For what it's worth, I've got a stock Buick 215 HI that I will trade for an Oldsmobile 215 (preferably 4 Barrel). Engine casting number is: HI287850. There's been a little talk in the thread, I'm willing to deal. PM me if you're interested. Thanks.
Pulled down the remaining 215 and found that one cylinder will need a sleeve, bummer. But on the brighter side, I did come up with a 300. So, the possibility of a stroker is actually doable.
The 300 is a much better engine. Weighs 80 lbs more but is far more durable. Can be stroked to 350, and a 400 lb engine is still quite light.
If you want to stroke it even further with an extra .140" more stroke to 3.990" using a sbb 350 crank, will get you to 362 CID with the same .050" overbore it would take to get you to 350! You can get a set of eBay nascar take out rods, for a 300 block you can use the very plentiful and inexpensive 6.200" rods with the 1.850" with bearings installed rod journal end. I have heard that the 300 block is thicker than the 350 blocks so before any over boring you should have the block sonic tested to make sure it can handle even the .050" overbore. You may get lucky and have a block that is thick enough to go to a 4.00" bore! With that size bore and the .140" more stroke will net you 401 cid!!! Of coarse if you can go that big, it would be a good idea to not use any of the factory heads available and use a heavily ported set of the TA Rover heads. An custom intake would be a good idea also because of the limited offering for the sbb 300, but if you can weld you could make an intake out of regular steel sheet metal and just paint it. If you can weld aluminum then that's even better, you shouldn't have a problem making your own intake. If a custom intake is absolutely out of the question then a heavily ported factory '64 aluminum 4bbl intake would be my next choice. To maintain some strength in the crank there are 2.750" International main bearings that can be made to work if the block's mains are align bored to the needed housing bore size. Doing this will help maintain crankshaft overlap even if not stroking the crank the extra .140" to the 3.990" stroke and only using the still large factory stroke of 3.850". If in you're interested in this I would be happy to post the bearing part numbers for you. The above would make the guy that is going to grind your crankshaft have a little relief that he only needs to grind .250" off of the diameter of the mains instead of .500" !! But make sure you tell him that, maybe his relief will get you a discount? You could even stroke the 300 crank and use a set of the above mentioned rods even a longer set if you wanted to as well. With the same .050" overbore and an extra .140" more stroke you would have 321 CID. Depending how you want it to run would be what heads you chose. If you want more RPM then you want heads that will flow more air like the mentioned TA heads, if you just want to make good low end then a set of ported factory heads would do ok. Talk to Dan Jones for your porting needs, he has posted some awesome results from the guys he uses. If you have any questions feel free to ask. GL Derek
Thats a lot of information to absorb! I'll wind up reading these posts over a few time to get it to register in the gray matter. So, my next question is just how close to eastern North Carolina are some of you folks?
Ou! That's about 12 hours. But we make the run to Grand Rapids periodically, so it's not out of the question. I'm trying to talk my better half into attending the Metro Cruise this year, and we might slide up over the 4th of July.
