... I found this info way back in 1997 when Scotty at Pee-Gee's in brooklyn was building my '74 Buick 455 ... with Lunati cam. Due to Buick's high TORQUE rating, the engine was used as a STARTER for the SR-71 BLACKBIRD during the early to late 60's. :TU: Chevy's 454 was later used (before Buick introduced the Mighty 455 in 1970) due to the thousands in production. I remember watching this special on cable a few years back regarding the Blackbird; Somewhere over Iraq (the Blackbird was NOT there for war, but for gaining info/data ... if I'm not mistaken) ... they Blackbird radioed in distress to the tower/base that their "monitors had lit up like a Christmas tree" ... INCOMING MISSILES from every direction. The controller/tower responded with this reply when the pilots of the Blackbird screamed, "What do we do!!???" "FLOOR-IT, JUST FLOOR IT!!!" And they OUTRAN every single missile!:TU: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiFWdlaNgmo&feature=fvw
Some good stuff: http://www.v8buick.com/showthread.php?t=132028 http://www.v8buick.com/showthread.php?t=117575 http://www.v8buick.com/showthread.php?t=24727 Devon
KING-OF-KINGS!:TU: Devon, You-The-Man! These links have me "OPEN!":TU: Thanks for the TRUTH regarding the BUICK 401 NOT the 425 being used as the Blackbird's starter. COOLNESS!:Smarty:
425!! The biggest of the nailheads! I think if you read through the old posts though, you will find someone with firsthand knowledge of it who shed a little light on the subject for us. I think that as availability of the 425 became a problem, they used some 401's. I can't remember exactly though. But the 425 was the engine that was the chosen one for this job.
That's right. The 425's were used pretty much exclusively until no more could be found. As mentioned before, we had a couple of starter carts with one of each installed very late in the program and they would get the J58 started, but everything had to work perfectly! It was around this time that the 454 carts were brought into service. We still called the started carts Buicks though!
Thank you Sir! I NOW have the correct info. Buick 425 cubic-inched V8's were the ORIGINAL starter engines for the Blackbird!!! :gp:
