300 Nailhead build

I have a 66 Lark. It has a 300 Nailhead in it.. I want to pull some power out of it what can I do other tha Porting the heads and going .30-.40 over.. I want to keep the heads dont have funds for new heads. Are there Bigger cams, Headers, Intakes , Other Cranks out there I can get to increase the horse power.. I really like the 2x4 intake is there one that fits my engine..>? Any help is appreciated..

 

There actually is no such thing as a 300 "nailhead". Prior to 1967 the 300 had valve covers that mimicked a nailhead but the head is essentially the same as the 67 300. I guess Buick wanted all their engines to look alike. Search in this section as there is lots of info on 300 builds.

 

Assuming you want this for a street car, otherwise you wouldn't even be thinking about building the 300, and the trouble with making any kind of power out of small cubic inch engines is they get too high strung for street use and aren't much fun to drive anymore. Unfortunately, the little Buick 300 has limitations, mainly the bore size being small which limits the size of the valves you can put in the heads. Basically, other than forced induction it's never going to breathe well enough to make decent power. Do a search here in the small block section, there is a build thread for the 300 but if I remember right it's pretty involved and pretty costly, and in the end you'll have a high strung small block that won't be much fun to drive on the street.

There's no substitute for cubic inches so your best bet would be to find something bigger. One other approach would be gearing. If you have the original trans and rearend you could make a huge difference by swapping to a 200-4R trans and a 4.10 rear gear.

I know, it's not much help, just a practical approach.

Added: http://www.v8buick.com/showthread.php?191151-A-guide-to-building-the-lil-guy-The-Mighty-300

 

yep - nailhead = rear distributor .
anyway , unless you are dead set on a 300 , a 350 buick will just about fall in there by itself , basic 4bbl carb - dual exhaust - cam lifter kit and a good tune would most likely be a huge improvement plus not upset the balance of the car like a big block motor would .
if you can come across a 300 4bbl intake ( plus not lookin too cheap currently ) you can do all the same mod's but with less effect because of the smaller displacement . boost , overdrive , gears - all good suggestions . not cheap but good .

 

Hunt down a stock 340-4. It's the stroked version of the 300. 50 more horses and a huge difference.
Heads are the same if you want to port them out. The engines are cheap to find and there are a lot
of parts that match up with the 350 also. Can't go wrong with a 350 swap either, more available. You'd have an equal
amount of money trying to hop up a 300 as putting in a slightly larger motor. The 340-4 and 350-4 matched
to a 200-4r tranny and 3.55 posi gears would give you a big upgrade and can be done for under 2500.00.

---------- Post added at 12:45 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:42 PM ----------

Another option is to start by swapping rear gears if you are on a tight budget. Then tranny, then motor stuff.
Seams backwards but gears change everything with little effort. Rear gears with posi are 650.00. I found
a 200-4r tranny cz code with hardened parts and factory "shift kit", for 300.00, lock up kit for 187.00
and a low mile 340-4 for 400.00 NB code 10.25:1 compression. Freshened the engine and carb for about 250.00
in parts and ported the heads myself. $1787.00 total. Just takes some fiddling around to attach the tv cable
to the carb.

 

Bore the block .050" over,use a sbb 350 crank with the mains ground down from 3.00" to 2.500",and run these pistons;

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/slp-h801cp/overview/make/oldsmobile

Set of 8 pistons,$137.99


With these rods,the piston would be .022" in the hole without machining the deck;

http://www.ebay.com/itm/SIR6000SPLW...ies&hash=item2ec9b2cc20&vxp=mtr#ht_1574wt_755

Set of 8 rods,$245 with free shipping.



These rods cost a little more but are stronger,and lighter;

http://www.ebay.com/itm/CHEVY-SBC-5...ries&hash=item2a2f8713c3&vxp=mtr#ht_752wt_992

Set of 8 rods,$260 plus shipping.($14.04 to my zip code)

You'll want to order the 6.0" ones.

The big end of the rods need to be narrowed,or the rod journal on the crank needs to be widened,and the pin hole needs to be opened up from .927" to .980",would be .053" bigger = .0265" per side for the press fit pins.(the bushing in the 2nd set of rods would be machined out to make them press fit for .980" pin).

Port the heads,roller cams are available for sbb 300s now,try to find a 4bbl intake,convert to electronic ignition from points,a conversion to sbc rocker arms are available from the guy that was in the HRM article that built this motor a couple of years ago.(forgot his name)

You'll end up with 349 cubic inchs,basically a 350,same bore and stroke as a sbb 350,with stronger rods and lighter rotating assembly.

So if you want to be different,build a sbb 300 stroker,if there is more $$ in the budget,PM me and I'll reveal a even more power potenial build. GL


Derek

 

The Buick 300 Hot Rod article:

http://www.hotrod.com/techarticles/engine/hrdp_1103_how_to_hot_rod_any_engine/photo_01.html