The intake has arrived. The roller rockers have arrived, and the new larger tube coated headers have arrived. The only thing we are waiting for is the new camshaft. The little 350 is is fixing to pump some iron. Hee Hee Hee! Jim Burek
wow...this is really exciting....a street buick 350 making this kind of horsepower...i could only imagine your guys smiles everytime the dyno does a pull! now i wonder what a full out race 350 could be capable of running? :Brow: daniel
No, not mine, but those are without question MY crappy weldso No: I welded that intake together for a friend of mine named Bud Ketterer back in about 1980. It was used on his "short track" stock car. Believe it or not, that 71 'lark stock-car was actually compeditive with a 70 "HEMI" Charger, and beat it more than once. That manifold was assembled from a kit that someone once sold, that included the flanges, the water cross tube and water neck, and a paper template that was used to cut the "valley pan" from sheet aluminum. The "kit" came from California, from a company named Staufer engineering, if I remember correctly, and it cost $150. That's BIG money considering were talking about the late 70's - early 80's... Probably $500 in today's dollars. To make a long story short, I built three manifolds from those kits. One was Bud's, and you have it now. The second was, and still is mine, and is a tunnel ram style with a single 4V. The third was like Bud's, but used a thermostat style water neck. Unfortunately, it was lost to an engine fire about 10 or 12 years ago. I would have built a fourth one, but the company that made the kits dis-continued them because they only sold 12 kits..... And I got 3 of them. :bglasses: Bud died in '82 [accidently shot himself in the neck while cleaning his gun] and his son sold the car/engine in '84 to someone in central Kentucky. About 1990 I heard that Bud's "old race car" was in a junk yard, but it had a SBC engine in it, so from there, it's history is lost to me. Oh, yea... Before I forget, Jim- Test-fit the bolts into the holes before you install the manifold on the engine. As I recall, we had to use a couple of studs to hold it down because there was no room to fit the bolts in. Also, I think you will have to remove the alignment pins from the block.... Cant remember for sure, it's been a long time. Wanna bet???? Bud's engine made 580 HP at 6000 RPM [rev-limited] and was clearly capable of over 600 with more revs. It used 10.5:1 forged slugs, MILDLY ported heads, small tube headers, that intake, Holly 900 cfm 3V carb, and a hot ignition.... And a HUGE cam. Everything else inside the engine was pretty much built up from stock parts! I do remember that engine had MEGGA torque in the 4000 rpm range, pulled like a hot big block, and it kept it's power right up to the 6000 limit. With the tunnel ram, my engine made 540 on motor alone at 6500 with a smaller cam and the same mild heads. We tried to feed 200 hp worth of nitrous into it, but expirenced that gut-wrenching rod failure at about 6200 revs..... TWICE. That's right, I built two motors,,,, and blew both of them up on the dyno. By "following the graphs" on the nitrous runs, I believe I could have made 700 hp somewhere around 7000 rpm..... If they had held together. After that, I built [a third] motor that made about 450 horse, and capped it off with a dual plane aluminum intake, and a 125 horse nitrous setup. [never had this one on the dyno] That motor lasted for years and years. I sold it to a friend of mine when I went to a BBB, and he put about 80k miles on it.... But it was lost to rod failure about two years ago. *** Side note- Anyone familiar with my Caddy-Buick now knows "the rest of the story" about how it progressed from SBB to BBB and finally to 550 cid Cadillac power. Last year when I began tinkering with the dual turbo project, I cut my tunnel ram in half, removing the plenum box off the top of it, but was un-happy with the short-shot runners I was left with. That's why I'm building a whole new intake manifold for this project with exxxtra long runners to increase torque as well as V.E.:TU: As far a pictures go.... Well, maybe I'v said too much already. There are a few people here on the board who know what I'm up to, but their sworn to silence. Seriously tho, I dont have much to actually show except a pair of rusty headers with crappy welds, and a box full of used turbos. But it'll come together as time allows. When I have something worthy of taking some pics of, I'll show it off then.
Hey Darryl, glad to see you're finding some time for the hobby. WOW, I never knew you had done so much beyond the Cad-Buick and a few other things you off-handedly mentioned a long time ago on the GSCA BB.
heooly smokes man, ya hit 540, why would you blast it will 200hp shot of NOS? I understand why but when you above 500 NOS is a crap shoot. Now a 300hp with 200hp shot sounds normal. Though I admire your work to just go ahead and go for it.
Here's a picture of big brothers 464 and 535 Buick looking in awe of their little brother 500 horsepower 350 Buick . Even they don't know what to think! :jd:
Jim... do you have a pic of just the 350? I need a bigger pic so I can use it as wallpaper on my puter... also your 535, did you cement the block? It looks like you have oil lines coming off the back but its hard to tell. Would cementing the 350 help? I hear you gain 20+ hp by doing it to the 455 and was wondering if it would be worth the expense to do it to the 350... Thanks for all the updates!
What I am planning on is doing the cam swap first, then the intake swap. This was the best way for me to schedule things in, I need to dyno a 455 this weekend. Jim
I'll do some pics of the 350. The 535 is hardblocked. I am running a line to the rear of the block . Idon't know about the hard block being worth 20 horsepower, It does add some strength the the block. Jim Burek
hey this is just a thought....but have you thought about running it in the engine masters challenge this year by popular hot rod??? you know that it would bring a lot of raised eye-brows from the chevy boys :Brow: just a thought jim.... daniel
I was thinking the same thing. There's really no way a motor like this could be competitive. First, the 410 cubic inch limit would put us at a disadvantage. I don't think it's possible to get that much displacement out of a Buick 350. You sure don't want to stroke it, because the bore to stroke ratio is already small. I don't know if there's room to stroke it even if you wanted to! You would have to use a custom intake which I don't think is allowed. You would be competing against aluminum aftermarket headed engines that could flow a lot more air. It would be a disaster! Maybe in the next few years as the newer parts start coming out it would be possible. Just my opinion, of course.
Guys, This is just getting outa hand...........There have been close to 6700 views on this thread and getting close to 200 replys. I think its high time someone comes in here and reminds you all that.......... No Buicks run fast other than the big blocks, If you wanna make power you have to use a 455'', 350's are only good for street drivers, and boat anchors, The first thing you do building a Buick is remove the 350 and install a 455'', So there, its been said. Someone had to do it too keep you small block guys in line. NOW.......with that being said and everyone understanding I would like to be serious for a minute if I may................... Jim Burek......Question: When can I get my 350''.........oh crapola.........I mean 455'' heads to ya and under the grinder ? later.....................
Hmmm. Let's see. 455 530 hp weighs how much? OK 550 hp 350 530 hp weighs how much? OK let's be optimistic and say Jim get's 550 hp out of it. That sounds like a 1/10th or two to me. I know it got just a tick over 500 hp but that intake and roller rockers and maybe a different cam have to be worth a couple. With this much power ALL other brands will take note. I can't wait to see the results of this motor. Good Luck. Heh got to rub the 455 guys a little. Have Fun, Later.
