buick 300 performance build

[kljr99]

I wrote about useing a turbo on my 300 and I found this guys car on a turbo regal site. he has a 350 in this. If I decide to swap motors I will go big like a 400 or a nailhead. I think the old style fits my car better even though buick used the newer motors in 67. heres the pics.
John_Law turbo skylark.jpg

John_Law1urboskylark1.jpg
64 Buick special 350 turbo project

Retired mechanic John Law wanted something out of the ordinary for his ride. His 1964 Buick Skylark sports a Buick 350 with a turbo Garret turbocharger pirated off an international school bus. John hand fabricated the induction system and runs a tame 6 lbs of boost through the primaries only for cruising. But with the flip of a switch he can activate the boost operated secondaries and bring the boost limit up to 12 lbs. The car runs on pump gas with the aid of a boost operated alcohol/water injection system. John is running the PTS extreme 2004r with a 10" extreme billet converter. E.T.'s to come summer of 2005

[Bob Gibbs]

something to keep in mind is that the Buick 300 is the same engine as a 3.8 V 6 but with 2 extra cylinders. same stroke, same deck height and same bore( if you bore it .050) the TA heads are an improved version of the stage 2 V6 head and will flow nearly 300 cfm on the intake side at 28" with the right porting. I highly doubt TA would make a head that uses chevy style rockers. the head is supposed to be a bolt on for rovers and Buick 300-340. i have zero doubt that 8#'s of boost to a 300 with the right internals and heads would surprise most everybody

[exfarmer]

Burton Machine makes both single & twin turbo kits for SBBs.

http://www.v8buick.com/forumdisplay.php?f=154

[DynoDave]

There has already been one ported iron head stock intake procharged buick 350 that made over 1000 hp. it had a lot of special parts. my 500 hp project is easily feasable. the oiling system is nowhere near as big an issue on the 300 as it is the 455 because of the smaller bearing dimensions and lower bearing speed. plus i can use a rover front cover with integrated crank driven oil pump similar to what the late model 3.8 used.

With a power-adder such as a supercharger or turbocharger, ( nitrous oxide if you don't mind hurting parts) it wouldn't surprise me if someone made 1000 h.p. with a 350. But how much boost did it take? I will wager it was over 20 psi. Running boost levels high enough to make that kind of power will definately require race (very expensive) gas and some serious parts in the lower end. This kind of output will require a 4340 chromoly steel crank. Since no one makes a 4340 forged crank for the 350 or possible any Buick V8 engine for that matter, it would require a custom one to be machined out of a solid billet ( Get out your wallet ). Then there is the stock engine block issue. Most professional engine builders agree that 600 h.p. is about the limit for most stock blocks (with a few exceptions), especially if you beat on it hard (race). A 1000 h.p. is a ticking time bomb.
In your case I am sure you could make 500 h.p. with a 300, but not normally aspirated with Buick heads. There just isn't enough cylinder head even with a big solid roller cam. If you use a supercharger or
turbocharger with enough boost, I am sure it could be done with modified 300 cast iron heads. The stock block and crank ( not rods) are probably up to it, but it still may require race gas and a fairly large cam (not really streetable). If you run the Rover cover with the intergal oil pump, don't you also have to use the Rover crank? What about compatibilty issues with the 300 block ect.

All along I have been talking about a normally asperated, very streetable 300 that will look stock, with the exception of Sanderson headers and an Edelbrock carb., but run as good as maybe a 400. How cool is that? This is a motor that will not use exotic (expensive) parts and one that most members of this site could afford and be proud of.

[DynoDave]

something to keep in mind is that the Buick 300 is the same engine as a 3.8 V 6 but with 2 extra cylinders. same stroke, same deck height and same bore( if you bore it .050) the TA heads are an improved version of the stage 2 V6 head and will flow nearly 300 cfm on the intake side at 28" with the right porting. I highly doubt TA would make a head that uses chevy style rockers. the head is supposed to be a bolt on for rovers and Buick 300-340. i have zero doubt that 8#'s of boost to a 300 with the right internals and heads would surprise most everybody

The best small block Chevy and Ford heads, AFR, Brodix,Twisted Wedge, ect. flow about 330 to 340 CFM @ 28" with big 2.125 intake valves in large 4.125 plus bores. TA will not be able to run much larger than a 2" valve and even then it will require cylinder notching in the small 3.8 bore. Big valves don't work well in a small bore because of excess shrouding. If TA claims close to 300 CFM, will that be with a proper 3.8 cylinder fixture on the flow bench or will they use a 4.0 or larger fixture? Using Chevy style rockers and stiffer and lighter tubular push rods instead of the crappy Buick rockers and the wimpy and flexable .250" dia. solid push rods would be a smart up-grade, which is exactly what Edelbrock did with their 400/455 heads.

[sean buick 76]

Mark has made a SBC roller rocker conversion and even has a studd girdle for those who want to push it really hard:

http://www.v8buick.com/showthread.php?t=200499


Here is a mild 350 that makes good street power:
http://www.v8buick.com/showthread.php?t=149569