To Matt Martin of Centerville Auto Repair- Centerville California

Wow.....
I just read all the posts in this thread.
I am 56, and have been a paid mechanic, and engine builder since 1982.
I have owned Buicks since I was 16. I will admit, my first few rebuilds, I was clueless, and used off the shelf parts.
I got lucky. The machine work was ok, and they ran well. Certainly, not because I knew all the measurements, or understood "why".
Skip to today. I now know the importance of knowing every measurement of the process.
I have personally corresponded with Russ, Matt, Tom T, and many others, in respect to the Nailhead.
When I hear people saying they excessively cut the heads, or block to "get the compression they want", I know they are clueless. (among many other claims)
I do not profess to be an expert, but, I can tell an armchair quarterback, usually, in their first couple statements.
To see these men, **** on, by people in this group.... it is truly sad.
I took advantage of their knowledge and experience.
The 401 in my 65 Skylark is a testament of such.
I did not dyno the engine, so I do not know the exact output.

Block squared
4.210" Diamond forged pistons
True 10.25 to 1 static compression
6.8" BBC rods
3.690" stroke
.040" quench
Mildly ported heads
800 cfm Edelbrock
TA 112-401 Cam installed @112 deg. ICL

With a Muncie 4 speed, and 3.36 posi. rear, this car exceeds all expectations, and then some.
Idles as smooth as silk, and pulls hard to 5500 rpm, and would easily destroy the 8.2" differential if launched hard.
I built it to be a cruiser, not a drag car. But I will say this... EVERY time I get out of the car, it takes a few minutes for my heart rate to come down, and
the smile on my face lasts for hours...
Thank you Russ, Matt, Tom T, Tri Shield, TA Performance, and all the other real Nailhead mechanics.

Sincerely,
David L. McCaw
Plymouth Maine

P.S. I plan on a Gear Vendors overdrive soon. So look for me at a Buick event. You can't miss it. It says 65Buick on the Maine plates.
Chances are, if you see me on the road, You will only see the rear one...............

 

the 8.2 is a lot stronger then you would think.

 

That's a nice build David!
I like how the offset ground crank and BBC rod combo puts the piston height where it needs to be without resorting to excessive milling of the block or heads!
.... I'm going to seriously consider this. Any advise?

 

offset ground or BBC rod combo would never get the right piston height with out custom pistons.

 

Exactly.
The compression height on this set is 1.313"
Effective piston dome volume is +44cc
Piston to valve clearance was adequate, even with the TA-25 installed @ 106 degrees ICL
I just wanted more vacuum and a smoother idle.
Tried TA-20, was better.
TA112-401 2 degrees retarded gave me what I was looking for.

Note: The next custom build will be set to 9.50 to 1 Static compression. The fuel up here sucks!!

 

Funny how ALL this stuff has come to the top again. Matt has been banned from the ROA forum last week as well for doing the same thing to myself.
I lost my cool & responded back not so nicely which I probably should NOT have done. BUT I have not been banned or were sent any kind of warnings or otherwise.
So you know where the banter came from & what they thought of such.

Tom T.

 

Just for fun I read all comments. I can say this - that Jim Wiese guy is pretty smart and an asset to the V8 Buick community. 2nd, I just wish Matt would have made argumentative, critical counter comments instead of smart arse comments. Would we do in person what we do on forums?

 

I'm just glad my nailheads make my Buicks move.

 

Jim is also responsible for this forum. So yes, he is a major asset.

 

Yep I knew that. Great guy and I've never met him. The restraint he showed is the way forums should work.

 

While I know the last post is from January, long story short, COVID f'd me up and I'm just catching up on the forum, so forgive the resurrection. I have some seller feedback pertaining to the thread topic, so. . . .

I had two experiences with Matt Martin representing Centerville Auto that rubbed me the wrong way to the point I won't do business with them. The first came when I messaged Matt on the Facebook page mentioned by the OP back in November or so before I wised up and quit that cult. I was looking for pricing and availability on a nailhead bellhousing pictured for sale on their website. I'm by no means familiar with all the ins and outs of the different nailhead changes (I'm learning) and admitted that much to Matt. While I was asking for clarification on some of his comments to make sure the bellhousing would work in my setup before purchasing, he treated me as if I were a child wasting his time even though I was looking to make an expensive purchase. I ended the conversation there because of his poor attitude.

The other interaction was when I commented in a Facebook conversation about Gary Weldon's 2020 Buick Nailhead book regarding my interest in reading it because of Weldon's racing experience. In that conversation both Matt and Russ belittled Weldon as a know-nothing and in so many words claimed they essentially wrote the book for him and went on about how Russ has thought about writing a book for years but just never has the time. Funny that for the amount of posting Matt and Russ do on Facebook and their website pushing their services and bragging about their knowledge, they could have written ten books. Matt, clearly from my conversation with him, Facebook posts on Weldon, and this thread, acts like he is the final word on nailheads, and if you dare ask for clarification or disagree providing your own arguments and evidence as others in this thread and elsewhere have done, his response is personal attacks and bragging about himself. It's an odd business model for sure that I'm glad I never learned when starting and growing my own business. The customer isn't always right, but a little respect and self-restraint goes a long way.

 

I've got a good one for you, Jim. I ran a search on the Facebook group this morning to try and find an old post from someone selling a nailhead intake manifold and came across these by Matt Martin posted yesterday peddling Centerville's Offenhauser intake manifold modification. (Side note: I thought Matt said in this thread he isn't on Facebook anymore because he got tired of giving free info just to have laymen disagree?). I couldn't stop laughing for a long while, especially after seeing the 26 "likes" and thought they were good examples of the type of b.s. Matt tries to sell Buick enthusiasts as a business owner:





So let me get this straight: the "owner" (I'm sure he knows Offy doesn't have a a single "owner" anymore) of a well-worn speed equipment company, worth millions, that largely specializes in intake manifolds reached out to a small-time Buick nailhead engine builder who doesn't own a dyno, doesn't personally do dyno testing on intake manifold modifications/combinations, doesn't design and test intakes for a living, or has never worked for the design team of an intake manifold company to ask his expert opinion of whether Offy should discontinue a product, design advice, and to float the idea of a redesign collaboration? I'll bite.

So once upon a time, Matt got curious like many of us and drilled some holes in an Offy intake, ported some areas haphazardly since he has no quantitative data on the sweet spot, and a customer ran that intake on someone else's dyno and saw a supposed 60 hp gain. Now Matt/Centerville sells the modification as the gold standard with, again, no repeated testing for tuning and no repeated quantitative dyno data for proof, and the modification is so impressive that the non-existent single "owner" of Offy has been convinced to bypass his own design team and his many connections with other professional intake manufacturers/designers/modifiers and instead seek out Matt Martin as the man to redesign the intake! Make it 27 "likes" since I'm sold for sure.

I'm preparing for Edelbrock's phone call for collaboration on an intake redesign since I've port-matched enough of his intake manifolds. Next call will be from the "owner" of GM since I've deburred enough of their cylinder heads. I have no idea what gains or losses my work has produced aside from the seat of my pants and time slips, but I'm sure they'll call me.

 

These days, it's all about the internet presence.
Any search for Buick Nailhead info in this century is likely to lead you to the Martins.... Matt and his Dad Russ.
Russ Martin was very active in the Nailhead discussion forums in the 90's and 00's, the Yahoo e-mail list is a prime example. Between Russ and our own Tom Telesco, they taught a bunch of us about the Nail. Prior to the modern internet days, Max Balchowsky and Tommy Ivo were leading the way in NH speed secrets.
It's succession..... from the 60's guru's to the 90's e-mail groups and now to the FB groups. Much of it is old info, passed down the line, and more knowledge is gained as time progresses. Matt is merely presenting the accumulated knowledge, I certainly wouldn't credit him for being the 'discoverer' of the info. However, it appears he's become the latest media spokesman.

 

can't find any flow test, dyno test or track time on offy 2x4. just one person years ago lost 50 HP with the offy . if anyone can find any info please post.

 

Reading other people's criticism in this thread, I don't think anyone is taking issue with Matt Martin being the new generation of ambassadors of the nailhead engine family pertaining to rebuilding; people seem to take issue with him confusing one of multiple ambassadors for a king, his misleading and questionable business practices (like portraying himself as an engine and speed equipment tester/tuner/engineer), and his general piss-poor attitude, which are all legitimate criticisms of a company. If someone mentions that their engine builder dynoed their fresh engine, he jumps on them claiming their builder doesn't know what he is doing and shouldn't be trusted because, in his own words from this thread, "street engines are too tight to get max dyno results until broken in," which is a ridiculously false claim. He smears other engine builders, like he did to Jim in this thread, in and attempt to convince people that only Centerville should be trusted with a nailhead. That's not merely presenting accumulated knowledge but a purposeful attempt to grab market share.

In the case of Offy intakes, Matt has made it clear that Centerville's supposed "repair" is one of their top-selling services (see screenshots below). Every time someone doubts the "repair" or asks for quantitative evidence as proof that the modification improve performance as Centerville claims, Matt either gives them a single instance of hearsay dyno results from another dyno shop, berates them as uneducated know-nothings, or claims something like "we have the data, but we don't pay for it just to give it out for free." As my previous post discusses, he now suggests his "repair" is so good it is sought after and approved by Offenhauser itself. One guy posted with pride his freshly ported Offy intake by an Australian machinist whose method didn't require drilling and welding up holes in the runners like Centerville does, and both Matt and Russ jumped all over the guy claiming without ever even inspecting or testing the intake that it was done improperly. It's classic market manipulation: someone says they found a better way to port the intake, Centerville claims it's the wrong way and then advertises their services; someone questions just how much the modification actually improves performance, Centerville calls them uneducated or tells them to pay for their own testing; then to push their product, they claim even the manufacturer backs their "repair" service and is interested in their help with a redesign. Matt posts so often on Facebook about their Offy "repair" service that he has people parroting him and advertising his services left and right without a single thread of public quantitative dyno evidence. At the end of the day, he is misleading and manipulative at best and flat out lying at worst.

Pushing the Offy "repair" as a top-seller:


Here is the post that many of Matt's/Centerville claims about Offy intakes stem from. At one point in the thread, Matt refers to his earlier post as "dyno results."



Cutting down an Australian port job on the Offy without ever seeing the port job:


Pushing the Offy "repair" and results and smearing someone who questions it:

 

Matt's a member here, so maybe he can enlighten us with some comprehensive dyno results that he conducted or paid to have conducted on the same engine, with the same dyno, tech, ambient conditions, etc. He claims to be an expert on the varying production, factory experimental, and aftermarket nailhead intakes and different carburetor combinations, but his evidence provided is literally, "Charley at Vintage Speeds says. . . ." Where are the results of a bone stock Offy intake compared to one with X" dia. porting compared to one with Y" dia. porting, etc. How about with A cfm carb and B cfm carb? All he pushes as far as hp/tq/gains/losses goes is hearsay, although I want to be proven incorrect so we can clear the air and get to the truth.

 

I needed a post to reply on and can't think of a better one than Walts.

From Tel Riv's "Tom" callaboration on the 66GS doing 10.8 sec at 125 mph on a full weight car to the angry Nailhead doing a 11.5 I think and gsgtx's doing mid 12's.
Plus the Flint Flyer with "claims" of high 1o's and low 11's from the day and a few other strong runner that were suppositly out there..

How are they running so strong? Stupid question but I have to ask, can the decent torque output they make run them through most of the 1/4 mile.
The 10.8 66 GS has 4:10 gears out back which makes me believe it a bit since these motors don't run much more than 5000.

Even the 708 ft/lb 425 turbo Nailhead that Buick made only made a claimed 360 hp at a silly low 3600.

 

they do make power over 5000 with the right combo for a street friendly ride, mine pulls to 5500 with power.Walt had a video years ago of him doing a 1/4 mile and the motor was pulling past 5000 if I remember right.

 

Mine was all stock and was running a very small 500cfm that I didn't know for years and ran out at 4400 just about and thats a given as everyone knows.
Still was alot of fun on the street though

Just how much HP and TQ do you think or know you have?
As far as 5500 rpms go would you put your cam close to a TA 20 or Ta 25? Do you think the added stroke was biggest improvement?

 

the dyno showed 430 peak hp at 5000 rpms and 550 TQ at 3500 rpms. went 12.38 et,that was before i went up one bigger cam size and some little things i did felt stronger but never tested after that. yes stroke helped TQ more than HP but with the extra TQ I could run a bigger cam. you can not even compare the TA- cams to what a was running. not sure what the longer rods i was using did, but a could use a lot shorter and lighter piston and needed less total timing.