My 64 skylark came with a 300 High performance motor. The speedo says just over 100,000 on the car. The cylinders do have a small lip on them. To do this right I think I should go through the motor. Question is, if I have to bore it out and go 10 thousands over, can I still find 11.1 pistons that are stock for this? Also don't know anything about the cam that came in these. The heads and manifold look good, and the Rochester 4-barrel in decent shape for rebuild. Are parts readily available to rebuild these motors, any problems with using the stock alum heads and manifold? Also the T-10 transmission probably should be gone through also, am hoping these are easy to freshen up also. Are these worth going through? Any input would be helpful. Thanks
http://www.v8buick.com/showthread.php?275190-Sneak-preview-of-the-intro-to-my-book http://www.v8buick.com/showthread.php?260446-Matt-Lesoine-s-(Big-Matt-on-V8-Buick)-300-build http://www.hotrod.com/techarticles/engine/hrdp_1103_how_to_hot_rod_any_engine/
If you have a 64 with a factory 4 speed you have very rare car. If you must bore it please consider boring it .050 so you can use 231 (Gran National) or 350 pistons. There are a lot of different pistons to choose from because of the Gran National, you could probably find a set of forged pistons for a reasonable price. The cast iron 300/340 heads had 1/8" bigger valves than the aluminum heads, the intake runners are also 1/4" bigger in both directions on the cast iron heads. I'm not saying that's a reason to change them, just thought you'd like to know. The smaller valves will give you better gas mileage and the bigger valves will give more power, the aluminum heads and intake are 100 pounds or so lighter. They both have their advantages. The aluminum heads are not forgiving to overheating, so, make sure your cooling system is in tip-top condition. Have you ever noticed that there are 10 65 Skylarks for every 1 64 Skylarks?? Many had an early death because of the aluminum heads. While your head are off check for two things 1) Look for electrolysis damage around the water ports. This happened where the cast iron block came in contact with the aluminum heads, dis-similar metals cause galvanic action. I've seen heads that were rotted into the fire ring, then you either weld them or look for another set of heads. 2) Since these heads were unforgiving to overheating and warped easily, they got resurfaced a lot. Look at the accessory mount hole boss on the bottom of the head, it should be round at the bottom. I've seen heads that were resurfaced so many times that the gasket surface was almost tangent with the bolt hole, that about 3/16", then they're junk. The Borg Warner trans should be a snap to rebuild. Don't get rid of that car!
