A friend of mine bought a brand new 1980 Monza 2+2 hatchback, full spoiler treatment. Ordered with the 231 Buick V6, auto, 2.93 posi and sport suspension which had the rear sway bar. He put some Koni',s and spring kit and 13 x 7 and 60's radials all around. Yes it handled pretty nice I would say. He modded it with Kenne bell parts, cam at Kenne bells advice, headers, intake, a 600? Holley I believe and then maby later a Carter AFB. Might of had roller rockers later also. The car seemed like it wanted to go? as when he nailed it it screamed but just didn't seem to really go. No there wasn't any tranny slippage. Compression was stock at the time and NO head work. He found a short block that was suppositly blue printed and with the stock heads was to be around 9.5 to 1 Found some 3.42's with a carrier that fit. It picked up a little but just screamed at WOT even more and just didn't seem to go as expected. Don't remember if he put a high stall convertor in it. Maby it was in the heads not being worked or just no torque from these V6's? I don't think it would of done any less than 16 seconds in the 1/4?? if even 16 He ended up getting a 87 GN anyways. Makes you wish this forum was around in those days
Yes, it was highly loaded, even had very rare leather interior instead of the standard vinyl or vinyl/cloth
There is a fellow named Roger who bolted a Buick 350 into a 78 Skyhawk. It runs low 12s in street form with no major mods. I had a 78 Skyhawk and my plan was to tub it out, narrowed 9”, th-400 and a twin turbo Buick 350. I was planning to push 700+ HP. But by the time you re enforce the chassis, brakes, suspension, add a cage etc. It’s really not that light. Plus the short wheelbase is sketchy at 130 mph. It was a very fun car with the stock 3.8, good on fuel and handled well. Not fast off the line but it would go 80 mph no problem. It’s gone, but not forgotten! Up on my mantle
I had a numbers matching 74 Laguna 454 4-speed just out of high school. After selling come to find out only 9 were made. Fun car with factory quiet dual exhaust but noisy Muncie straight cut gear trans.
Well, I gues I have to ask the question: As Buick produced the Syhawk with the 3.8L Buick V-6 engine, and we have read over the years of others swapping a Buick 350 in various engine bays where the Buick 3.8L originally came .... how hard is putting the Buick 350 in? It would seem that the width wouldn't be an issue, but the length of the space in the engine bay???
This is about the coolest Skyhawk I’ve ever seen; http://www.v8buick.com/index.php?threads/1977-buick-skyhawk-gn-turbo-v6-offer-asking-18-000.335087/ Patrick
Here is a pic from "Roger" who has a 350 in his Skyhawk if that helps for the moment.. Info from Roger: "350 SBB, .030 and 10.2 pistions, balanced, port bowl work on heads, polished chambers and piston tops, ported stock exhaust manifolds, Poston 118 cam w/ matching springs and adj. pushrods, TA Intake, Accel distributor, and 750 cfm Edelbrock. It has a custom fabricated single 3" exhaust system into a Flowmaster 50. It's infornt of a beefed up 200R4 into a 2.93 posi. I have built custom adjustable UCAs and have modified the outer ties rod to stem the bump steer caused by the longer steering arms on the S10 spindles. I took a baseline Griffin and reshaped the radiator cradle to allow the top to move forward. This photo is several years old. I have rigged up a late model GM power steering pump with a remote tank....all this to give a little extra space in front of the fan. I am proud to mention the the very first S10 balljoint adaptors were made, installed and sold by me! It runs low 12s in the quarter. It bolted onto the stock V6 mounts w/ a 1/4" spacer. ( any more upward and there's intereference w/ the stock hood and the top of the carb ) I was tearing out the V6 rubber mounts so I changed to the V8 style. I was tearing them out, too. I put a short length of chain from the block to the crossmember. That is working. There's nothing like the torque from a small block Buick V8! Stock manifolds, stock mechanical fan. If I can find some pics of the adjustable UCA's I'll post them. I had them made at UB Machine Works in Ohio. They were like an "alpha" version. There was enough adjustability to get the desired camber. The caster I set at 3 degress positive. The car goes straight down the road and isn't twitchy like w/ stock settings. Roger"
