Thanks for the relies, fellas! I am pretty experienced with Oldsmobile 350s and work at a machine shop where we build race engines. It is just my opinion, but I believe Oldsmobiles and Buicks both like big carbs. Just my opinion. Since it has a T/A cam in it, I suppose I must run the T/A intake, right? :laugh: Seriously, it has the 205/215 mild cam in it. I need to pull the engine and see what I have for piston dish and how far they sit in the hole. I would like to bump the CR up to 9 to 1 or so, do a good 3 angle valve job, a little bowl clean-up, the normal street stuff. This won't be a race car, but may see a few passes or a BOP or Nostalga fun race, nothing serious. But it needs perking up, it is pretty much worn out as it is. Hey TA Perf, check your PMs, Jim
My favorite is TA claims to have started their show with the 350 intake. Than they just left the SBB high and dry. NO aluminum heads. NO single plain intake(justa350 makes one). I have vowed to not by a damn thing from either TA or Poston until they start making new parts for the 350 again. Until than I will pay someone like TriShield to make the iron parts better. The soap box is open.
In the idle wont kick down thread I explain what I do but cause I hate that fast idle cam on the qjet, it never goes off when I want so I have the choke linkage n fast ilde cam stuff wired open/closed not to work. [doesn't effect function of the carb] So I have a full manual choke that goes directly to the choke plate on top of the carb. Works 100% better if you ask me, its come on and off when I want and no fast idle cam crap. May not be everyone cup of tea but Im much happier with it like that. chokes works when I want and no fast idle cam. pics http://buickthunderforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=823&highlight=choke
I sort of agree, makes no sense with all the power they have gotten from the stock 350 latley. The BBB era is near over, time for the SBB to rein as king Flame away
I just set the idle slightly rich and when I crank it up cold, it idles like a dream.:beer No choke at all.
I ran a 600 on my Buick 215 and it worked very well. Had mechanical secondaries so I had to pay attention when burying the gas pedal but it certainly wasn't over carbed. Used every bit of it. I'd think that carb on a 350 would be a little small. (of course the 215 had a cam and headers...) Jim
NEVER GOT AN ANSWER on the smaller ports in the TA intake. Anyone else have one like that? Thanks, Jim N.
We Olds guys go through the same thing, most fellas build the 455 over the 350. But, we do have more choices than you do, but a lot of that is because we can use 400 SBC rods and pistons. It is basic economics, supply and demand. Manufacturers are not going to undertake the cost and time for R&D and tooling up if there isn't enough of a market to justify it. Part of the fun of running this stuff is that we ARE different. The down side is the lack of parts available. So, we just need to be more creative than the SBC and SBF boys.
I dunno, I think most go right to porting. My used one looked like they used a hammer n screwdriver to port it. But thank god a gasket match port job was enough to clean it up right.
I was finishing up the heads today and going to the intake next. I was wrong, the ports are not a 1/4" small in width, but almost a 1/4" on each side of the port. I can tell you for sure, if you just bolted mine on a 350, it would not run better than a stock intake. But, that's ok, I can and will deal with it. I still appreciate Mike making this manifold for such an odd ball. Jim N.
You have an earlier version of the intake. The ports on the earlier intakes were made to match the ports on stock heads so they were considerably smaller than the ports on current heads. Now the ports are CNC machined larger so that they are larger than the ports on the heads. In your case you just need to port them to match the heads. I hope that answers your question.
Mike: Thanks for the answer, I had assumed that was the case, but you know where assuming gets you. I worked on the heads today and will start on the intake tomorrow. You can sure see what the heads need, a totally redesigned aluminum new set. Later Jim N.
Mabey we would have more incentive if we had more than 5 people a year ask about aluminum heads or a SP intake for the 350. Boy that would have been a smart business decision for a new growing company, invest money into something that we would have a small return rate off of compared to other options. Back when TA started business in the heyday of Buick racing, the BBB was the engine of choice and the most widely used engine so it is only common sense to make parts for the engine with the largest market, not the for the engine that is the minority. In fact the only reason dad made the 350 intake was because that was what he was racing. He soon learned that the 350 was not where the sales are at. I ask EACH and EVERY one of you, would you undertake the task and expense of producing an intake manifold or a cylinder head when you have had less than 10 people call with interest? I can even go as far as state how dad chose to do the 350 hydraulic roller cam first before the 401 and the 455 yet he cant recall ONE person calling about it. He chose to support you 350 folks over every one else and he is already regretting it (and trust me, there is no comparison of the market for this new cam between the 455 & 401 versus the 350). You all whine and complain how we don't support you. Why should we? Where is our support? We aren't going to go an jump into a project based off of talk and hype. Until you all start to step up to the plate and show some actual support, don't expect to see anything anytime soon, especially with the way things are going now adays. I don't think any of you understand the cost involved with these projects. Just the cost associated with making the patterns is as much if not more than what most of you make in a year, let alone all of the other costs involved in the process of making a new part. Lastly, what has Poston ever done to contribute and reinvest back into the Buick community besides making faulty intakes? Im not trying to sound mean or rude, I'm just stating the facts.
Build it and they will come, no really. With all the power folks have gotten from the 350 on stock parts, all there needs to be is some parts option to make the 350 market explode. If I was rich Id do it in a sec without a thought as from all the threads on here and the BPG board folks would come out of the wood work once they had parts. But as is their only options are a turbo 6 or a 455, as you can only get fancy parts for them. I wouldn't let phone calls be your judge on intrest. Your gonna have to take a leap of faith and trust that the folks will come with cash to give. And they will.
So far its off to a bad start with wanting a roller cam for the 350. Dad took a "leap of faith" and all it has gotten us is nothing. If we were rich too we'd make everything you guys wanted but that's not how things are. The block was already a "leap of faith" and that's going to take a while to recover from so we aren't making an more leaps any time soon until we start getting more support and less faith. We'd love the 350 to be more popular but the fact of the matter is that the vast majority of people (the average guy) that have a 350 and buy any parts for it is to rebuild it in some way. They aren't out to hot rod it or make power, just to make it run. If there were more performance parts available for the 350 would more people hop them up? Mabey, but financially it isnt a priority. Bottom line, the words from dad's mouth, "There has to be proof to the reason for us to do these projects"
Hey Junior, Here is something you should take into account. A market that is saturated/mature has lower margins. At this moment there are a number of companies making parts for the 455. This alone lowers the ROI for any new project. When mapping a strategy for the company you should have already realized that the parts market for the 455 is only so big. If TA wants to grow you will need to expand your offering. The V6 has a large following and you are catering to them also. But again so are other companies. You can either keep spending R&D into mature markets with plenty of competition(lower ROI) or you can look into the large unserved market that is the 350. Sure you piss and moan that only a few people call and ask for 350 heads, but what expectations should a single consumer have. You make it sound like you are a custom shop when you are not. A single caller does not really expect you to say, "You know what your right." "I will make them tomorrow." Measuring demand for a product that doesn't exist is difficult. It is the chicken or the egg. There are no sales because no products exist. It amazes me that you sell any intakes at all. Why would a person do a performance build on an engine with no performance parts? Oh but wait there is an intake. So what. One single part. I think that is where most people stop. They most likely say, "You mean to tell me I can't buy performance parts!" "Well I guess I will build something different." Bye bye potential customer. Think about all of the people doing swaps to the BBB. There are a number of them that wouldn't if they felt their needs would be served if they could purchase performance parts. Instead part of their decision is based on the lack of parts to start with. If you don't do it someone else will. When that happens they will be the first in the door. You will either decide than that you want to do it or not. If you do it in the future it will cost signicantly more and you will again be spending R&D dollars into a market with competition. You can either be a leader or a follower. It appears that you have chosen to be a follower. I hope your customers understand that and choose accordingly in the future.
little harsher then how I would say it but yea. The future of TA would be brighter if you didn't wait. It will just cost more later. If ya did heads and stuff when the first intake was done. It would be all profit now. And folks would build them just like all the folks who dump cash into cheby 305-350s. Just look at all the power PAE got from stock parts and if folks could just bolt on parts and reproduce that......... Id bet a good 50% of all yours and poston intake sales could be turned into head and other sales easy. Like you said, poston wont stop cause he can sell 100 yr n make loot. Thats allot of head sales. The rooler cam core isn't a good judge on demand. I dunno, maybe you could look into refurb stock heads at first. Where its not a guy with a grinder but you toss them on a CNC and get accurate reproducable numbers. Maybe buy the rights to copy the Xfactor or just sell it under your name so its in a real catalog and out there. We all do care and want TA to be the best it can be. Were not trying to bankrupt you.
