Hot Rod Magazine 300" Stroker Buildup!

Discussion in 'Small Block Tech' started by No Lift, Jan 14, 2011.

  1. No Lift

    No Lift Platinum Level Contributor

    The March 2011 issue of Hot Rod magazine has a nice buildup of a 300" Buick V8 stroked with a 340 crank and poked with oversize Olds 307 pistons. 422 lb/ft, 390 HP

    Jmos4 mentioned it in another thread but I figured this momentous moment deserved a thread of its own.

    Basically it is a story on hotrodding the oddball engines that have little aftermarket support and the Buick got picked. The engine was built at Joe Sherman Racing Engines which IS a top flight engine shop usually associated with ultra high HP Chevy engines.

    Factory heads and intake were ported and they modified the heads to fit SBC rockers ala' Burton Machines conversion. Stout custom Comp cam, 236/241 @.050". About the only thing they could have done better was to add pictures of the porting done to heads and intake.

    The only mistake they made was saying the best HP a stock 350 Buick made back in the day was 285 while I believe the '70 GS 350 made 315. Overall though it was an informative article on how to figure things when modifing engines. Even better it was on a Buick.

    Better get to the newstand. It's practically a collectors item for SBB guys.
     
  2. 64SkyConvert

    64SkyConvert 1964 300 ci

    Sweeeet !!!!!
     
  3. Bill Faughnan

    Bill Faughnan Well-Known Member

    Great pics :)
     
  4. wkillgs

    wkillgs Gold Level Contributor

    Very cool. Those are some big numbers! What rpm?

    What is the advantage of putting a 340 crank into a 300 instead of just building a 340?
     
  5. Fox's Den

    Fox's Den 355Xrs

    Great article but for some reason the 350 still never seems to get its day in the glory pages of Hot Rod. Would just like to see one time a good build on a real hot 350. With a roller cam of course.
     
  6. Alssb

    Alssb Well-Known Member

    If your engine is a 64, aluminum heads and intake manifold.
    Also a shorter deck height.
    On the down side you lose journal overlap turning down the crank to fit
    the 300 block.
     
    Last edited: Jan 16, 2011
  7. 64 Hardtop

    64 Hardtop Founders Club Member

    Wonder what the "Budget" amount was?
    Thinking maybe this might be the new route instead of another 455 for my stick car.
     
  8. gsjohnny1

    gsjohnny1 Well-Known Member

    build a 350 instead and suffer like the rest of us. :laugh:
     
  9. scott kerns

    scott kerns Silver Level contributor


    And the suffering is terrible.....:idea2: NOT!


    Scott
     
  10. 64SkyConvert

    64SkyConvert 1964 300 ci

    Was it a '64 with aluminum heads that they built out?
     
  11. BillA

    BillA Well-Known Member

    I think it's an iron head 300. Aside from the heads and manifold being painted (some folks do paint aluminum heads and manifolds but that is usually done to deceive), the thermostat housing is the type used on cross-flow radiators which were used beginning in '65. Of course that doesn't prove anything since the engine could be intended for a car with a cross-flow radiator.
     
  12. 64SkyConvert

    64SkyConvert 1964 300 ci

    BIll- thanks. Sounds like some on here have seen the article already, but we don't have the March issue out here yet!
     
  13. sean Buick 76

    sean Buick 76 Buick Nut

    Same here... Patiently waiting.
     
  14. No Lift

    No Lift Platinum Level Contributor

    390HP@5700 rpm HP/422TQ@3700

    Maybe the guy who did most of the work has some plans for the engine but nothing was specified. The jist of the article was more about what you can do with an oddball engine(those that enjoy little aftermarket support) that you are going to use for whatever particular reason. I think had they had a Chrysler Polysphere 318 there they may have just as fast worked on that engine. It all comes down to learing about what CAN be down to these type of engines. Compared to the 300 the 350 can almost be considered mainstream.

    No prices were put on anything. Building a dare to be different powerplant costs more than the mainline engines as the Buick faithful well know. With Joe Sherman Engines being involved and the guy working for them I don't think this would have been a budget build in any form. It was pretty much an engineering exercise.

    They said they had 100 hours including flowbench into the heads. 206 cfm In/134 cfm Ex at .500" lift. According to the article that flow would support 425 HP in a high compression all out effort so they did pretty good.

    There's no real advantage to building a larger 300 other than slight package size and using what you have. The biggest problem with building bigger cubic inch 300's is the lack of airflow in the heads. The 350's heads will just plain outflow it when equal work is done to both. That's why SBF and SBC strokers are popular. You can get aftermarket heads that flow like the wind and supply the extra cubes.

    Anyway you look at it seeing the 300 being worked over was great.
     
  15. speedtigger

    speedtigger 9 Second Club

    I would really like to see what they did to the heads and intake to get that much power out of the 300.
     
  16. 64 Hardtop

    64 Hardtop Founders Club Member

    I sent an email asking about the budget and interest in building another. Reply was to contact him in a couple of days and would reveal figures. No mention of heads in this email.
     
  17. 64 Hardtop

    64 Hardtop Founders Club Member

    Cast iron cylinder heads just received email
     
  18. 64SkyConvert

    64SkyConvert 1964 300 ci

    What new TA heads...???? The ones for the 215?
     
  19. Fox's Den

    Fox's Den 355Xrs

    I sent Car Craft pictures and the buildup of my motor about 10 years ago along with the total upgraded suspension for superior handling. I thought they would have wanted to see something different but I guess that was not the case. The thing is, the car still runs about as fast as it did then. Same parts for 15 years now and ran hard at the track every year. Ran some nitrous and still running strong. I find it very interesting that they went with a 300 motor. I give kudos for doing the motor but come on the 350 would have made more power with the same kinds of modifications. I just do not see very many people on here doing a 300 motor. Most talk is on the 350.

    Yes, the 70 350 motor did have one that had 315 hp this one had more compression. I find this funny that a car mag did not have this info at their disposal. They probably did not want the Chevy to look weak compared to the Buick 350 for 1970.

    Some day we will get our due but not today.
     
  20. Hector

    Hector '79 Buick Limited

    Thanks for the heads up about the magazine,I purchased it yesterday.I only looked at the highlights.Funny that noone has mentioned the valvetrain mods,very similar to Mark's from this forum and readily available for the sbb 350 to all of us V8 Buick users.Too bad that we tend to consider mainstream rags write ups as gospel but we tend to nit pick someones mods(like Mark's)when posted here.I think that the use of alluminum,as in the the write up,is inferior to Mark's all steel hardware when converting from the shaft mounted to the adjustable stud rocker set up.Just my opinion.
     

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