On ebay now there is a 74 Lesabre Convertible the seller says is a documented (Sloan) Stage 1. He says it is a W code in the VIN. Is this possibly real?
stage one engines were an option for the 74 but with smog detuning and being about the heaviest lesabre made they were not too impressive. i think they may have been a quite different motor than previous stage ones.
I thought that the "W" High Performance 455 only had the big valve heads which were part of the Stage 1 package. I do not believe that this car will have the Stage 1 specific distributor, cam and carb that is part of the GS series Stage 1. The Riviera Stage 1 package for this year was actually a handling option. As far as the other full-size ??? My dad had a '73 Estate Wagon with the big valve heads ... go figure.
Hawken,In 74 the Riv had both options.The GS was a handleing package and was around 108.00. The Stage1 option was a performance upgrade of 15 more HP and was about 140.00. This was the last year for a Stage1 option but the GS option continued thru the 75 model year.This was for the Riviera line and i'am not sure about others. Tom
Yes, I had a '74 Riviera Landau that had the Stage1 option,but NO GS handling. It was even a bench seat car-triple black. Very rusty,but saved the engine,trans,rear. The brochure for '74 shows the LeSabre available with the Stage1 engine option. Also available was a Rallye ride and handling option,which my '74 LeSabre convertible has,along with a 2.73 posi rear and most other options. The Riviera GS and Stage 1 options were seperate.
Junkman, are you saying that the Stage 1 engine option from the brochure is the exact same Stage 1 package on the Century line? The reason I am asking is that Buick placed the large valve heads (Stage 1) into many full-sized models from '70-'74 including the '70 Riv GS and '71-later cars with 'W' in the VIN and did not always call the engine a Stage 1, rather a high performance 455 because (I thought) the camshaft, carb, dist, etc., from the GS/Century GS package were not included. So, in '74, what differentiated the Stage 1 package in the full-size cars from the "high-performance" 455 'W' VIN cars?
Well Adam (Smartin), that's what I thought, too, after the exhaustive prior discussions about the "Stage 1" vs. 'W' code engines in the full size cars ... that these options in various years in the full-size cars (either the Riv or the other B's & C's) were not the same Stage 1 engine packages from the A bodied series ... did not share cams or the other Stage 1 dist or carb, etc. Further, the 'W' coded cars got the big valve heads (like the Stage 1 package), though.
I have run across a few full size cars-73-74's that state to use "91 octane fuel only" on the emission decal. Could these be cars with stage heads? And if so, why the higher octane requirement?
Heads,posi and a chrome air cleaner lid made up the Stage1 option package in 74 on the Riv.This was it nothing else.
Could'nt it be that the 74 Stage 1 option was less potent than the 70-71, but if that's what Buick called Stage 1, than it was just that? I questioned the guy about it in the first place, but now I'm defending him...o No: ou:
Well, let me say that this topic of the 'W' VIN full-size cars has been discussed extensively before elsewhere and been pretty well vetted that these cars came with the larger valve heads as far as the mechanical differences of the engine vs. the std. engines, but did not use the A-body (Skylark GS/Century Gran Sport) more aggressive camshaft, rejetted carb, recurved distributor, etc. The Stage 1 option was a package of specific parts for the A-body through '73 and I think '74. But, the Riviera was a different animal from the rest of the field with some exclusive options, etc. This was Buick's most exclusive/sportiest/priciest model. 65gs76limited regarding the Stage 1 option in the Riviera: I think the issue rests squarely with whether someone is claiming (or a prospective buyer is thinking/relying on the belief that) the Stage 1 engine option (package) of the A-body (Skylark GS/Century Gran Sport) is the identical engine as the Stage 1 engine in a full size body (whether a Riviera with the Stage 1 option or the Centurion, LeSabre and Electra cars with the 'W' VIN engine) because there has been a lot of evidence discussed before that this is not the case. So, is this a technicality? I do not have the 1973 Buick full line brochure in front of me, but I remember (I think) the optional engine for the Centurion, LeSabre and Electra lines as a "high performance" 455 V8 and further that this was the 'W' engine. I believe also that this holds true for the '71 & '72 Centurions, LeSabres and Electras. The Rivieras appear to have had the inside track on Buick's performance engines next to the A-body GS's. As far as the 91 octane requirement, the large valve heads bump compression slightly. In 1970, Buick claimed the Stage 1 engine (larger valve heads) increased compression .5 of a point, but I thought other experts had later claimed .3 or .4 increase because the valves are physically larger inside the combustion chamber even though both engines used the same pistions and head castings. But, on the other hand, Buick put the big valve heads on the '70 Riviera GS's and I think did not claim any difference in compression. Fast and loose? S/He who writes the rulebook makes the rules ... In any case, the point remains that it appears that the full-size 'W' VIN cars shared only the large valve heads and not the other parts. That's my recollection of this issue from prior board posts and research, but I still am not clear on the "Stage 1" option availability on the other full-size cars (other than the Riviera). I think most full-size fans would agree completely that the 'W' VIN cars have the high performance 455 engine, for sure, solely due to the heads.
