Okay, now I am addicted:Brow: After running 14.93 @87 on saturday I was blown away at my stock combination. My two 14 second runs I had pretty good traction and the car shifted somewhat well for an old worn out trans. Now I am working on my 2004r, 3.73 gears and I just picked up a set of aluminum American Racing 15x8 rims for $60 to go with my new slicks. I also have an hei to install and I am hoping the weather is a little more reasonable for the August Buick meet to see some more consistent and accurate times. I am hoping to see consistent mid 14s with the gears and trans, not to mention the possibility of low to mid 80s temps. What else can I do on the cheap to squeeze out another tenth or so? Things will really get rolling once I have the cash to throw in a cam and do a little head work:Brow: I'd love to hear of some stockish Buick 350 combinations and what they run at the track
50 to 100 shot of nos. cold air intake. give us full time slip and we can tell you where your setup is lacking. well, the pros can.
Not sure if I want to spray this particular motor since it is original low miles and runs so darn good. I'd hate myself for ending its life early due to a malfunction in the fuel delivery system. Now my next high comp 350 motor that is a different story:beers2: Here is my full slip 60ft 2.065 330 6.022 660 9.423 mph1 72.37 1000 12.378 1320 14.934 Mph2 87.13 Given my power level and current gears I really don't think my 60 foot can be improved on but I know my upper end might have some time locked up due to improper shift points, aircleaner restrictions, bouncing points and timing. My distributors advance weights freeze up sometimes and on some runs I could swear I could hear a little pinging so I'll pull the plugs and distributor cap to check that out and maybe further limit my vacuum advance or disconnect it at future track events
Here is a neat build: Started out as a 1970 350 2 barrel,single exhaust, Block was cleaned up and 10 to 1 forged pistons installed,heads were pocket ported and 3 angle valve job and 350 stage 1 valves from TA,old SP 1 cam 232 245 dur.490 488 lift,crank was 10 over and polished,oil holes camfered,new ARP rod bolts,resized, ARP head bolts,Stage 1 350 fuel pump, Hooker Super-Competition 1 5/8 headers Jet-Hot coated,TA 350 Stage 1 intake and New 800cfm Q-jet from Poston, with a 1 inch spacer Stinger S-4 Ignition including dist. Complete balanced Assembly That's the basisic's of the motor. I re-located the battery to the trunk using ALL of the necessary parts from MAD ent.out of California [who I highly recommend]. I have the GSCA's 3" exhaust with an H-pipe and Walker super turbo mufflers,350 transmission with a shift kit and 2800 stall converter,a 12 bolt posi with 373 gears and an homemade cold ram-air induction systems thru the headlights. I finally went to my records and pulled the Dyno Sheet from my 350 that Scotty from PEEGEE performance built about 9 years ago. This engine in a 4040 lb. Skylark runs 13.5's all day at 100 MPH. On the dyno the engine was 377FT.lbs torque and 369.8 horsepower at 5650 rpm's Scotty said I would have no problem occasionnally running it to 6000RPM's
A 1973 Century Gran Sport (3700 pounds) owned by Roger Reed ran 11s NA. He built a mean Buick 350, made 480 hp, 420 ft/lbs torque, ran 11.65@116mph in the quarter. The heads were done by Michaels in Macedonia Ohio the rods were mechart v6 steel ,pistons were wiseco chevy, used 4.3 gears. His quote: I made 480 HP and 420 Ft/Lbs with a Buick 350 about 15 years ago. The block and crank were stock. The heads were massively ported, mechart rods, 13:1 compression, solid cam, ported TA intake, etc. It looked sort of stock on the outside. On the down side I put it in a '73 GS which suffered from excess gravity.
350 - 13.84@99 original 1970 350 block,crank,heads,rods, rod bolts, valves, retainers and keepers. HEADS- cleaned up the casting irregularities with a mild port job(gasket matched) and as far as a dremel tool will reach. concentrated on the roof of the exhaust ports and the shortside radius and floor of the intake's, polished the combustion chambers with scotch roloc brand abrasive discs, bowls blended and guides narrowed. T/A 350 INTAKE- gasket matched and also ports worked on as far as air tool(this time)would reach. three angle valve job and spring pockets cut to fit required springs. guides cut down for clearance and full teflon seals. i would strongly recommend a standard abrasives porting kit as all the stuff is in there for a good job except the air and die grinder. BLOCK- when i originally rebuilt the motor in 1986 i spent good money on good machine work(zabatts here in jax) and had the block align honed(checked first), squared as one bank was not square and the deck heights as measured from the crank centerline corrected(tollerance's apparently were'nt real tight on either of these from the factory) bores cleaned up at .030 over and standard cam bearings installed, no reorientation cause i didnt know about it then. RODS- resized and minor cleanup grinding on the beams and what they called shot blasted. CRANK- also shot blasted and resized -.010/.010, oil holes chamfered. PISTONS- trw forged 10.25 cr. which were the highest cr pistons i could order through them. whole assembly was ballanced ballancer to flexplate. when i rebuilt it again in 1995 i just ball honed it stuck some new rings and bearings in it had the cam(old kenne bell mark 2)reground to intake .448 lift 224 at .050 and exhaust .449 lift 235 at .050 110 deg centerline specs. after asking me a bunch of questions thats the grind the cam grinder came up with. he was right on too, its totally streetable with enough vacuum for pwr brakes and sounds good too! I use TA 1 5/8th's primary headers with full 3 inch pipes with the long case dyno max mufflers. 3.42 gears, 800 cfm quadrajet(reworked by me) and a unilite distibutor set up for 16 deg initial and 18 centrifugal. car is a full weight 72 skylark 350 sport coupe with buckets and console and weighed in at reynolds in november at 4015 lbs(eeks!) Best et to date is a 13.84 at 99 mph shifting at 6000 rpm on 275/60/15 ta radials. best 60' sofar is 1.945. I have a 350 trans with a 10 inch aprox 3000 rpm converter. I drive the car almost 50 miles a day and almost all of that is highway so believe me if you've considered converters and gears you'll get used to them real quick. this is not a fuel mileage engine or combination so we wont go there. blah blah blah, yadda yadda yadda! and for those who wonder why i built a 350, its what i had. i still get a kick out of it when someone says " thats a buick 350? wow!" i've left out a bunch but i'm tired of typing. David Butts Orange Park FL
-Russell Raley,Stockton Ca -1972 Buick Skylark 350 -Miles on car 136,789 -Miles since rebuilt engine 5,789 -3.73 gear, 3200 stall converter -Bf Goodrich g force T/A Drag radials P275/60/R15 -1/4 mile time = 12.87 -60ft = 1.76 -That run held transbrake to 2800 Information about engine: -Rebuilt August 08 -10:1 measured -Q-jet from a 69 Wildcat I dont know the jetting -Mallory Unilite 47 series dist mallory Tfi performance race coil good to 7k and mallory hyfire6al ignition box -T/A intake wishing for burton intake! -I just gasket matched the heads I dont have the numbers we dont have a bench at the college and I used T/A Product ID: TA_1432A 350 STG. 1 3/8" Stem Stainless Valves 350 Stage 1 Stainless Steel Valve Set, 3/8" Stem, 1.920 Intake & 1.550 Exhaust diameter, stock length. -Im not sure on what type of pistons they are I got them from a kit from a local builder they are .30 over -73 rods from a 73 buick -Lunati 67003 cam Advertised Duration (Int/Exh): 268/276 Duration @ .050 (Int/Exh): 227/233 Gross Valve Lift (Int/Exh): .505/.521 LSA/ICL: 110/106[/U] Valve Lash (Int/Exh): Hyd/Hyd RPM Range: 2000-6000 6 degrees advanced -Hooker headers and an x pipe that goes from 3 inch down to 2 and back up I need it replaced but for the books sake well say 3inch lol -No oiling mods -Wish I had nitrous or turbo's -I am the engine builder! Built it with my own hands! In august 08 at delta junior college.I did the valve job and head work there I also got to help the machinist do some of the machine work on the mains.
Sounds like you know where you can possibly gain, go with the HEI but re-curve it and yes, disconnect the vacuum advance at the track. If you can get the timing set up at about 16 initial, 32-36 total all in by 2300 rpm the engine should be happy. You can try different springs for the mechanical at the track. You can get a kit that has different springs in it and you can use bushings to limit the mechanical advance. I use the crane adjustable vacuum advance kit for the HEI, they come with springs for the mech. advance as well... I limit the vacuum advance to about 8-10 degrees.
Those are some awesome buildups! I am going to island dragway this wednesday night so I hope to get some more times plus I have these to try out :laugh:
Thats an impressive ET. You must have slicks and a POSI, because I could only pull off a 16.3 with 84mph. Pegleg and 2.73 with hard street tires. I think the 60ft was 2.4 or something.
I do have a posi but no slicks when I ran that ET, my belief is that the headers, 1" 4 hole spacer, quadrajet, posi and the fact that this motor has 40,000miles on it and cranks out 180psi for compression definitely makes this combo work. I am going to island tomorrow and I am putting in an HEI and running slicks so I am very curious to see what happens. That plus cooler temps should mean decent ETs but a track like island is a little iffy, englishtown is much nicer BTW that et and 60ft looks like the results of spinning hard off the line, just a posi alone makes a world of difference for traction
350, 10.2 scr, stock unported heads, (.462/.469 218/224@.050), Edelbrock intake, Holley 750 vacuum w/stock jetting, MSD 6A, 36 degrees total timing, 1 5/8" headers, 2 1/2" exhaust w/Dynomax mufflers, X-pipe, 200-4R w/D5 converter, 4.10 posi, drag radials w/22psi, 3,800lbs w/driver, no nitrous. Best time to date: 8.41@81mph 1.77 60ft. in the 1/8. All things equal, that should convert to around a 13.15 in the 1/4.
Good catch, Sean :TU: Yup, that's the rub. I almost put that in the post but decided to see if anyone would pick up on it. So, why does this cheap, simple, very mild mannered sbc run so well compared to the Buick 350?
And don't worry, I just got the Wiseco pistons and rods yesterday so I'm one more step closer to getting the 455 together :grin: Eventually my 350 Chevy will make it's way back into another Chevy were it belongs.
The even certain stock Chevy heads flow better than our mildly ported Buick heads since there were so many performance iterations of the Chevy 350. If we had a single plane intake and aluminum heads there would be no issue getting some good power for relatively little work. The heads and intake are what I am sticking around for:beers2:
Call me an optimist, but i'm guarenteeing that if you are going from 2:73 gears to 3:73 on larger wheels with slicks and a newer/tighter trans you'll be in the 13's. The gained torque off the line alone and sticky tires are going to knock off that extra .93. Bank on it.
You're absolutely right, that's what I always felt was the problem. My heads are stock iron`69 Z28 versions, casting #186, 2.02/1.60, screw in studs and 64cc chambers. The intake is an Edelbrock RPM Air Gap dual plane. Is there any way a 350 Buick head will accept valves this size? And with the smaller bore, would they even clear the cylinders? Is someone working on heads for the Buick? TA maybe? I wonder if canted valves would allow the room for larger ones. Of course, Chevy style rockers would likely have to be used. I also understand that the demand for them would have to be there.
