I should have some pics from the machining some time later today. I'll post them as quick as I can. Jim burek
Paid for or not doesn't much matter.......They're not ready yet and my stupid thought was to pay up last year when they started production so as not to "hold anything up"....... Even if we got the block,In hand,Today,You would still be 6 mos.+waiting for a crank. Basically,You're looking at 2007 before anything real happens with these on the track........ In the beginning I thought this was a great step in performance for our Buicks......Now it has us hostage :boring:
Danie go to www.buickperformance.com scroll down and look under new blocks there are pics of a few castings and one being machined dated 10-6-05
Gary, Drop me an email direct if you would with a number. I would like to talk to ya(not about this), but will reply to this also. buickdav@yahoo.com
Progress Now that we have been teased with the photos of the new engine block. Maybe Jim and his crew will find time to focus there efforts on some of the engine work already in the shop. I have been waiting ten months for my build. What do you say Jim?
Engine/Trans For Sale It's been a week,since my last post. I thought maybe someone would have jumped in and could add something to this. Well I'm considering selling this engine/Trans. (461 TR and '67T-400 S/P) If there is any interest in the purchase, let me know and we will work something out. Thanks D.McConnell
I have posted the latest pics on the block on my site and the buickperformance site. Not sure how to post pictures here. I guess we are comming up on 3 years right now from when this project started to getting ready to start shipping production blocks. While this has been a long time, I feel it is actually not an extreme amount of time as far as a project of this magnitude goes. Jim Burek
Long Time Coming The new pic's are very positive.My cheque book is out.Now how many of the people that were sitting on the side lines are going to step up to the plate and support Dick,Jim and all the rest that laid out coin on this venture.I do hope that these blocks are in full production soon so those who missed racing this year don't miss all the 2006 season.You can bet Dick and Jim want to get this moving more then anybody else.This is a huge investment on Dicks part,not to mention the money and time that other individuals have laid out on this and don't forget Jim who is right in the middle of this.At what point, do we as a buick community, start to fully stand behind these guy's? I know its hard waiting, I 've had my 540 stuff up for sale 2 or 3 times in frustration but you know what,I don't think this would be happening anytime soon if EVER If it wasn't for these guy's.If we don't support this we might not have another chance.Dick,Jim this project needs to keep moving ahead (in a timely fashion) And a report once a week even if there's nothing to report would help a alot of people sleep easier.There is what 9000 members on here o No: Should it be that hard to get a 100 people to step up to the plate here?There are people out there that think the BBB guy's are too cheap to make this happen, I sure hope we prove them wrong.My only investment in this is that I am a drag racer that loves buicks and want's to see us get a chance to make BIG power with out having to worry about reliability and having my crank Hit the ground at any point while going down the 1/4 mile. Thanks Guy's.....Chris Skaling
Yes , blocks have been checked for core shift shift and wall thicknesses. Core shift is as I am told not as big an issue as it used to be. Core breakage is more of an issue now than shift. Jim Burek
Chris, Thanks for the positive comments here, it is really appreciated. Things are definately moving along here. It is sometimes difficult to post new info when there is no new info to post, not that no progress has been made, just nothing new to report. Jim Burek
Chris I'll agree with you on how great it is to actually see someone making this block. But to be perfectly honest, I'd expect to see some testing done before releasing these blocks to the public. If it was an exact duplicate of the standard Buick, then, yes, pour them, machine them and ship them. But if a bunch of "improvements" were made as it seems to be the case, I'd expect the manufactuer to do some serious dyno flogging as well as track testing in real world situations before expecting all the racers to step up and order one. Yes, it's a big investment for the guy that built the blocks, but it is also a big investment for the average guy.
Ok, I'll go through this one more time. It's a block. It's main purpose is to hold all the parts together and keep them there. As long as the casting is good and the machining is correct, there is not a need to spend alot of time flogging one on the dyno or track to see if it does what? Hold all the parts inside ? Again, this is not the first block that this man has ever done or been involved in. Let's see here, someone comes up with a new crank for a Buick, we'd better dyno them and track test them before releasing them to the public, after all, it's anew part made of new material, it may not work in a Buick< even though the company has been making cranks for years. Or a new connecting rod, or a new piston. My point is this. If this was the first time a said indvidual had ever done anything or been involved in any way with a block, maybe your point would be a good one. I'll tell you what, give me a show of hands on how many people want us to hold off production so we can build one or 2 to flog on the dyno and the track, how long should we run at the track to prove whether the block will do it's job? 1 year? 2? maybe 3? I think if you ask any of the people who have already ordered one of these, are they worried about whether it will do it's job? I'm sure ou'll find everyone is more than comfortable with it's ability to perform . If you feel it needs track test time, don't worry about it, it will get it. You can just sit back and wait while the aprox 30 of us get down to business and start having some fun. My point overall here is that a block is not rocket science, and there is nothing new on this block that has not been done on many other aftermarket blocks for many years now, this one just happens to hold Buick parts. Jim Burek
