Randal Burns, better known as TheSilverBuick around here, is an engineer to the core. His 455-powered Buick Skylark is a Drag Week veteran that can easily be pressed into daily-driver duty with no thoughts given. He would rather build than buy, and he always has something going on to keep him busy. This is the guy who is using a small computer display to replace the stock gauges. Prior to the Buick was a 1969 Pontiac Firebird 400 that ended up meeting it’s demise at the hands of an uninsured driver. So when the opportunity to pick up another Firebird came up, he jumped on it and brought another 400-powered car home. However, with three other big-block cars in his lineup, he decided that he didn’t want to go the V8 route on this car. Instead, he did a complete teardown and rebuild on a 4.1L Pontiac OHC inline six. If that doesn’t sound all that exciting to you, you haven’t seen just how in-depth Randal can get with his work.
Intrigued yet? Randal drives this car just as much as he drives most of his others, and he’s currently in the middle of fabricating up a new intake so that he can convert the car to fuel injection and a turbo setup for more power and better overall performance out of the six. He’s also been busy rebuilding the automatic transmission and sorting out other issues. There’s plenty to read, so if it’s too cold out to do anything, sit back and catch up on BangShift’s resident mad scientist’s latest work!
Project Thread: The Silver Buick’s 1969 Pontiac Firebird OHC Six
Love that motor. I bought a ’69 from a guy that was originally the OHC six, but the bastard kept the drivetrain so he could sell it later for more, and put a Chevy 350 in it. 🙁
I always respected The Silver Buick and his opinions here on Bangshift, it is a cool project what you are doing to your ’69 Firebird.
My late brother built his own intake manifold for a 250 Chevy inline six running three Weber fuel injectors for my sister in laws ’50 Chevy Suburban which she still drives.
That had to be the first time in history that someone yanked a big block for an inline-six. Still very cool, thought that the OHC-6 never got enough attention.
My uncle tells a story of someone lending him a LeMans Sprint for an evening and being told not to look under the hood. He said when he returned the car to his friend, his friend popped the hood and showed him the engine and he was caught off guard to see that it was an I6
Hey, I know that car! =D
I just upgraded to Photobucket, maybe this weekend I’ll go back through much of the thread and fix the picture links.
I already had three big block cars, did I need a fourth? Some may say yes, I decided not. In current form it makes a very nice commuter car getting 20+ miles per gallon.
Can’t wait to get a turbo bolted to it though!
Your next project needs an engine cast *after* you were born …
Since you mentioned it, I’d like to put a turbo LS into my Thunderbird. Does that count?? =D
dibs on the Thunderbird engine when you pull it for my 64 Galaxie 🙂
The crux of it is I have an FE crank and rods stroker kit already =P
Okay, other than the sheer bizarre factor, why would you do that to your TBird?!
Use a 4.6, a V10, or a Coyote if you want a newer engine but no LS, please?
Because simple horsepower for less? If I wanted to spend a fortune on the engine, I’d stick with the FE.
And would a 4.6L or V10 even fit in the engine bay? Not likely, especially with the A/C box.
I read each installment about the OHC Firebird when you post over on V8Buick. It has to be a labor of love to put that much work into engineering that six cylinder injected Bird. But then again, I remember when I was young and energetic like that. You keep up the good work and I’ll keep on reading.
I dig that engine, typical GM to give up on something good to save $.04