350 Buick Suggestions

**USAMPFREAK** · 03-10-2009, 10:42 PM

I have a 1975 Olds Omega Salon that came OEM with a Buick 350 and want to make it into a buddy racer / Rat Rod would like to see 400-450 hp to the ground.
Willing to bore up to .30 over and am looking at a comp cam set that says 35-40 bph increase for the Buick 350 but have never tried to build a Buick motor for any thing other than daily driving.

My brother-in-law suggested TA performance.com but damn they are talking BMW prices over there. Any real suggestion other than a sbc swap are more than welcome.

toanyone who suggests I swap this out to a sbc.

**bob k. mando** · 03-11-2009, 05:00 PM

toanyone who suggests I swap this out to a sbc.

Bravo!

Willing to bore up to .30 over

overbores are a very inefficient way to develop power. even with the long Buick 350 stroke, you'll only gain ~5ci on a 30 thousandths ( which is what i assume you meant, i don't know of anything that can be bored 3/10ths of an inch ) overbore.

better would be to go with a thin gasket and have the heads milled to raise compression. the 75 engines were only rated at 8:1 compression.

on the plus side, you should have the stronger capscrew rods and probably some of the larger valves.

My brother-in-law suggested TA performance.com but damn they are talking BMW prices over there.

this is, unfortunately, true for most stuff in the Buick world. lack of interest among racers means we don't have the independent manufacturers behind us that result in lower prices and great technology.

would like to see 400-450 hp to the ground.

Jim Burek over a PAE in El Paso put together a SBB 350 that was putting out over 500hp. you should probably give him a call and pick his brain.

obviously, you'd need headers, full dual exh, recurved distributor, probably a bigger carb ( even an 800cfm off of a 455 might not suit your purpose ).

ask Jim what his opinion is on the max rpm for the stock rods and crank. it will require a full balance to do something like that. if his answer is that the valve train will be the limiting factor, look into adapting an Isky Ultra-Rev kit ( the one that puts springs directly on top of the hydraulic lifter ).

porting of the heads and bowls will also be necessary.

N2O would be the easiest way.

**USAMPFREAK** · 03-11-2009, 06:54 PM

Thanks for the help Bob I fully intend to go 30 thousandths over lol not .30 port polish the heads and aftermarket intake but 2500.00 plus freight is a little hard to convince the wife that the car really needs that mod.

Headers is a must for any car I own and even if I have to go to a turbo set-up I am willing to do that. But would prefur to raise compression and do it all the old school way. Decking the heads aftermarket rods and pistons is where I wanted to start. If I could find a good aftermarket crank I would pick it up..... But damn robber-baron prices are gonna hurt.

**bob k. mando** · 03-12-2009, 01:38 PM

If I could find a good aftermarket crank I would pick it up.

no aftermarket cranks available for the 350. if you wanted one, it would have to be a full custom job. which will probably put you close to $3000 just for that.

i don't think you need it though. there was a twin turbo 350 built that dyno'd over 1000hp. the bearings were showing stress on the post run tear down but that was on the stock crank.

and aftermarket intake but 2500.00 plus freight

okay, now if you're using $2,500 to refer to the price of the intake, i'm going to have to assume we're going to need to double check all of your decimal points when you're having this engine built.

TA Stage1 dual plane intake for the 350 is $350 ( page 36 in the new TA catalog ) + shipping. that's the best that is available right now. TA is planning to have new AL Bu350 heads and single plane intake developed in the next year or so.

if you're adding the price of the port and polish job, check with Burek about what issue of Muscle Car Enthusiast had the article on Bu350 head porting. a lot of people are trying their own hands at that.

be glad you don't have a 340.

**Flynbuick** · 03-12-2009, 04:28 PM

You are not going to reach your power goal for that kind of money. The 550 hp engine Bob referenced cost about 15K to do. You could get that with a Buick 455 for one half the price.

Boring for no reason needlessly weakens a Buick block with very little additional power to be gained. Avoid doing this unless you must in order to clean up the cylinders.

With respect to that recommendation there are a lot of issues being raised like this:

"Originally Posted by Opa

I need help!

I orderd and payed for a new race engine in july 2008 and I still haven't received the engine.
The build was delayed several times by the enginebuilder, and finally he said it would be ready end of january 2009.
It is still not ready.
I phoned to today a couple of times about this, and I'm now getting REALLY WORRIED, cause what he told me.
His shop is having bad financial times. And he can't complete my engine because of that.
I payed for all the parts last July but he doesn't have all the parts or the money anymore to buy the parts right now to complete it.
I'm on the brink of loosing my car and my racesponsor for the upcoming season because I will not be able to race.
And will not have any money to buy another engine anymore.

What can I do about this?!! Please anyone advise me.
I don't want to name the builder name just for now, I told him he should come forward himself and ask for help.
Cause he helped many buick members out the last 10 years by doing excellent engine building.
And perhaps we could all help
So yes its one of our own, and maybe we can all resolve this together.
I hope we all will say: YES WE CAN!

I don't want to goes thus far and sue him in court.
But if it sounds like I'm going to loose everything I have because of this, I will have no choice.

So please advise how to resolve this.

The only thing I can think of is that he send of the parts he has to another enginebuilder to complete it.
And then hopefully it will be only missing a "few"parts like he said and not anymore.
I'm from The Netherlands so I can't drive over anytime soon, but I have the plane tickets standing by just in case.
Cause we were going to the states with our grandparents who liked to see there favorite US places one more time.
But thats on a hold right now to, cause we will have to save that money for perhaps the trip to get my parts my self or worse to get a lawyer.

Its 0:05 here right now...and I don't think I will get any sleep tonight!

Regards

Robert Noeken
The Netherlands
Clearly, you are talking about the engine builder in far West Texas who has disappointed so many people in the last few years.

I belong to George's site as you do, and have read your appeals to ...

I really really hope you used a US based credit card that can help you. The American Truth-In-Lending Act which protects US transactions (and citizens) can't help you in the Netherlands.

You may know I am friends with Erik and Rob... if I can do anything let me know.
__________________

Frank Brooks"

**USAMPFREAK** · 03-14-2009, 01:46 PM

What if I were to order the crank con-rods and piston kit that is over on PAW it's 790.00 and get the pistons in a 10.5:1 ratio? Set of headers and a pair of the #7 heads with a mild cam. Hi-rise intake and like a 750 carb. Think that would get me pretty close to at least 350? I could live with that.

**HilbornNailhead** · 03-21-2009, 10:10 AM

I've got a set of TA Peformance 10.25:1 cast aluminum pistons (.030 over), mounted on '69 350 rods. The pistons are brand new, but need a good cleaning, as they've been sitting around for a 'bit. The rods were checked by a machinist before I had the pistons pressed on, so the whole setup is more than worthy of a 350 horsepower build.
If you're interested, give me a shout. At the moment I don't plan on doing anything with them, so I'd be willing to work out a deal on the price.

**trishieldfan** · 03-21-2009, 11:31 AM

I'd be interested in those TA piston assy's Hillborn if Ampf passes. Let me know. Thx
Mark

**HilbornNailhead** · 03-21-2009, 06:47 PM

I guess I should probably put this in a classified thread or something, but just to throw it out here since some people might be interested....

From/for the same '69 350, I have the block, bored .030 over, oiling and cooling holes chamfered, bearings and plugs installed, honed (probably would need to be redone just to clean up, again, this has been sitting for a little while in a garage).
I have the stock nodular iron crankshaft.

From TA Performance (brand new, but some need cleaning): I have a double roller timing chain, Camshaft (TA_310-350), 350 Stage 1 valves (TA_1432A / one valve missing/can buy seperately), dual valve springs (TA_1130).

I think that's it, off the top of my head, will check to see if I've got more kicking around. I do also have a used set of 9.0:1 cast aluminum pistons for a 350. They have a little under 30,000 miles on them, but are in really good shape with minimal to no wear. Can't remember if they're from TA or Poston, or whoever.

Again, if interested, let me know.