I've posted a few times, but realized I never stopped here for a proper introduction. Name's Victor. The Buick I own has been in the family for 29 years. My father bought the '72 Centurion convt. in '73 when everybody was dumping big V8s while reeling from the Arab Oil Embargo. He bought it anyway - cheap. I've always been a fan of the GS Stage 1 and thought someday I'd have a blue one in convt. trim. However, I always had my eye on his Centurion. He finally decided he no longer had the ambition of keeping it up at his age and allowed me to take it over. He had just finished most of the cosmetic restoration (fine with me I love the mechanical work, but detest body work). My wife went along since she knew I just had to have something and at least it looked presentable to start with, rather than a "project car" in the garage. I'm just about finished with the steering and suspension workover and will do the brakes next. After that, the engine. This board has been helpful in searching for someone to rebuild the 455 - that will be last. It's sort of an ongoing thing, though, as I never like to take it out of commission for long. So, I'm kind of the "other Buick" owner. I do have to say, though, that Buick built a helluva car in the Centurion. Not only is the engine pleny strong, it handles extremely well for such a huge car. Finally, (for me personally) I have to assess it as absolutely gorgeous. Buick made front discs standard and put their newest design into the suspension and it's great. The original 455 still runs well (though a little tired and leaky) - but that will be taken care of, too. Essentially, it's well loaded with A/C and all the power works. Enclosed is a picture and thanks for welcoming me to the board.
Oh, I guess a little about myself. General Houston area, Married 15 years, three small children. So, not much time to work on the car. I basically get 1 hour here, two hours there (unusual). Gotta work fast. Kinda like this post...
VKohanski Hello and welcome to this board, you will find tons of info. pertaining to your car and eng. here.(by the way real nice looking centurion) wish I had one, wait till you see a pic of Rick Martinez's tow car,yep it's a Centurion! and he huals his race car everywhere with it, glad you found this site, and get as much use out of it as the rest of us, were all buick enthusiasts here so don't be shy to ask anything you want to know about Buick! P.S. don't forget to check out the BPG site and club as well!! Bruce:beer
Victor, Do you have any closer pics of your car for me to ogle over?:grin: I love seeing other folks' cars and the conditions they're in. Yours sounds like a good one! When I start the porject on my Centurion I'll keep a webpage specifically for that process so people can see the transformation. The original owner will also get a kick out of it...he's excited to see his car went to a Buick guy Adam
I've seen Rick's Centurion... real nice. What's his alias on here? I have a question for him. Adam, that's all the pics I have. I'll be making some more this spring. I had the fortune of knowing where it's been, what's been done to it, and how it's been cared for - a rarity. Not to mention that 90% of the cosmetic work had been done. I like doing the mechanical work, but I just don't care for body work. I can hardly wait to see the pics of your project. The Centurion really has some incredible lines. When I graduated from college years back, I saw one just like my father's on a consignment lot. I went back the next day and it was gone. I've seen three other 72 ragtops here (Houston), one was a disastrous roach (but dogonnit it was running!). Pretty much the only major thing left to do is give some attention to the engine - mostly to the timing chain. But since you pretty much have to raise the engine to do that, you might as well just recondition the whole thing. Since I unfortunately won't have time to do it myself (three wonderful small kids), it looks like I could feel secure just handing the engine over to Jim at PAE and let him take care of it.
Victor; If I recall correctly a Board member has a Stage One option in a Centurion. I do not remember whether his is a convt.
The Centurion was available with two engines. The base was a 225hp version with single exhaust and the optional (they called it "high performance" version) of 250hp with dual exhaust. No hints that they called it a Stage 1, but it may have been. Dual exhaust on a 455 (even the 2" stock system) would account for 25hp. But I don't know the difference between a Stage 1 and base (other than cam) once you get to 1972. They were very different in 1970.
Hey, I resemble that remark! I've got a '72 Centurion Convert WITH the "Modified High Performance 455" (as they called it back then...). Boils down to big valve heads (read Stage 1), dual exhaust and modified trans (kind of like our "BB" coded trans). It's the one pictured in the book Buick Muscle Cars by Bill Holder and Phillip Kunz...see page 58-59, Ohio plate LLA 455. It's an original paint car (don't be too critical of it, please) and is my "driver". Fun car and spousal unit, all three kids plus the puppy dog can go for a ride in the summer!:bglasses:
Hmmmm.... I'll have to check to see if I have that book and look it up. (I'll be surprised if I don't.) Oh, wait, I think I have Buick Muscle, not Buick Muscle Cars. I guess that'll be another one on the wish list. I'm still in the process of planning - what to do with the current 455 when I do a rebuild. I want to keep it very quiet, but very strong. For quiet, the consensus recommendation is... dual 2 1/2" exhaust with Dynomax Super Long Turbos and stock resonators. For strong, the consensus is a high torque cam (T/A, Poston, or Lunati). That's about all I have on consensus. I have differing recommendations on compression - stock 8.5, or 9.5 with hypereutectics (some like them, some don't - supposedly they're at least slightly stronger than stock), others recommend forged (about 9.2). On the heads I have mixed recommendations, too. Some say that the torque curve would move out a little and the extra horsepower probably wouldn't be enough to notice in normal driving. What I see there, though, is that it adds a lot of expense to the rebuild that might be better placed elsewhere. It seems that if that kind of money is going to be spent, the way to go is to spend just a few extra dollars and buy brand new T/A Stage 2 heads. The cost isn't that much more.
