Buick small block aficionados, please help. Until recently (2/3rds life crisis?) I have been out of the old Buick game for about 30 years. I want to cry saying it but through my 20's I had a 71 Skylark, 69 Skylark, and a Skylark GS400. All long gone at a pittance. Anyway, in an effort to have a project with my aging father (a retired heavy equipment mechanic and lifelong Buick V8 enthusiast) I picked up a 69 Skylark Custom Convertible that needs a lot of work. It came with a Chevy small block in it. I love Chevy engines, but I yanked that puppy out and sold it, and over the course of last summer, tracked down 3 Buick 350's. A busted 69 with no water pump or accessories for $150, a busted 72 with water pump and some accessories and a TH350 for $100, and a running (supposedly) 72 for free that was yanked out for a 455 swap. I'll spare you details on each engine (other than all three were AC cars), but I just got the 69 block/crank and 72 heads back from the machine shop and I am about to start the rebuild. Thinking ahead, in my research and travels, I've run across some questions about Buick 350 water pumps and pulleys. I found a guy in Vermont that was parting out the same car I have. His was AC, mine is not. I grabbed the shroud, steering pump/pulley and AC/Alt bracket, but didn't think to buy the crank or WP pulleys or fan, even though they were for an AC car. 1) It appears from the part numbers on RockAuto, waterpumps in 69's are different than 72? Please confirm. 2) That leads me to believe the pulleys might also be different. I do have a two piece water pump pulley from one of the 72's. One piece has 1 groove, the other, two. Is there a 2 groove WP pulley for non-AC cars, and is it unique for 69's? Is it different 69 vs 72? Can I use the 2 groove part of the 72 WP pulley? If not, I need one! 3) Crank pulleys - I have a rusty 72 3 groove pulley that I think I can blast and clean-up if it will work in a 69. Confirm? Did they use a two groove for non-AC cars? If so, I need one! 4) I am good on the steering pulley. And although I have a two groove pulley on my 72 Alternator, I picked up a new single groove pulley for a new 12si alternator my old man couldn't unload at any of his garage sales over the years. So I think I am good on those acc. 5) Is the Skylark fan different between 69 and 72? I know the shrouds are. 6) Any cross-compatibility with big block pulleys? I did do forum searches here on 350 pulleys, but it was hard to find these answers. I looked in my 69 Maintenance shop manual and there's only a routing of belts and no part numbers. Not sure where to find part numbers. Thanks in advance. This is a hugely helpful site.
I don't have a lot of experience with the different year 350 pulleys and water pumps. I know they will physically bolt up. I would assume the crank pulleys will work as the power steering should be the same though the water pump/alternator sizes may vary slightly. I just checked Rock Auto. A 69 pump is listing a hub height of 92.46mm (3.65 inches) and the 72 lists a hub height of 106.43 (4.19 inches) so it looks like you need to keep your pulleys matched to your water pumps. If you have pulleys but not the correct water pump, the easiest thing to do would be to buy the water pump to match your pulleys. As for the shroud and fan, they should mount in roughly the same place but I think a 68-69 and a 70-72 mount with different tabs/holes on the radiator support since the radiator supports are different. You could likely set it in place and make new holes or slot the existing ones if the radiator cover bolts through the shroud will line up. Big block pulleys generally won't cross over to a small block in stock configurations. The distance between the power steering groove and the water pump groove is different. I once put a 350 crank pulley on my short water pump 455 and it would toss the power steering belt every single time I went above 5800 RPM. Sometimes it was twice a day. What can I say, I was young and stupid.
Not quite sure on the pulleys. The 350 had 3 IIRC water pumps, short, medium, and long. The engine fan is either a fixed blade (non a/c or clutch type (a/c) I do know the ‘71 350 with a/c is a 7 blade clutch fan. I’m sure someone here knows more about this than me
Thanks for the replies. I have a 69 shroud, and a 7 blade clutch fan off one of the 72’s. Knucklebusted i like the idea of just getting the wp to match the pulleys. I guess I originally dismissed the idea thinking that if the WP, WP pulley, and shroud are different between 69 and 72 I might have clearances issues to radiator using 72 stuff on a 69 chassis. But your thought is encouragement to fall back on my 72 accessories if I have trouble finding 69 non-AC acc.
Good course! Take the most of what you have ( in this case ‘72 accessories) and work with them, gotta have a baseline, the engine doesn’t care what’s on front
