215 Buick (and Oldsmobile) Tech

[Hoffbug]

Meh.. Ive gotten some deals and I have gotten screwed too.. Its all part of the process I guess... LOL

[SuperBuickGuy]

you're not going to like me much... I just sold a FAST EZ EFI for about 2/3 new price... had I known you were looking...

[Hoffbug]

Every paycheck puts me a little bit closer.. Its painfully slow with no vacation till November though..

[SuperBuickGuy]

glad they're going to be used

[Hoffbug]

PM sent.

[SuperBuickGuy]

I have a set of 64 Buick 300 heads that we ported and fitted with Ferrea Buick V-6 stage 1 valves.. a 4.6 block with a slipped sleeve .( I have T hat liners for it ). a 4.6 crank Im going to offset grind close to a 3.4 stroke... Still lots of stuff to do on the Buick /Rover hybrid stoker..
I also have a little Olds 215 enigine that I just took apart to rebuild and put in the Astre for now.. The Bummer is its a 2BBL engine with only 8.75 to 1 heads.. Ive been beating the bushes looking for a good set of 4BBL heads to bump the compression up to 10.25 to 1. The casting number I need ends in 829.. If you have any you want to sell or any leads I would appreciate it.. Flatlander said they could do domed pistons for around $850 But Id rather not spend that kind of $$$ on this little engine.

they are 829 heads - what are they worth?

[SuperBuickGuy]

I have a set of 64 Buick 300 heads that we ported and fitted with Ferrea Buick V-6 stage 1 valves.. a 4.6 block with a slipped sleeve .( I have T hat liners for it ). a 4.6 crank Im going to offset grind close to a 3.4 stroke... Still lots of stuff to do on the Buick /Rover hybrid stoker..
I also have a little Olds 215 enigine that I just took apart to rebuild and put in the Astre for now.. The Bummer is its a 2BBL engine with only 8.75 to 1 heads.. Ive been beating the bushes looking for a good set of 4BBL heads to bump the compression up to 10.25 to 1. The casting number I need ends in 829.. If you have any you want to sell or any leads I would appreciate it.. Flatlander said they could do domed pistons for around $850 But Id rather not spend that kind of $$$ on this little engine.

I will go look and see what the head casting numbers are...

[Hoffbug]

I have a set of 64 Buick 300 heads that we ported and fitted with Ferrea Buick V-6 stage 1 valves.. a 4.6 block with a slipped sleeve .( I have T hat liners for it ). a 4.6 crank Im going to offset grind close to a 3.4 stroke... Still lots of stuff to do on the Buick /Rover hybrid stoker..
I also have a little Olds 215 enigine that I just took apart to rebuild and put in the Astre for now.. The Bummer is its a 2BBL engine with only 8.75 to 1 heads.. Ive been beating the bushes looking for a good set of 4BBL heads to bump the compression up to 10.25 to 1. The casting number I need ends in 829.. If you have any you want to sell or any leads I would appreciate it.. Flatlander said they could do domed pistons for around $850 But Id rather not spend that kind of $$$ on this little engine.

[SuperBuickGuy]

nope, still stuck in the wasteland of Rover builds.... though I did pull the Rover out of the shop.

I can update one bit, though. So I have the 4.0 Rover motor out of the Land Rover and there's quite a bit of difference (externally) than the 1962 motor. Most notable is the structural oil pan and the cross-bolts on the main caps. Because of the cross-bolts reason alone, I'd use a Land Rover motor before I used the Buick or the Olds block (I have both).
With that said, I'm full up with projects for 10 years - so this one isn't going anywhere for awhile.

[Hoffbug]

Reviving and old one..
Did you get the engine together?

[DanStokes]

When I was in the Buick dealer (remember, we were only about 3-4 miles from the GMPG main gate) the Buick engineers claimed that the Buick heads flowed MUCH better than the Olds units. No idea if that's true.

D&D are great folks. I bought the installation kit for my Vega from them and it fit it in perfectly. The founder of D&D was one of the experimental engine installation guys at the GM Tech Center and was very skilled at putting engines where they don't belong. I'm guessing the company is run by maybe a son or some such as the original guy would be pretty old.

Dan

[BBR]

Here's a cool thread where guy started with a 215 and ended with a Rover 4.0L in a Ranger.

http://www.rangerpowersports.com/forum/f402/buick-aluminum-215-into-91-ranger-233622.html

[SuperBuickGuy]

Regarding DOHC heads and all that, it just so happens the Nissan VQ family of 3.5/3.7 V6 engines have the same bore spacing (4.24 in./108mm) Hmmmmmm... Someone on the Buick boards mentioned some other Japanese engine that has the same bore spacing too, but I can't find the thread now, of course. It's way too involved and over my head, machining-wise, but I'd love to see someone do it just because they could.

and that's pretty much the only reason I would. A friend suggested using a BBC head on my 455 build, that involves much cutting and dicing with a bandsaw.... and that got me thinking. I don't have the chops yet to chop up a $2000 head for an experiment; however, cutting up an asian head for such an experiment would be educational if not quite the conversation piece.

[hauen]

Regarding DOHC heads and all that, it just so happens the Nissan VQ family of 3.5/3.7 V6 engines have the same bore spacing (4.24 in./108mm) Hmmmmmm... Someone on the Buick boards mentioned some other Japanese engine that has the same bore spacing too, but I can't find the thread now, of course. It's way too involved and over my head, machining-wise, but I'd love to see someone do it just because they could.

[hauen]

Rover deleted the outer row of bolts and recommends not even torquing/installing them if you do any work on older engines. Something to do with gasket sealing iirc. Maybe that's why Olds felt it necessary to add another row to balance it out. If you're going to build a rip-snorting aluminum V-8 I'd honestly look for a 4.0 or 4.6 out of a wrecked Discovery or P38 Range Rover, it has the big journals like the later 300 and cross-bolted mains, the outer row of bolt holes have been deleted also. Plus it's all set up for FI goodness.