Hi all, I am new to your forum. Have question about 64 = 310 wildcat engine. Is this engine considered a nail head? What color where the stock engine blocks painted at the factory? What all performance upgrade can I do to this engine. I am just looking for a moderate upgrade, ie: cam, intake manifold, headers. At this time I dony have the funds to do any major mods to the block or heads at this time. Any suggestions would be appriciated.
That would be a 300 cid Buick engine which is not a nailhead design. The distributor on your engine should be in the front whereas a nailhead is in the rear. The Number 310 is the torque rating for this engine in foot pounds.
thats a 2bbl motor correct ? special / skylark or big boat ? aluminum or cast intake and heads ? i would : A > good carb and ignition tune up and/or maybe basic electronic ignition upgrade , dual exhaust and although not "performance" oriented - tires , brakes , shocks , cooling system . test drive car awhile , get a feel for it , see where ya wanna go with it - clean cruiser , car show queen , "racer" . B > carb and cam decision time - carb : keep 2bbl carb and use money elsewhere or dig up a correct ( aluminum / cast ? ) intake and add 4bbl carb . if 4bbl carb a nice basic little 500 or 600 will be fine . 4bbl intake may be pricey . cam : nice mild grind ( street ) , new lifters . do your homework in both areas . this is the time to consider checking/rebuilding oil pump , new timing chain . look over your pushrods and rocker arms etc for bad news . water pump / belts ? C > more electronic ignition upgrades if wanted , trans upgrade maybe to a TH350 or overdrive ( either may require driveshaft mod's ) , rear axle gears or maybe a whole axle kit to beef that area up . disc brake conversion ? step "C" will put the biggest dent in your budget . if you've got some local guys you trust for info and a little help thats good . buddy up with some guys at a couple dif parts stores - the old dudes may be more help . check here before throwing your money around . thats my 2 cents . boring morning at work . .
If its a '64 then its a 1 year only aluminum head/intake engine. And the "310" was a 2v engine. The bad news is the '64 300 is a bit of an odd-ball/hybred and the heads and intake are 1 year only. The good news is you have a surprising number of hop-up options in comparison to any other SBB.:eek2: Keep an eye out for a factory alum. 4brl intake because thats all thats avalible, Ive seen them as cheap as $50 and as much as $300, so shop around and you should be able to come up with one. An HEI dist. from a Buick 350 is a cheap bolt in upgrade, just be sure you wire the power correctly, but thats easy enough. A cam for a 215 is a bolt in and Isky and others have a good selection, same with timing chains. Headers for a 215/300/340 all fit and can be found. If its a 2v engine it has 9.1 compression pistons already, if its a 4v its 11.1, so your good for hi-compression. As said before, a 500cfm carb is plenty, but a 600cfm will run real good. Thats what I have on mine. Gauges, Youll want gauges to keep tabs on what will soon be a 50 year old engine. '64 300 engines are painted silver with natural finish heads/intake. Keep a look out for a 200-4r trans. With its much lower first gear and overdrive, its the biggest bang-for-the-buck upgrade youll do. For seat of the pants kick, and better MPG its hard to think of any one thing that makes a bigger difference. All you have to do is move your trans-crossmember back a little and its a bolt in:TU:
oh yeah gauges - good idea . i shoulda thought of that ( since i smoked an aluminum 64 300 on the way to syracuse one mornin cause my IDIOT light wasn't workin ) . and if aluminum heads use extra care with spark plug threads . and i'm sayin "if" in case the motor was swapped out at some point for a newer iron version .
Youre right:gp: Plugs for other years of 300s wont fit right, and the auto-part stores wont know any better. The '64 plugs have 3/8'' more threads. I cant remember what plugs Im running, but I found the right part-numbers on V8Buick:TU:
That is a lot of good feedback, greatly appreciated. I just picked the car up today which ended up being an all day event. I will be looking things over tomorrow to see whats all original and checking the heads and intake to see if they are aluminum. Thanks again for your input.
One word of warning. If the heads ARE aluminum, they may have problems you won't see. Over the years, I've pulled a few of these off of junkyard motors and more often than not, they had major corrosion issues on the face, around the water passages and pitting in the combustion chambers. Pull one of the valve covers. If you see white muck mixed in with the oil, you may have a larger problem. Iron heads, of course, don't have this problem. Greg
Well I got to look the car over better today. It is the 310 - 4brrl with aluminum heads & intake. I was quite happy finding that out. The tranny is a model#35 - 64 D 208 the rear end has ten bolts on the cover. The only stamp I could find was the #45. I will post a few more pics a soon as I download them.
I think Buick went HEI in '72-'73 and the engine was produced till '80 I believe. As long as its a Buick 350 HEI, you can use it:TU: BTW, congrats on the factory 4v engine
Remember though that the HEI distributors frequently have a lot of mechanical advance built into them. That may limit how much initial advance you can run with them. That can be important. You can modify them by using different weight and center piece assemblies.
Well I will have to tell you I am somewhat of a newbie, I appreciate your replies. Do you know of any link or stickys that might show me the electrical wiring to do the HEI swap? Thanks again :TU:
The main thing is remember not just hook the coil-hot to an HEI. It will work....sorta...but it wont run right. The coil-hot is a resistance wire, it reduces the voltage to around 6v. An HEI is designed to run at 14.5v. So you have to make sure that the wire you run has full 12v when not running and 14.5 when running:Smarty: Its not that hard to do though. Just trace back the coil-hot and replace the whole wire with a thicker gauge then check for voltage. you should be good to go at that point:TU:
