Hello,I am back again....And I need a pair of BUICK HEADS indentified,please....

Hi,, I haven't been here in a long while,but I am STILL restroring my 1971 GS convertible...(We are getting REAL CLOSE !)..I have a pair of BUICK HEADS,with either of the two following casting numbers : 1237661,,,,or 1237881....Its hard for me to tell exactly which number ...The heads have the correct size with larger (2.13" intake and 1.755" exhaust) valves intact for a Stage 1 head.....I have been unable to find ANY literature showing a casting # of 1237881 anywhere,,,so,,,does this mean I actually have a real pair of 1971 STAGE 1 heads...?.Any help would be very appreciated...Thanks,, Lou

 

1237661 is a 1971 head according to gessler's website. Doesn't say if they are stage 1 though.

 

thx for getting back,,, have you ever seen'heard of the 1237881 casting number ?... Also,Other sites on line say the 1237661 heads are Stage 1 ,and they have the proper size valves...

 

Regular 455 heads and Stage 1 heads have the same casting numbers. Only way to tell them apart is by the valve sizes.

 

So then I guess the answer is : I have a set of 1971 Stage 1 Heads,,,,THATS COOL !!!,,,,, and seeing how the car is a 1971 GS Convertible and the car when i bought it (rusted to hell..)in 1996 had Stage 1 emblems on it and a 1970 455 Motor in it, with the 1971 heads on the motor,,,, I will restore it as such...It's obvious to me ,the original motor was blown, spun a bearing or something ,and was replaced by the 1970 and the guy just kept the heads and bolted them to the new motor....,,,Thank You,,,,Answers a bunch of questions ,,,, Lou

 

Yep that is correct. Need a 1970 stage 1 for a restore. Rare black car with white interior and white top? Body is rust free??? Probaly the only color combo that exist in this year...

Jim

 

He is right on the money. All you can say is they are the later 71 model year heads with stage 1 valves. If it matters, if you post a pic someone will tell you if they were machined like a factory job.

---------- Post added at 04:43 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:40 PM ----------

Or these were small valve heads that later in life were machined to accept stage 1 valves. It happens all the time.

 

Not to hijack, but I would like to see some pics of factory machined stage 1 chambers!

 

http://www.stage1registry.com/stage1info.html

 

who in the 70's, would have blown a motor on a 71 GS ragtop,and then went out to get a 1970 455 and a set of 71 heads and machine them to look like a set of "illegal " heads....?...WHY ?.....Makes absolutely no sense to me .... Makes more sense that he had the heads,and just added the short block,,,,No...?............. It was NOT a race car, just a load of rust sitting in a field,before I found it....

 

What do you mean by "illegal heads"?

 

you know what I mean ,, "illegal",, equals = PHONEY stage 1 heads......

 

There has been allot of years in between 1970 and 2012 and anything may have happened or things have beenchanged on the car unless you bought it from the opriginal owner in 1971-1972.


Every car has a story with it when a sale is happening.

 

I got the car in 96,,and it was a completely rusted out p.o.s,,,(sad to say ),,,floor boards,trunk,bottoms of fenders and quarter panels,,roof rack,,no seats,,bullet hole shot in the front of the GS hood (true story ! )and in the most disgusting red flat primer with trees growing under the hood,trunk and just about everywhere else.... As bad a reclamation project as can be imagined....ONLY AFTER running the vin # by the guy @ "GM Obsolete "and hearing "It's ATLEAST A GS 455, we can't tell for sure if its a true Stage 1 ,nobody can ",,, did I finally decide to take it home and make it the 16 year project that it has become.... My desire has always been to simply "Restore the car to it's original beauty" ,and would be happy either way...But with that in mind,I will use all the evidence I find to do things "the right way ".....My intention is to build and DRIVE the car and keep it as my own....NOT to sell and prosper from it,this has been a "labor of love" and I do not intend to bilk anyone or falsely flatter myself....If its a Stage 1,great,I will build it as such,,If its not,then I'd be thrilled with a Brand New 1971 GS 455 Convertible....!!! WHO WOULDN'T BE !!!

 

Share some more info on the car so we can help you find out if it is a Stage 1 or not... Post some pics of the combustion chambers as well....

 

I have pics on this site in my album....They're real Stage 1 heads,,,,,,I think the engineer who's building my motor (Dave Williams in Freeport NY ) knows what he is doing,since he's been building these Motors for over 30 years,and when he tells me the heads are in original condition ,I believe him because he knows what he's doing, and THATS WHAT HE SAID...Take a look at the pics in my album....,,,,,,I am extremely happy and excited now that i FINALLY know for sure what I am building....

 

My heads are out of a 71 Electra 225-numbered 1237661 and are plain janes-What number did your heads turn out to be? The other number you posted at the beginning of the thread? If it is indeed 1237661 then perhaps they applied the number to the year run, wether plain janes or Stage 1 or 2.

 

At first glance, I can see that your valves are indeed the larger Stage 1 diameters (nice new exhaust valves!), but it looks like the conversion wasn't done at the factory since the combustion chambers don't appear to have been opened up to unshroud the larger valves appropriately. This is commonly overlooked when a shop does the conversion based on a customer request but isn't familiar with what was done by the factory. When Buick ran the standard heads through the secondary machining operation to accept the larger valves, they not only made the seats larger, but the cutters opened up the combustion chambers around each of the larger valve face outside diameters.

Here's a shot from your photo album:





You can see the combustion chamber differences when you compare these two photos from the Stage 1 Registry site already linked above:





Unfortunately, without the chamber work, the conversion to the larger valves doesn't yield much (if any) flow improvement.

Devon

 

1 ) Your comparing my '71 Heads casting # 1237661 with a set of 1970 Heads casting #1231786 ..... 2) I think you should look at the other pics I Posted,,MUCH clearer pictures..

 

The casting number is irrelevant. The same cutting tools were used to convert all castings to the larger valves on the engine line. Your heads do not appear to have been converted by Buick, that's all. Your shop could easily do the work if you ask for it.

Devon