The Buick 215 was used in a small sports car known as the
ApolloThe Apollo was a well-engineered United States sports car/personal automobile manufactured from 1962 to 1964 in Oakland, California.Engineered by Milt Brown with designed by Ron Plescia it featured Italian handmade aluminum bodywork with a choice between two-seater convertible or fastback styles...
from 1962 to 1963, and also in the Asardo 3500 GM-S show car.
Although dropped by GM in 1963, in January 1965 the tooling for the aluminum engine was sold to Britain's
Rover GroupRover Group plc was the name that was given by the British government, in 1986, to the state-owned vehicle manufacturer British Leyland or BL....
to become the
Rover V8 engineThe Rover V8 engine is a compact V8 internal combustion engine with aluminium cylinder heads and cylinder block, originally designed by General Motors and later re-designed and produced by Rover in the United Kingdom...
, which would remain in use for more than 35 years. GM tried to buy it back later on, but Rover declined, instead offering to sell engines back to GM. GM refused this offer.
300
In 1964 Buick replaced the 215 with an iron-block engine of very similar architecture. The new engine had a bore of 3.75 in (95.5 mm) and a stroke of 3.40 in (86.4 mm) for a displacement of . It retained the aluminum cylinder heads, intake manifold, and accessories of the 215 for a dry weight of 405 lb (184 kg). The
300 was offered in two-barrel form, with 9.0:1 compression, making @ 4600 rpm and @ 2400 rpm, and four-barrel form, with 11.0:1 compression, making @ 4800 rpm and @ 3000 rpm.
For 1965 the 300 switched to a cast-iron heads, raising dry weight to 467 lb (212 kg), still quite light for a V8 engine of its era. The four-barrel option was cancelled for 1966, and the 300 was replaced entirely by the
350 in 1968.
The
ApolloThe Apollo was a well-engineered United States sports car/personal automobile manufactured from 1962 to 1964 in Oakland, California.Engineered by Milt Brown with designed by Ron Plescia it featured Italian handmade aluminum bodywork with a choice between two-seater convertible or fastback styles...
sports car, also known as the Vetta Ventura, used this engine.
340
The
340 was a stroked (to 3.85 in/97.8 mm) version of the 300. It had a two-barrel or four-barrel carburetor, the two barrel with compression of 9 to 1 comp. ratio rated at at 4000 rpm and at 2400 rpm, and the four barrel with 10.25 to 1 comp ratio, rated at @ 4000 rpm and @ 2800 rpm. It replaced the four-barrel 300 for 1966. It was produced only in 1966 and 1967, with the new Buick 350 taking its place after that.
350
Buick adopted the popular size with their final family of V8s. Although sharing the displacement of the
Chevrolet Small-Block engineThe Chevrolet small-block engine is a series of automobile V8 engines built by the Chevrolet Division of General Motors using the same basic small engine block...
family, the Buicks were substantially different.
The Buick
350 V8 had a 3.80 in bore (like the 231) and retained the 3.85 in stroke of the 340. It was introduced in 1968 and produced through 1980. It's nickname is "Dauntless."
The major differences of the Buick 350 when compared to other GM V8's are deep skirt block construction, higher nickel-content cast iron, external oil pump, under square bore sizing, 3.0" crank main journals, and 6.5" connecting rods. It is an extremely rugged and durable engine, and some of the design characteristics of the Buick 350 are found in modern GM engines such as the 231 V6, and Series I, II, and III 3800 V6's.
Of all the GM engines, the Buick 350 has the longest stroke, which lends to making significantly more torque than any of the others. It also made the Buick 350 significantly wider - essentially the same width as the Buick big-blocks, which have the shortest stroke of the GM big-blocks. In fact, at a glance the Buick 350 is commonly mistaken for the 455 engine due to the oversized intake manifold atop the engine.
The Buick 350 also shares an integrated aluminum timing cover as do most of the Buick small & big blocks which incorporates the oil pump mechanisms as well, leaving the oil filter exposed to oncoming air for added cooling.
The Buick 350 was used in the Jeep
GladiatorThe Jeep Gladiator was a full-size pickup truck based on the SJ Jeep Wagoneer SUV. It was introduced in 1962. Gladiator designations were: J200 for short wheelbase trucks up to mid 1965 followed by J2000; J300 for long wheelbase trucks up to mid 1965 followed by J3000; and J4000 which was the...
and
WagoneerThe Jeep Wagoneer was an early sport utility vehicle , produced under varying marques from 1963 to 1991. It was noteworthy for being in production for more than 28 years with only minor mechanical changes...
from 1968 to 1971.
Buick "Big-Block"
The company introduced a larger engine family to replace the "Nailhead" in 1967 and was produced through 1976.
400
The
400 was produced from 1967 to 1969. This engine had a bore of 4.04 in (102.6 mm) and a stroke of 3.90 in (99.1 mm). It was the only large V8 engine available for the
A-bodyThe General Motors A platform was a mid-size car automobile platform. The A-bodies evolved from rear wheel drive compact cars to front wheel drive mid-size cars over the course of 32 years. The switch in drive layout in 1982 spawned the G-body...
Buicks due to the GM cubic inch limit restriction prior to 1970. Most parts except the pistons interchange with the 430 and 455.
430
The
430 was produced from 1967 to 1969. This engine had a bore of 4.1875 in (106.4 mm) and a stroke of 3.90 in (99.1 mm). This engine was used in
B-The B platform, or B-body, was General Motors' full-size rear-wheel drive automobile platform. It was closely related to the C-body and D-body and was used for coupés, sedans, and station wagons....
,
C-The General Motors C platform was an automobile platform designation used for full sized luxury cars until 2005.-Rear wheel drive:...
and
E-bodyThe General Motors E platform or E-Body was the automobile platform designation used for a number of personal luxury cars produced from 1963 to 2002...
(large body) Buicks. Most parts except the pistons interchange with the 400 and 455.
455
The
455 Buick V8 used a 4.3125" bore and a 3.90" stroke. It was produced from 1970 to 1976 and was based on the 400/430 V8. The regular Buick 455 was rated at 350 hp (261 kW), while the 455
Stage 1 was underrated at 360 hp (269 kW). In all actuality, the Stage 1 produced around 425 hp (317 kW). The regular 455 produced a rated of torque at 2800 rpm, more than any other
muscle carMuscle car is a term used to refer to a variety of high performance automobiles. At its most widely accepted the term refers to American 2-door rear wheel drive mid-size cars of the late 1960s and early 1970s equipped with large, powerful V8s and sold at an affordable price for street use and drag...
engine. The horsepower was somewhat reduced in 1971 mainly due to the reduction in cylinder compression ratio, a change which was mandated by GM in order to cope with the introduction of new federal laws which would require new cars to use unleaded
gasolineGasoline or petrol is a petroleum-derived liquid mixture, primarily used as fuel in internal combustion engines...
in an effort to reduce exhaust emissions. Then, starting in 1972, the horsepower rating on paper would be reduced again, down to approximately , this time due to the new measurement of horsepower as SAE net horsepower, rather than a gross horsepower rating. Tightening emissions controls would cause the engine to drop in power still further, a little at a time, through 1976. Most parts (except the pistons) interchange between the 400 and the 430. The 455 was one of the first "thin-wall casting" engine blocks, and because of this advance in production technology it weighs significantly less than other engines of comparable size (for example, less than a
Chevrolet 454The Chevrolet big block is a series of large displacement V8 engines that were developed in the USA during the 1950s and 1960s. As American automobiles grew in size and weight following the Second World War the engines powering them had to keep pace...
).
Non-Buick V8s powering Buick Vehicles
In the mid-1970s, GM was using powerplants sourced from various GM divisions where the Buick V8 was considered a factory option with the Buick 350 as the sole survivor, or in the worst case, for Buick vehicles where the 400/430/455 big blocks were phased out because of fuel economy/emission requirements.
260
The
Like its sister General Motors divisions,
BuickBuick is a marque of automobile sold in the United States, Canada, Mexico, China, Taiwan, Qatar, Kuwait, and Israel by General Motors Company...
produced its own family of V8 engines to replace
its straight-8 enginesThe Buick Straight-8 engine was produced from 1931 to 1953 and sold in Buick automobiles. Like many American automobile makers, Buick adopted the straight-8 engine in 1931 as a more powerful alternative to the previous inline-6 engines...
. These engines came in many of the same displacements as those from other divisions, but were entirely different.
Buick "Nailhead V8"
Buick first generation of V8 lasted from 1953 through 1956. It was an
OHVAn overhead valve engine, also informally called pushrod engine or I-head engine, is a type of piston engine that places the camshaft within the cylinder block , and uses pushrods or rods to actuate rocker arms above the cylinder...
/pushrod engine like the then new Oldsmobile "Rocket V8" engine. This engine became known as the "Nailhead" for the unusual vertical position of its small-sized valves—which looked like nails. The Nailhead-V8 family employed a camshaft with higher lift and longer duration to offset the smaller-sized valves and arguably restrictive intake- and exhaust-port areas. The small-size valves and intake runners made for engines with a lot of torque, with many exceeding one foot-pound per cubic inch, which was exceptional for the day.
264
The {{convert|264|CID|L|1|abbr=on}}
264 was a direct replacement for the
263 straight-8 in Buick's large cars. It was produced in 1954 and 1955.
322
The larger {{convert|322|CID|L|1|abbr=on}}
322 was used by Buick from 1953 through 1956, primarily in 'senior' series cars.
Nailhead V8
Buick's second variation of this V8 was also named
Nailhead. It was produced from 1957 through 1966.
364
Apparently the smallest displacement Nailhead, the 264, was dropped when Buick introduced its new small displacement V8. Buick, like most of its competitors, continued to expand their durable V8 engine to larger displacements such as the 364 cu in (4.125in bore)x(3.40in stroke)=
{{convert|364|CID|L|1|lk=in}}.
400
The next member of the family was the {{convert|401|CID|L|1|abbr=on}}
400. This was actually a 401 that had been redesignated a "400" in order to meet GM directives for maximum displacement engines in mid-size cars.
Another Buick "400" engine was a member of the 400/430/455 family and was produced from 1967 to 1969.
401
The {{convert|401|CID|L|1|abbr=on}}
401 was Buick's
muscle carMuscle car is a term used to refer to a variety of high performance automobiles. At its most widely accepted the term refers to American 2-door rear wheel drive mid-size cars of the late 1960s and early 1970s equipped with large, powerful V8s and sold at an affordable price for street use and drag...
powerplant of choice, and was found in the company's
Skylark Gran SportThe Buick Gran Sport or GS was a high-performance option package available on a number of Buick models, including the Riviera and Wildcat. A special version of one model was given the package's name as its model name.-Skylark Gran Sport:...
and
Buick WildcatThe Buick Wildcat was a full-size automobile produced by the Buick Division of General Motors from 1962 to 1970. For its first year, the Wildcat was a 'sub-model' within the Buick Invicta series, mating the smaller full-size two-door hardtop Buick body with a high-performance version of the 401ci...
, among others. As unlikely as it seems, the air cleaner for the engine is annotated with "Wildcat 375" "Wildcat 410" "Wildcat 445" these inscriptions indicated not the cubic inches displaced but the ft·lbf of torque produced by the engine. The "Wildcat 410" was the 2-barrel carburated engine that was standard on the 1962-63
LeSabreThe Buick LeSabre is a full-size car made by the Buick division of General Motors from 1959-2005. For many years, the LeSabre was considered the entry level full-size Buick, carrying the lowest base price in the Buick lineup...
. The "Wildcat 375" was a no cost option on the 62-63 LeSabre that had lower compression to run on regular fuel (another Buick V8 had "Wildcat 375" written on its air cleaner but it wasn't a "Nailhead", it was the 4 barrel version of the 66-67 small block Buick 340).
The "Wildcat 445" had a single 4 barrel carb. It was the standard engine on the
InvictaThe Buick Invicta was a full-sized automobile produced by General Motors' Buick Motor Division from 1959 to 1963. The Invicta was a continuation of the Buick Century concept that mated the standard size Buick LeSabre body with Buick's larger 401 in³ Nailhead V8 engine, yielding what was referred...
, 1959-66
ElectraThe Buick Electra and the Buick Electra 225 are full-size premium automobiles built by the Buick division of General Motors. The Electra name was used by Buick between 1959 and 1990.- 1959–1960 :...
, 1962-66
Buick WildcatThe Buick Wildcat was a full-size automobile produced by the Buick Division of General Motors from 1962 to 1970. For its first year, the Wildcat was a 'sub-model' within the Buick Invicta series, mating the smaller full-size two-door hardtop Buick body with a high-performance version of the 401ci...
, 1963
RivieraThe Buick Riviera is an automobile produced by Buick in the United States from the 1963 to 2002 model years, with 1,127,261 produced.A full-size coupé or personal luxury car, the early models of the Riviera in particular have been highly praised by automotive journalists and writers.-Origin of the...
and 1965 Riviera (the 64 and 66 Riviera models had a 425 in³ engine with a single 4 barrel carb. named "Wildcat 465" as standard equipment). These were also used as starter motors for the
SR-71 BlackbirdThe Lockheed SR-71 is an advanced, long-range, Mach 3 strategic reconnaissance aircraft developed from the Lockheed A-12 and YF-12A aircraft by the Lockheed Skunk Works as a Black project. The SR-71 was unofficially named the Blackbird, and called the Habu by its crews, referring to an Okinawan...
, mounted on a trolley.
In an effort to overcome the "restrictive" exhaust port design, Buick enthusiast drag racers in the sixties adapted superchargers with a custom camshaft to feed intake air in through the exhaust ports and used the larger intake ports for exhaust outlets. Perhaps this feat of ingenuity, and the unusual appearance of the engine modified in this manner, also intimidated rival racers and added to the Nailhead V8 legend that lives upon this page of US auto history.
425
{{convert|425|CID|L|1|abbr=on}}
425
This was the largest version of the "nailhead". It began as an option in 1963 on the Riviera and it was later available on the Wildcat and Electra models too. The 1964 and 1966 Riviera had the 425 engine as standard equipment.
4 barrel carburetion was standard on all 425 "Nailheads" that were called "Wildcat 465". The "465" sticker on the air cleaner did not denote engine displacement as many thought, it denoted the torque rating. It was possible to order two 4 barrel carbs, which were delivered in the trunk along with the intake manifold and installed by the dealer. This version was called "Super Wildcat" and could be ordered on the 1965 Riviera Gran Sport and the 1966 Wildcat GS as RPO Y48. Toward the end of the 1966 model year, approximately May 1966, Buick offered the Super Wildcat 465 with dual 4BBL Carter AFB's as a factory installed option. This engine is coded "MZ" while the dealer installed dual four barrel setup was a "MW" coded engine. There were only 179 1966 Riviera GS cars built with the MZ coded factory dual four barrel setup, making it a very rare car. Rarer still was the 1966 Riviera GS, MZ coded engine, in Riviera Red exterior color.
Buick "Small-Block"
In 1961 Buick unveiled an entirely new small V8 engine with aluminum
cylinder headIn an internal combustion engine, the cylinder head sits above the cylinders and consists of a platform containing part of the combustion chamber and the location of the valves and spark plugs...
s and
cylinder blockThe cylinder block or engine block is a machined casting containing cylindrically bored holes for the pistons of a multi-cylinder reciprocating internal combustion engine, or for a similarly constructed device such as a pump...
. Lightweight and powerful, the aluminum V8 also spawned a
turbochargedA turbocharger, or turbo, is a gas compressor that is used for forced-induction of an internal combustion engine. A form of supercharger, the purpose of a turbocharger is to increase the density of air entering the engine to create more power...
version, (only in the 1962-63 Oldsmobile Cutlass version), the first ever offered in a passenger car. It became the basis of a highly successful
cast ironCast iron usually refers to grey iron, but also identifies a large group of ferrous alloys, which solidify with a eutectic. The colour of a fractured surface can be used to identify an alloy. White cast iron is named after its white surface when fractured, due to its carbide impurities which...
V6 engineA V6 engine is a V engine with six cylinders mounted on the crankcase in two banks of three cylinders, usually set at either a right angle or an acute angle to each other, with all six pistons driving a common crankshaft...
, the Fireball. The all-aluminum engine was dropped after the 1963 model year, but was replaced with a very similar cast-iron engine.
215
- See also Rover V8 engine
The Rover V8 engine is a compact V8 internal combustion engine with aluminium cylinder heads and cylinder block, originally designed by General Motors and later re-designed and produced by Rover in the United Kingdom...
GM experimented with aluminum engines starting in the early 1950s, and work on a production unit commenced in 1956. Originally intended for {{convert|180|CID|L|1|adj=on}} displacement, Buick was designated by GM as the engine design leader, and decided to begin with a larger, {{convert|215|CID|L|1|adj=on}} size, which was deemed ideal for the new "
senior compact carsThe General Motors A platform was a mid-size car automobile platform. The A-bodies evolved from rear wheel drive compact cars to front wheel drive mid-size cars over the course of 32 years. The switch in drive layout in 1982 spawned the G-body...
" introduced for the 1961 model year. This group of cars was commonly referred to as the "B-O-P" group — for Buick-Olds-Pontiac — or the
Y-bodiesThe Y platform, or Y body, designation has been used twice by the General Motors Corporation to describe a series of vehicles all built on the same basic body and sharing many parts and characteristics...
.
The 215 had a 4.24 in (107.7 mm) bore spacing, a bore of 3.5 in (88.9 mm), and a stroke of 2.8 in (71.1 mm), for an actual displacement of {{convert|3533|cc|CID|abbr=on}}.{{Citation needed|date=November 2008}} The engine was the lightest mass-production V8 in the world, with a dry weight of only 318 lb (144 kg). It was standard equipment in the 1961
Buick SpecialThe Buick Special is an automobile produced by the Buick Motor Division of General Motors, Flint, Michigan .From 1936 to 1958, Buick's Special model range represented the marque's entry level full-size automobile. By 1955, the Buick Special was one of America's best selling automotive series...
.
Oldsmobile and Pontiac also used the all-aluminum 215 on its mid-sized cars, the Oldsmobile F-85,
CutlassThe Oldsmobile Cutlass was a line of automobiles made by the Oldsmobile division of General Motors. The Cutlass began as a unibody compact car, but saw its greatest success as a body-on-frame intermediate car....
and Jetfire, and
Pontiac TempestThe Pontiac Tempest was an entry-level compact automobile produced by the Pontiac Motor Division of General Motors, introduced in September 1960 for the 1961 model year. It shared the new monocoque Y platform with the Buick Special and Skylark, and Oldsmobile F-85 and Cutlass...
and
LeMansThe Pontiac LeMans was a model name applied to compact and intermediate-sized automobiles offered by the Pontiac division of General Motors from 1962 to 1981. The LeMans was replaced by the downsized Pontiac Bonneville for the 1982 model year...
. Pontiac used the Buick version of the 215; Oldsmobile had its own. The Oldsmobile version of this engine, although sharing the same basic architecture, had cylinder heads designed by Oldsmobile engineers, and was produced on a separate assembly line. Among the differences between the Oldsmobile and Buick versions, it was somewhat heavier, at 350 lb (159 kg). The design differences were in the cylinder heads: Buick used a 5-bolt pattern around each cylinder where Oldsmobile went to a 6-bolt pattern. The 6th bolt was added to the intake manifold side of the head, one extra bolt for each cylinder, meant to alleviate a head-warping problem on high-compression versions. This meant that Oldsmobile heads would go on Buick blocks, but not vice versa, and that changing the compression ratio on an Oldsmobile 215 required changing the heads, but on a Buick 215, only the pistons, which was less expensive and simpler. For these reasons, the more common Buick version has today also emerged as more desirable. Later Rover versions of the aluminum block and subsequent Buick iron small blocks (300, 340 and 350) went to a 4-bolt-per-cylinder pattern.
At introduction, Buick's 215 was rated 150 hp (112 kW) at 4400 rpm. This was raised soon after introduction to 155 hp (116 kW) at 4600 rpm. 220 ft·lb (298 N·m) of
torqueTorque, also called moment or moment of force , is the tendency of a force to rotate an object about an axis, fulcrum, or pivot. Just as a force is a push or a pull, a torque can be thought of as a twist....
was produced at 2400 rpm with a Rochester 2GC two-barrel
carburetorA carburetor or carburettor is a device that blends air and fuel for an internal combustion engine. It was invented by Karl Benz before 1885 and patented in 1886...
and 8.8:1
compression ratioThe compression ratio of an internal-combustion engine or external combustion engine is a value that represents the ratio of the volume of its combustion chamber; from its largest capacity to its smallest capacity...
. A mid-year introduction was the Buick Special Skylark version, which had 10.25:1 compression and a four-barrel carburetor, raising output to 185 hp (138 kW) at 4800 rpm and 230 ft·lb (312 N·m) at 2800 rpm.
For 1962, the four-barrel engine increased the compression ratio to 10.25:1, raising it to 190 hp (142 kW) at 4800 rpm and 235 ft·lb (319 N·m) at 3000 rpm. The two-barrel engine was unchanged. For 1963, the four-barrel was bumped to 11:1 compression and an even 200 hp (149 kW) at 5000 rpm and 240 ft·lb (325 N·m) at 3200 rpm, a respectable 0.93 hp/
cu inA cubic inch is a non-SI unit of volume, equal to the volume of a cube with sides of one inch.Cubic inches are still sometimes used as a unit of measurement in the United States and Canada, although SI is continuing to gradually displace non-SI usage.-Notation conventions:The following symbols...
(56.6 hp/L).
Unfortunately, the great expense of the aluminum engine led to its cancellation after the 1963 model year. The engine had an abnormally high scrap ratio due to hidden block-casting porosity problems, which caused serious oil leaks. Another problem was clogged radiators from antifreeze mixtures incompatible with aluminum. It was said that one of the major problems was because they had to make extensive use of air gauging to check for casting leaks during the manufacturing process, and not being able to detect leaks on blocks that were as much as 95% complete. This raised the cost of complete engines to more than that of a comparable all cast-iron engine. Casting sealing technology was not advanced enough at that time to prevent the high scrap rates.
The Buick 215's very high power to weight ratio made it immediately interesting for automotive and marine racing.
Mickey ThompsonMarion Lee "Mickey" Thompson was an American off-road racing legend. He won many championships as a racer, and later formed sanctioning bodies SCORE International and Mickey Thompson Entertainment Group . He also raced in dragsters and land speed record automobiles.Thompson was born in Alhambra,...
entered a stock-block Buick 215-powered car in the 1962
Indianapolis 500The Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, often shortened to Indianapolis 500 or Indy 500 or sometimes known simply as The 500, is an American automobile race, held annually over the Memorial Day weekend at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana...
. From 1946 to 1962 there hadn't been a single stock-block car in this famous race. In 1962 the Buick 215 was the only non-
OffenhauserOffenhauser was a United States of America racing engine manufacturer that operated from 1933 to 1983.The Offenhauser engine, familiarly known as the "Offy", was developed by Fred Offenhauser and his employer Harry Arminius Miller, after maintaining and repairing a 1913 Peugeot Grand Prix car of...
powered entry in the field of 33 cars. Rookie driver
Dan GurneyDaniel Sexton Gurney is an American racing driver, race car constructor, and team owner.The son of a Metropolitan Opera star, he was born in Port Jefferson, New York, but moved to California as a teenager...
qualified eighth and raced well for 92 laps before retiring with transmission problems.
Surplus engine blocks of the Oldsmobile (6 bolt per cylinder) version of this engine formed the basis of the
Formula OneFormula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1, and currently officially referred to as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . The "formula" in the name refers to a set of rules to which all participants...
RepcoRepco is an Australian engineering company. Its name is derived from 'Replacement Parts Company', referring to one of its major lines of work....
V8 used by Brabham to win the
1966The 1966 Formula One season included the 17th FIA Formula One World Championship season, which commenced on May 22, 1966, and ended on October 23 after nine races....
and
1967The 1967 Formula One season was the 18th season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 1967 World Championship of Drivers and the 1967 International Cup for F1 Manufacturers, contested concurrently over an eleven race series which commenced on January 2, 1967, and ended on October 22...
Formula One world championship. No other American stock-block engine has won a Formula One championship.
Rights to these engines were purchased by the British Rover Company and used in the 1967 Rover P5B that replaced the 3 litre straight six Rover engined P5. This engine was also used for V8 versions of the MGB-GT known as the MGB-GT/V8. This came straight from the MG Works at Abingdon-on-the-Thames. Buick 215s have also been
engine swapAn engine swap is the process of removing a car's engine and replacing it with another. This is done either because of failure, or to install a different engine, usually one that is more powerful or more modern and maintainable....
ped into countless other platforms, especially
Chevrolet VegaThe Chevrolet Vega is a subcompact, four passenger automobile produced by the Chevrolet division of General Motors for the 1971–1977 model years....
s and later British cars
MG sports carsThe MGB is a sports car launched by MG Cars in May 1962 to replace the MGA and manufactured until 22 October 1980 — originally by the British Motor Corporation and later by its successors...
including the MG-RV8 in the 1990s.
TriumphThe Triumph Motor Company is a defunct British motor manufacturer. The Triumph marque is currently owned by BMW. The marque had its origins in 1885 when Siegfried Bettmann and Moritz Schulte from Germany founded Bettmann & Co and started selling Triumph bicycles from premises in London and from...
TR-8, and various sports sedans and sports cars by the
MG Rover GroupMG Rover was the last domestically owned mass-production car manufacturer in the British motor industry. The company was formed when BMW sold the car-making and engine manufacturing assets of the original Rover Group to the Phoenix Consortium in 2000....
. The engine remains well supported by enthusiast clubs, specialist parts suppliers, and by shops that specialize in these conversions.
The Buick 215 was used in a small sports car known as the
ApolloThe Apollo was a well-engineered United States sports car/personal automobile manufactured from 1962 to 1964 in Oakland, California.Engineered by Milt Brown with designed by Ron Plescia it featured Italian handmade aluminum bodywork with a choice between two-seater convertible or fastback styles...
from 1962 to 1963, and also in the Asardo 3500 GM-S show car.
Although dropped by GM in 1963, in January 1965 the tooling for the aluminum engine was sold to Britain's
Rover GroupRover Group plc was the name that was given by the British government, in 1986, to the state-owned vehicle manufacturer British Leyland or BL....
to become the
Rover V8 engineThe Rover V8 engine is a compact V8 internal combustion engine with aluminium cylinder heads and cylinder block, originally designed by General Motors and later re-designed and produced by Rover in the United Kingdom...
, which would remain in use for more than 35 years. GM tried to buy it back later on, but Rover declined, instead offering to sell engines back to GM. GM refused this offer.
300
In 1964 Buick replaced the 215 with an iron-block engine of very similar architecture. The new engine had a bore of 3.75 in (95.5 mm) and a stroke of 3.40 in (86.4 mm) for a displacement of {{convert|300.4|CID|cc|0}}. It retained the aluminum cylinder heads, intake manifold, and accessories of the 215 for a dry weight of 405 lb (184 kg). The
300 was offered in two-barrel form, with 9.0:1 compression, making {{convert|210|hp|abbr=on}} @ 4600 rpm and {{convert|310|lbft|N.m|abbr=on}} @ 2400 rpm, and four-barrel form, with 11.0:1 compression, making {{convert|250|hp|abbr=on}} @ 4800 rpm and {{convert|335|lbft|N.m|abbr=on}} @ 3000 rpm.
For 1965 the 300 switched to a cast-iron heads, raising dry weight to 467 lb (212 kg), still quite light for a V8 engine of its era. The four-barrel option was cancelled for 1966, and the 300 was replaced entirely by the
350 in 1968.
The
ApolloThe Apollo was a well-engineered United States sports car/personal automobile manufactured from 1962 to 1964 in Oakland, California.Engineered by Milt Brown with designed by Ron Plescia it featured Italian handmade aluminum bodywork with a choice between two-seater convertible or fastback styles...
sports car, also known as the Vetta Ventura, used this engine.
340
The {{convert|340|CID|L|1|abbr=on}}
340 was a stroked (to 3.85 in/97.8 mm) version of the 300. It had a two-barrel or four-barrel carburetor, the two barrel with compression of 9 to 1 comp. ratio rated at {{convert|220|hp|abbr=on}} at 4000 rpm and {{convert|340|lbft|N.m|abbr=on}} at 2400 rpm, and the four barrel with 10.25 to 1 comp ratio, rated at {{convert|260|hp|abbr=on}} @ 4000 rpm and {{convert|365|lbft|N.m|abbr=on}} @ 2800 rpm. It replaced the four-barrel 300 for 1966. It was produced only in 1966 and 1967, with the new Buick 350 taking its place after that.
350
Buick adopted the popular {{convert|350|CID|L|1|abbr=on}} size with their final family of V8s. Although sharing the displacement of the
Chevrolet Small-Block engineThe Chevrolet small-block engine is a series of automobile V8 engines built by the Chevrolet Division of General Motors using the same basic small engine block...
family, the Buicks were substantially different.
The Buick
350 V8 had a 3.80 in bore (like the 231) and retained the 3.85 in stroke of the 340. It was introduced in 1968 and produced through 1980. It's nickname is "Dauntless."
The major differences of the Buick 350 when compared to other GM V8's are deep skirt block construction, higher nickel-content cast iron, external oil pump, under square bore sizing, 3.0" crank main journals, and 6.5" connecting rods. It is an extremely rugged and durable engine, and some of the design characteristics of the Buick 350 are found in modern GM engines such as the 231 V6, and Series I, II, and III 3800 V6's.
Of all the GM {{convert|350|CID|L|1|adj=on}} engines, the Buick 350 has the longest stroke, which lends to making significantly more torque than any of the others. It also made the Buick 350 significantly wider - essentially the same width as the Buick big-blocks, which have the shortest stroke of the GM big-blocks. In fact, at a glance the Buick 350 is commonly mistaken for the 455 engine due to the oversized intake manifold atop the engine.
The Buick 350 also shares an integrated aluminum timing cover as do most of the Buick small & big blocks which incorporates the oil pump mechanisms as well, leaving the oil filter exposed to oncoming air for added cooling.
The Buick 350 was used in the Jeep
GladiatorThe Jeep Gladiator was a full-size pickup truck based on the SJ Jeep Wagoneer SUV. It was introduced in 1962. Gladiator designations were: J200 for short wheelbase trucks up to mid 1965 followed by J2000; J300 for long wheelbase trucks up to mid 1965 followed by J3000; and J4000 which was the...
and
WagoneerThe Jeep Wagoneer was an early sport utility vehicle , produced under varying marques from 1963 to 1991. It was noteworthy for being in production for more than 28 years with only minor mechanical changes...
from 1968 to 1971.
Buick "Big-Block"
The company introduced a larger engine family to replace the "Nailhead" in 1967 and was produced through 1976.
400
The {{convert|399.95|CID|cc|1|adj=on}}
400 was produced from 1967 to 1969. This engine had a bore of 4.04 in (102.6 mm) and a stroke of 3.90 in (99.1 mm). It was the only large V8 engine available for the
A-bodyThe General Motors A platform was a mid-size car automobile platform. The A-bodies evolved from rear wheel drive compact cars to front wheel drive mid-size cars over the course of 32 years. The switch in drive layout in 1982 spawned the G-body...
Buicks due to the GM cubic inch limit restriction prior to 1970. Most parts except the pistons interchange with the 430 and 455.
430
The {{convert|429.69|CID|cc|1|adj=on}}
430 was produced from 1967 to 1969. This engine had a bore of 4.1875 in (106.4 mm) and a stroke of 3.90 in (99.1 mm). This engine was used in
B-The B platform, or B-body, was General Motors' full-size rear-wheel drive automobile platform. It was closely related to the C-body and D-body and was used for coupés, sedans, and station wagons....
,
C-The General Motors C platform was an automobile platform designation used for full sized luxury cars until 2005.-Rear wheel drive:...
and
E-bodyThe General Motors E platform or E-Body was the automobile platform designation used for a number of personal luxury cars produced from 1963 to 2002...
(large body) Buicks. Most parts except the pistons interchange with the 400 and 455.
455
The {{convert|455.72|CID|cc|1|adj=on}}
455 Buick V8 used a 4.3125" bore and a 3.90" stroke. It was produced from 1970 to 1976 and was based on the 400/430 V8. The regular Buick 455 was rated at 350 hp (261 kW), while the 455
Stage 1 was underrated at 360 hp (269 kW). In all actuality, the Stage 1 produced around 425 hp (317 kW). The regular 455 produced a rated {{convert|510|ft.lbf|N.m|abbr=on}} of torque at 2800 rpm, more than any other
muscle carMuscle car is a term used to refer to a variety of high performance automobiles. At its most widely accepted the term refers to American 2-door rear wheel drive mid-size cars of the late 1960s and early 1970s equipped with large, powerful V8s and sold at an affordable price for street use and drag...
engine. The horsepower was somewhat reduced in 1971 mainly due to the reduction in cylinder compression ratio, a change which was mandated by GM in order to cope with the introduction of new federal laws which would require new cars to use unleaded
gasolineGasoline or petrol is a petroleum-derived liquid mixture, primarily used as fuel in internal combustion engines...
in an effort to reduce exhaust emissions. Then, starting in 1972, the horsepower rating on paper would be reduced again, down to approximately {{convert|250|hp|abbr=on}}, this time due to the new measurement of horsepower as SAE net horsepower, rather than a gross horsepower rating. Tightening emissions controls would cause the engine to drop in power still further, a little at a time, through 1976. Most parts (except the pistons) interchange between the 400 and the 430. The 455 was one of the first "thin-wall casting" engine blocks, and because of this advance in production technology it weighs significantly less than other engines of comparable size (for example, {{convert|150|lb|abbr=on}} less than a
Chevrolet 454The Chevrolet big block is a series of large displacement V8 engines that were developed in the USA during the 1950s and 1960s. As American automobiles grew in size and weight following the Second World War the engines powering them had to keep pace...
).
Non-Buick V8s powering Buick Vehicles
In the mid-1970s, GM was using powerplants sourced from various GM divisions where the Buick V8 was considered a factory option with the Buick 350 as the sole survivor, or in the worst case, for Buick vehicles where the 400/430/455 big blocks were phased out because of fuel economy/emission requirements.
260
The
Like its sister General Motors divisions,
BuickBuick is a marque of automobile sold in the United States, Canada, Mexico, China, Taiwan, Qatar, Kuwait, and Israel by General Motors Company...
produced its own family of V8 engines to replace
its straight-8 enginesThe Buick Straight-8 engine was produced from 1931 to 1953 and sold in Buick automobiles. Like many American automobile makers, Buick adopted the straight-8 engine in 1931 as a more powerful alternative to the previous inline-6 engines...
. These engines came in many of the same displacements as those from other divisions, but were entirely different.
Buick "Nailhead V8"
Buick first generation of V8 lasted from 1953 through 1956. It was an
OHVAn overhead valve engine, also informally called pushrod engine or I-head engine, is a type of piston engine that places the camshaft within the cylinder block , and uses pushrods or rods to actuate rocker arms above the cylinder...
/pushrod engine like the then new Oldsmobile "Rocket V8" engine. This engine became known as the "Nailhead" for the unusual vertical position of its small-sized valves—which looked like nails. The Nailhead-V8 family employed a camshaft with higher lift and longer duration to offset the smaller-sized valves and arguably restrictive intake- and exhaust-port areas. The small-size valves and intake runners made for engines with a lot of torque, with many exceeding one foot-pound per cubic inch, which was exceptional for the day.
264
The {{convert|264|CID|L|1|abbr=on}}
264 was a direct replacement for the
263 straight-8 in Buick's large cars. It was produced in 1954 and 1955.
322
The larger {{convert|322|CID|L|1|abbr=on}}
322 was used by Buick from 1953 through 1956, primarily in 'senior' series cars.
Nailhead V8
Buick's second variation of this V8 was also named
Nailhead. It was produced from 1957 through 1966.
364
Apparently the smallest displacement Nailhead, the 264, was dropped when Buick introduced its new small displacement V8. Buick, like most of its competitors, continued to expand their durable V8 engine to larger displacements such as the 364 cu in (4.125in bore)x(3.40in stroke)=
{{convert|364|CID|L|1|lk=in}}.
400
The next member of the family was the {{convert|401|CID|L|1|abbr=on}}
400. This was actually a 401 that had been redesignated a "400" in order to meet GM directives for maximum displacement engines in mid-size cars.
Another Buick "400" engine was a member of the 400/430/455 family and was produced from 1967 to 1969.
401
The {{convert|401|CID|L|1|abbr=on}}
401 was Buick's
muscle carMuscle car is a term used to refer to a variety of high performance automobiles. At its most widely accepted the term refers to American 2-door rear wheel drive mid-size cars of the late 1960s and early 1970s equipped with large, powerful V8s and sold at an affordable price for street use and drag...
powerplant of choice, and was found in the company's
Skylark Gran SportThe Buick Gran Sport or GS was a high-performance option package available on a number of Buick models, including the Riviera and Wildcat. A special version of one model was given the package's name as its model name.-Skylark Gran Sport:...
and
Buick WildcatThe Buick Wildcat was a full-size automobile produced by the Buick Division of General Motors from 1962 to 1970. For its first year, the Wildcat was a 'sub-model' within the Buick Invicta series, mating the smaller full-size two-door hardtop Buick body with a high-performance version of the 401ci...
, among others. As unlikely as it seems, the air cleaner for the engine is annotated with "Wildcat 375" "Wildcat 410" "Wildcat 445" these inscriptions indicated not the cubic inches displaced but the ft·lbf of torque produced by the engine. The "Wildcat 410" was the 2-barrel carburated engine that was standard on the 1962-63
LeSabreThe Buick LeSabre is a full-size car made by the Buick division of General Motors from 1959-2005. For many years, the LeSabre was considered the entry level full-size Buick, carrying the lowest base price in the Buick lineup...
. The "Wildcat 375" was a no cost option on the 62-63 LeSabre that had lower compression to run on regular fuel (another Buick V8 had "Wildcat 375" written on its air cleaner but it wasn't a "Nailhead", it was the 4 barrel version of the 66-67 small block Buick 340).
The "Wildcat 445" had a single 4 barrel carb. It was the standard engine on the
InvictaThe Buick Invicta was a full-sized automobile produced by General Motors' Buick Motor Division from 1959 to 1963. The Invicta was a continuation of the Buick Century concept that mated the standard size Buick LeSabre body with Buick's larger 401 in³ Nailhead V8 engine, yielding what was referred...
, 1959-66
ElectraThe Buick Electra and the Buick Electra 225 are full-size premium automobiles built by the Buick division of General Motors. The Electra name was used by Buick between 1959 and 1990.- 1959–1960 :...
, 1962-66
Buick WildcatThe Buick Wildcat was a full-size automobile produced by the Buick Division of General Motors from 1962 to 1970. For its first year, the Wildcat was a 'sub-model' within the Buick Invicta series, mating the smaller full-size two-door hardtop Buick body with a high-performance version of the 401ci...
, 1963
RivieraThe Buick Riviera is an automobile produced by Buick in the United States from the 1963 to 2002 model years, with 1,127,261 produced.A full-size coupé or personal luxury car, the early models of the Riviera in particular have been highly praised by automotive journalists and writers.-Origin of the...
and 1965 Riviera (the 64 and 66 Riviera models had a 425 in³ engine with a single 4 barrel carb. named "Wildcat 465" as standard equipment). These were also used as starter motors for the
SR-71 BlackbirdThe Lockheed SR-71 is an advanced, long-range, Mach 3 strategic reconnaissance aircraft developed from the Lockheed A-12 and YF-12A aircraft by the Lockheed Skunk Works as a Black project. The SR-71 was unofficially named the Blackbird, and called the Habu by its crews, referring to an Okinawan...
, mounted on a trolley.
In an effort to overcome the "restrictive" exhaust port design, Buick enthusiast drag racers in the sixties adapted superchargers with a custom camshaft to feed intake air in through the exhaust ports and used the larger intake ports for exhaust outlets. Perhaps this feat of ingenuity, and the unusual appearance of the engine modified in this manner, also intimidated rival racers and added to the Nailhead V8 legend that lives upon this page of US auto history.
425
{{convert|425|CID|L|1|abbr=on}}
425
This was the largest version of the "nailhead". It began as an option in 1963 on the Riviera and it was later available on the Wildcat and Electra models too. The 1964 and 1966 Riviera had the 425 engine as standard equipment.
4 barrel carburetion was standard on all 425 "Nailheads" that were called "Wildcat 465". The "465" sticker on the air cleaner did not denote engine displacement as many thought, it denoted the torque rating. It was possible to order two 4 barrel carbs, which were delivered in the trunk along with the intake manifold and installed by the dealer. This version was called "Super Wildcat" and could be ordered on the 1965 Riviera Gran Sport and the 1966 Wildcat GS as RPO Y48. Toward the end of the 1966 model year, approximately May 1966, Buick offered the Super Wildcat 465 with dual 4BBL Carter AFB's as a factory installed option. This engine is coded "MZ" while the dealer installed dual four barrel setup was a "MW" coded engine. There were only 179 1966 Riviera GS cars built with the MZ coded factory dual four barrel setup, making it a very rare car. Rarer still was the 1966 Riviera GS, MZ coded engine, in Riviera Red exterior color.
Buick "Small-Block"
In 1961 Buick unveiled an entirely new small V8 engine with aluminum
cylinder headIn an internal combustion engine, the cylinder head sits above the cylinders and consists of a platform containing part of the combustion chamber and the location of the valves and spark plugs...
s and
cylinder blockThe cylinder block or engine block is a machined casting containing cylindrically bored holes for the pistons of a multi-cylinder reciprocating internal combustion engine, or for a similarly constructed device such as a pump...
. Lightweight and powerful, the aluminum V8 also spawned a
turbochargedA turbocharger, or turbo, is a gas compressor that is used for forced-induction of an internal combustion engine. A form of supercharger, the purpose of a turbocharger is to increase the density of air entering the engine to create more power...
version, (only in the 1962-63 Oldsmobile Cutlass version), the first ever offered in a passenger car. It became the basis of a highly successful
cast ironCast iron usually refers to grey iron, but also identifies a large group of ferrous alloys, which solidify with a eutectic. The colour of a fractured surface can be used to identify an alloy. White cast iron is named after its white surface when fractured, due to its carbide impurities which...
V6 engineA V6 engine is a V engine with six cylinders mounted on the crankcase in two banks of three cylinders, usually set at either a right angle or an acute angle to each other, with all six pistons driving a common crankshaft...
, the Fireball. The all-aluminum engine was dropped after the 1963 model year, but was replaced with a very similar cast-iron engine.
215
- See also Rover V8 engine
The Rover V8 engine is a compact V8 internal combustion engine with aluminium cylinder heads and cylinder block, originally designed by General Motors and later re-designed and produced by Rover in the United Kingdom...
GM experimented with aluminum engines starting in the early 1950s, and work on a production unit commenced in 1956. Originally intended for {{convert|180|CID|L|1|adj=on}} displacement, Buick was designated by GM as the engine design leader, and decided to begin with a larger, {{convert|215|CID|L|1|adj=on}} size, which was deemed ideal for the new "
senior compact carsThe General Motors A platform was a mid-size car automobile platform. The A-bodies evolved from rear wheel drive compact cars to front wheel drive mid-size cars over the course of 32 years. The switch in drive layout in 1982 spawned the G-body...
" introduced for the 1961 model year. This group of cars was commonly referred to as the "B-O-P" group — for Buick-Olds-Pontiac — or the
Y-bodiesThe Y platform, or Y body, designation has been used twice by the General Motors Corporation to describe a series of vehicles all built on the same basic body and sharing many parts and characteristics...
.
The 215 had a 4.24 in (107.7 mm) bore spacing, a bore of 3.5 in (88.9 mm), and a stroke of 2.8 in (71.1 mm), for an actual displacement of {{convert|3533|cc|CID|abbr=on}}.{{Citation needed|date=November 2008}} The engine was the lightest mass-production V8 in the world, with a dry weight of only 318 lb (144 kg). It was standard equipment in the 1961
Buick SpecialThe Buick Special is an automobile produced by the Buick Motor Division of General Motors, Flint, Michigan .From 1936 to 1958, Buick's Special model range represented the marque's entry level full-size automobile. By 1955, the Buick Special was one of America's best selling automotive series...
.
Oldsmobile and Pontiac also used the all-aluminum 215 on its mid-sized cars, the Oldsmobile F-85,
CutlassThe Oldsmobile Cutlass was a line of automobiles made by the Oldsmobile division of General Motors. The Cutlass began as a unibody compact car, but saw its greatest success as a body-on-frame intermediate car....
and Jetfire, and
Pontiac TempestThe Pontiac Tempest was an entry-level compact automobile produced by the Pontiac Motor Division of General Motors, introduced in September 1960 for the 1961 model year. It shared the new monocoque Y platform with the Buick Special and Skylark, and Oldsmobile F-85 and Cutlass...
and
LeMansThe Pontiac LeMans was a model name applied to compact and intermediate-sized automobiles offered by the Pontiac division of General Motors from 1962 to 1981. The LeMans was replaced by the downsized Pontiac Bonneville for the 1982 model year...
. Pontiac used the Buick version of the 215; Oldsmobile had its own. The Oldsmobile version of this engine, although sharing the same basic architecture, had cylinder heads designed by Oldsmobile engineers, and was produced on a separate assembly line. Among the differences between the Oldsmobile and Buick versions, it was somewhat heavier, at 350 lb (159 kg). The design differences were in the cylinder heads: Buick used a 5-bolt pattern around each cylinder where Oldsmobile went to a 6-bolt pattern. The 6th bolt was added to the intake manifold side of the head, one extra bolt for each cylinder, meant to alleviate a head-warping problem on high-compression versions. This meant that Oldsmobile heads would go on Buick blocks, but not vice versa, and that changing the compression ratio on an Oldsmobile 215 required changing the heads, but on a Buick 215, only the pistons, which was less expensive and simpler. For these reasons, the more common Buick version has today also emerged as more desirable. Later Rover versions of the aluminum block and subsequent Buick iron small blocks (300, 340 and 350) went to a 4-bolt-per-cylinder pattern.
At introduction, Buick's 215 was rated 150 hp (112 kW) at 4400 rpm. This was raised soon after introduction to 155 hp (116 kW) at 4600 rpm. 220 ft·lb (298 N·m) of
torqueTorque, also called moment or moment of force , is the tendency of a force to rotate an object about an axis, fulcrum, or pivot. Just as a force is a push or a pull, a torque can be thought of as a twist....
was produced at 2400 rpm with a Rochester 2GC two-barrel
carburetorA carburetor or carburettor is a device that blends air and fuel for an internal combustion engine. It was invented by Karl Benz before 1885 and patented in 1886...
and 8.8:1
compression ratioThe compression ratio of an internal-combustion engine or external combustion engine is a value that represents the ratio of the volume of its combustion chamber; from its largest capacity to its smallest capacity...
. A mid-year introduction was the Buick Special Skylark version, which had 10.25:1 compression and a four-barrel carburetor, raising output to 185 hp (138 kW) at 4800 rpm and 230 ft·lb (312 N·m) at 2800 rpm.
For 1962, the four-barrel engine increased the compression ratio to 10.25:1, raising it to 190 hp (142 kW) at 4800 rpm and 235 ft·lb (319 N·m) at 3000 rpm. The two-barrel engine was unchanged. For 1963, the four-barrel was bumped to 11:1 compression and an even 200 hp (149 kW) at 5000 rpm and 240 ft·lb (325 N·m) at 3200 rpm, a respectable 0.93 hp/
cu inA cubic inch is a non-SI unit of volume, equal to the volume of a cube with sides of one inch.Cubic inches are still sometimes used as a unit of measurement in the United States and Canada, although SI is continuing to gradually displace non-SI usage.-Notation conventions:The following symbols...
(56.6 hp/L).
Unfortunately, the great expense of the aluminum engine led to its cancellation after the 1963 model year. The engine had an abnormally high scrap ratio due to hidden block-casting porosity problems, which caused serious oil leaks. Another problem was clogged radiators from antifreeze mixtures incompatible with aluminum. It was said that one of the major problems was because they had to make extensive use of air gauging to check for casting leaks during the manufacturing process, and not being able to detect leaks on blocks that were as much as 95% complete. This raised the cost of complete engines to more than that of a comparable all cast-iron engine. Casting sealing technology was not advanced enough at that time to prevent the high scrap rates.
The Buick 215's very high power to weight ratio made it immediately interesting for automotive and marine racing.
Mickey ThompsonMarion Lee "Mickey" Thompson was an American off-road racing legend. He won many championships as a racer, and later formed sanctioning bodies SCORE International and Mickey Thompson Entertainment Group . He also raced in dragsters and land speed record automobiles.Thompson was born in Alhambra,...
entered a stock-block Buick 215-powered car in the 1962
Indianapolis 500The Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, often shortened to Indianapolis 500 or Indy 500 or sometimes known simply as The 500, is an American automobile race, held annually over the Memorial Day weekend at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana...
. From 1946 to 1962 there hadn't been a single stock-block car in this famous race. In 1962 the Buick 215 was the only non-
OffenhauserOffenhauser was a United States of America racing engine manufacturer that operated from 1933 to 1983.The Offenhauser engine, familiarly known as the "Offy", was developed by Fred Offenhauser and his employer Harry Arminius Miller, after maintaining and repairing a 1913 Peugeot Grand Prix car of...
powered entry in the field of 33 cars. Rookie driver
Dan GurneyDaniel Sexton Gurney is an American racing driver, race car constructor, and team owner.The son of a Metropolitan Opera star, he was born in Port Jefferson, New York, but moved to California as a teenager...
qualified eighth and raced well for 92 laps before retiring with transmission problems.
Surplus engine blocks of the Oldsmobile (6 bolt per cylinder) version of this engine formed the basis of the
Formula OneFormula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1, and currently officially referred to as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . The "formula" in the name refers to a set of rules to which all participants...
RepcoRepco is an Australian engineering company. Its name is derived from 'Replacement Parts Company', referring to one of its major lines of work....
V8 used by Brabham to win the
1966The 1966 Formula One season included the 17th FIA Formula One World Championship season, which commenced on May 22, 1966, and ended on October 23 after nine races....
and
1967The 1967 Formula One season was the 18th season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 1967 World Championship of Drivers and the 1967 International Cup for F1 Manufacturers, contested concurrently over an eleven race series which commenced on January 2, 1967, and ended on October 22...
Formula One world championship. No other American stock-block engine has won a Formula One championship.
Rights to these engines were purchased by the British Rover Company and used in the 1967 Rover P5B that replaced the 3 litre straight six Rover engined P5. This engine was also used for V8 versions of the MGB-GT known as the MGB-GT/V8. This came straight from the MG Works at Abingdon-on-the-Thames. Buick 215s have also been
engine swapAn engine swap is the process of removing a car's engine and replacing it with another. This is done either because of failure, or to install a different engine, usually one that is more powerful or more modern and maintainable....
ped into countless other platforms, especially
Chevrolet VegaThe Chevrolet Vega is a subcompact, four passenger automobile produced by the Chevrolet division of General Motors for the 1971–1977 model years....
s and later British cars
MG sports carsThe MGB is a sports car launched by MG Cars in May 1962 to replace the MGA and manufactured until 22 October 1980 — originally by the British Motor Corporation and later by its successors...
including the MG-RV8 in the 1990s.
TriumphThe Triumph Motor Company is a defunct British motor manufacturer. The Triumph marque is currently owned by BMW. The marque had its origins in 1885 when Siegfried Bettmann and Moritz Schulte from Germany founded Bettmann & Co and started selling Triumph bicycles from premises in London and from...
TR-8, and various sports sedans and sports cars by the
MG Rover GroupMG Rover was the last domestically owned mass-production car manufacturer in the British motor industry. The company was formed when BMW sold the car-making and engine manufacturing assets of the original Rover Group to the Phoenix Consortium in 2000....
. The engine remains well supported by enthusiast clubs, specialist parts suppliers, and by shops that specialize in these conversions.
The Buick 215 was used in a small sports car known as the
ApolloThe Apollo was a well-engineered United States sports car/personal automobile manufactured from 1962 to 1964 in Oakland, California.Engineered by Milt Brown with designed by Ron Plescia it featured Italian handmade aluminum bodywork with a choice between two-seater convertible or fastback styles...
from 1962 to 1963, and also in the Asardo 3500 GM-S show car.
Although dropped by GM in 1963, in January 1965 the tooling for the aluminum engine was sold to Britain's
Rover GroupRover Group plc was the name that was given by the British government, in 1986, to the state-owned vehicle manufacturer British Leyland or BL....
to become the
Rover V8 engineThe Rover V8 engine is a compact V8 internal combustion engine with aluminium cylinder heads and cylinder block, originally designed by General Motors and later re-designed and produced by Rover in the United Kingdom...
, which would remain in use for more than 35 years. GM tried to buy it back later on, but Rover declined, instead offering to sell engines back to GM. GM refused this offer.
300
In 1964 Buick replaced the 215 with an iron-block engine of very similar architecture. The new engine had a bore of 3.75 in (95.5 mm) and a stroke of 3.40 in (86.4 mm) for a displacement of {{convert|300.4|CID|cc|0}}. It retained the aluminum cylinder heads, intake manifold, and accessories of the 215 for a dry weight of 405 lb (184 kg). The
300 was offered in two-barrel form, with 9.0:1 compression, making {{convert|210|hp|abbr=on}} @ 4600 rpm and {{convert|310|lbft|N.m|abbr=on}} @ 2400 rpm, and four-barrel form, with 11.0:1 compression, making {{convert|250|hp|abbr=on}} @ 4800 rpm and {{convert|335|lbft|N.m|abbr=on}} @ 3000 rpm.
For 1965 the 300 switched to a cast-iron heads, raising dry weight to 467 lb (212 kg), still quite light for a V8 engine of its era. The four-barrel option was cancelled for 1966, and the 300 was replaced entirely by the
350 in 1968.
The
ApolloThe Apollo was a well-engineered United States sports car/personal automobile manufactured from 1962 to 1964 in Oakland, California.Engineered by Milt Brown with designed by Ron Plescia it featured Italian handmade aluminum bodywork with a choice between two-seater convertible or fastback styles...
sports car, also known as the Vetta Ventura, used this engine.
340
The {{convert|340|CID|L|1|abbr=on}}
340 was a stroked (to 3.85 in/97.8 mm) version of the 300. It had a two-barrel or four-barrel carburetor, the two barrel with compression of 9 to 1 comp. ratio rated at {{convert|220|hp|abbr=on}} at 4000 rpm and {{convert|340|lbft|N.m|abbr=on}} at 2400 rpm, and the four barrel with 10.25 to 1 comp ratio, rated at {{convert|260|hp|abbr=on}} @ 4000 rpm and {{convert|365|lbft|N.m|abbr=on}} @ 2800 rpm. It replaced the four-barrel 300 for 1966. It was produced only in 1966 and 1967, with the new Buick 350 taking its place after that.
350
Buick adopted the popular {{convert|350|CID|L|1|abbr=on}} size with their final family of V8s. Although sharing the displacement of the
Chevrolet Small-Block engineThe Chevrolet small-block engine is a series of automobile V8 engines built by the Chevrolet Division of General Motors using the same basic small engine block...
family, the Buicks were substantially different.
The Buick
350 V8 had a 3.80 in bore (like the 231) and retained the 3.85 in stroke of the 340. It was introduced in 1968 and produced through 1980. It's nickname is "Dauntless."
The major differences of the Buick 350 when compared to other GM V8's are deep skirt block construction, higher nickel-content cast iron, external oil pump, under square bore sizing, 3.0" crank main journals, and 6.5" connecting rods. It is an extremely rugged and durable engine, and some of the design characteristics of the Buick 350 are found in modern GM engines such as the 231 V6, and Series I, II, and III 3800 V6's.
Of all the GM {{convert|350|CID|L|1|adj=on}} engines, the Buick 350 has the longest stroke, which lends to making significantly more torque than any of the others. It also made the Buick 350 significantly wider - essentially the same width as the Buick big-blocks, which have the shortest stroke of the GM big-blocks. In fact, at a glance the Buick 350 is commonly mistaken for the 455 engine due to the oversized intake manifold atop the engine.
The Buick 350 also shares an integrated aluminum timing cover as do most of the Buick small & big blocks which incorporates the oil pump mechanisms as well, leaving the oil filter exposed to oncoming air for added cooling.
The Buick 350 was used in the Jeep
GladiatorThe Jeep Gladiator was a full-size pickup truck based on the SJ Jeep Wagoneer SUV. It was introduced in 1962. Gladiator designations were: J200 for short wheelbase trucks up to mid 1965 followed by J2000; J300 for long wheelbase trucks up to mid 1965 followed by J3000; and J4000 which was the...
and
WagoneerThe Jeep Wagoneer was an early sport utility vehicle , produced under varying marques from 1963 to 1991. It was noteworthy for being in production for more than 28 years with only minor mechanical changes...
from 1968 to 1971.
Buick "Big-Block"
The company introduced a larger engine family to replace the "Nailhead" in 1967 and was produced through 1976.
400
The {{convert|399.95|CID|cc|1|adj=on}}
400 was produced from 1967 to 1969. This engine had a bore of 4.04 in (102.6 mm) and a stroke of 3.90 in (99.1 mm). It was the only large V8 engine available for the
A-bodyThe General Motors A platform was a mid-size car automobile platform. The A-bodies evolved from rear wheel drive compact cars to front wheel drive mid-size cars over the course of 32 years. The switch in drive layout in 1982 spawned the G-body...
Buicks due to the GM cubic inch limit restriction prior to 1970. Most parts except the pistons interchange with the 430 and 455.
430
The {{convert|429.69|CID|cc|1|adj=on}}
430 was produced from 1967 to 1969. This engine had a bore of 4.1875 in (106.4 mm) and a stroke of 3.90 in (99.1 mm). This engine was used in
B-The B platform, or B-body, was General Motors' full-size rear-wheel drive automobile platform. It was closely related to the C-body and D-body and was used for coupés, sedans, and station wagons....
,
C-The General Motors C platform was an automobile platform designation used for full sized luxury cars until 2005.-Rear wheel drive:...
and
E-bodyThe General Motors E platform or E-Body was the automobile platform designation used for a number of personal luxury cars produced from 1963 to 2002...
(large body) Buicks. Most parts except the pistons interchange with the 400 and 455.
455
The {{convert|455.72|CID|cc|1|adj=on}}
455 Buick V8 used a 4.3125" bore and a 3.90" stroke. It was produced from 1970 to 1976 and was based on the 400/430 V8. The regular Buick 455 was rated at 350 hp (261 kW), while the 455
Stage 1 was underrated at 360 hp (269 kW). In all actuality, the Stage 1 produced around 425 hp (317 kW). The regular 455 produced a rated {{convert|510|ft.lbf|N.m|abbr=on}} of torque at 2800 rpm, more than any other
muscle carMuscle car is a term used to refer to a variety of high performance automobiles. At its most widely accepted the term refers to American 2-door rear wheel drive mid-size cars of the late 1960s and early 1970s equipped with large, powerful V8s and sold at an affordable price for street use and drag...
engine. The horsepower was somewhat reduced in 1971 mainly due to the reduction in cylinder compression ratio, a change which was mandated by GM in order to cope with the introduction of new federal laws which would require new cars to use unleaded
gasolineGasoline or petrol is a petroleum-derived liquid mixture, primarily used as fuel in internal combustion engines...
in an effort to reduce exhaust emissions. Then, starting in 1972, the horsepower rating on paper would be reduced again, down to approximately {{convert|250|hp|abbr=on}}, this time due to the new measurement of horsepower as SAE net horsepower, rather than a gross horsepower rating. Tightening emissions controls would cause the engine to drop in power still further, a little at a time, through 1976. Most parts (except the pistons) interchange between the 400 and the 430. The 455 was one of the first "thin-wall casting" engine blocks, and because of this advance in production technology it weighs significantly less than other engines of comparable size (for example, {{convert|150|lb|abbr=on}} less than a
Chevrolet 454The Chevrolet big block is a series of large displacement V8 engines that were developed in the USA during the 1950s and 1960s. As American automobiles grew in size and weight following the Second World War the engines powering them had to keep pace...
).
Non-Buick V8s powering Buick Vehicles
In the mid-1970s, GM was using powerplants sourced from various GM divisions where the Buick V8 was considered a factory option with the Buick 350 as the sole survivor, or in the worst case, for Buick vehicles where the 400/430/455 big blocks were phased out because of fuel economy/emission requirements.
260
The {{convert
260 was actually an
Oldsmobile V8 engineThe Oldsmobile Rocket V8 was the first post-war OHV V8 at General Motors. Production started in 1949, with a new generation introduced in 1964. Like Pontiac, Olds continued building its own V8 engine family for decades, finally adopting the corporate Chevrolet 350 small-block and Cadillac Northstar...
.
301
The {{convert
301 was actually a
Pontiac V8 engineFrom 1955 to 1981 the Pontiac Division of General Motors manufactured its own V8 engines, distinct from Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, or Oldsmobile. Displacement began at 287 cu in and grew as large as 455 cui by 1970....
.
305
The {{convert was actually a
Chevrolet V8The Chevrolet small-block engine is a series of automobile V8 engines built by the Chevrolet Division of General Motors using the same basic small engine block...
engine.
307
The {{convert was actually an
Oldsmobile V8 engineThe Oldsmobile Rocket V8 was the first post-war OHV V8 at General Motors. Production started in 1949, with a new generation introduced in 1964. Like Pontiac, Olds continued building its own V8 engine family for decades, finally adopting the corporate Chevrolet 350 small-block and Cadillac Northstar...
.
403
The {{convert engine used in Buicks was actually an
Oldsmobile V8 engineThe Oldsmobile Rocket V8 was the first post-war OHV V8 at General Motors. Production started in 1949, with a new generation introduced in 1964. Like Pontiac, Olds continued building its own V8 engine family for decades, finally adopting the corporate Chevrolet 350 small-block and Cadillac Northstar...
.
See also
- Buick Straight-8 engine
The Buick Straight-8 engine was produced from 1931 to 1953 and sold in Buick automobiles. Like many American automobile makers, Buick adopted the straight-8 engine in 1931 as a more powerful alternative to the previous inline-6 engines...
From the 1950s through the 1970s, each GM division had its own V8 engine family. Many were shared among other divisions, but each design is most-closely associated with its own division:
- Cadillac V8 engine
Cadillac was the first automobile maker to mass produce a V8 engine. The company has produced eight generations of V8s since 1914, and was the last General Motors division to retain its own V8 design.-L-Head:...
- Chevrolet Small-Block engine
The Chevrolet small-block engine is a series of automobile V8 engines built by the Chevrolet Division of General Motors using the same basic small engine block...
- Chevrolet Big-Block engine
The Chevrolet big block is a series of large displacement V8 engines that were developed in the USA during the 1950s and 1960s. As American automobiles grew in size and weight following the Second World War the engines powering them had to keep pace...
- Oldsmobile V8 engine
The Oldsmobile Rocket V8 was the first post-war OHV V8 at General Motors. Production started in 1949, with a new generation introduced in 1964. Like Pontiac, Olds continued building its own V8 engine family for decades, finally adopting the corporate Chevrolet 350 small-block and Cadillac Northstar...
- Pontiac V8 engine
From 1955 to 1981 the Pontiac Division of General Motors manufactured its own V8 engines, distinct from Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, or Oldsmobile. Displacement began at 287 cu in and grew as large as 455 cui by 1970....
GM later standardized on the later generations of the Chevrolet design:
- GM LT engine
General Motors' Generation II LT is a small block V8 engine. Making its debut in the 1992 Chevrolet Corvette, the new LT sought to draw upon the heritage of the ultimate small-block, the 1970 Chevrolet LT-1....
— Generation II small-block
- GM LS engine
The LS series is a new design intended as the only V-8 engine utilized in General Motors' line of RWD cars and trucks. The LS series was a clean sheet design with little in common with the classic Chevrolet small block V8...
— Generation III/IV small-block
- List of GM engines
{{DEFAULTSORT:Buick V8 Engine}}