Well optioned 72 Centurion in need of help

Found this perusing CL. Well optioned:

https://southcoast.craigslist.org/cto/d/fall-river-rare-1972-buick-centurion/7495070931.html

Edit: Car has been relisted, link has been updated.

 

It's a cool car, but it looks like it has that east coast rust thing, which is a serious impediment.

 

Sure would be a neat car done and a rare one but a ton of work to get there, esp. with all thise options, and rare doesn't equal valuable. Looks like a convertible quarter from the picture.

Without looking, what's the "W" code 455 for '72 mean? Is that the big valves but standard cam engine?

 

Big valve heads.

Not the W Stage I, read what Adam typed about a similar Centurion:

 

Try finding that air cleaner decal. I actually love this car. I hate the passenger side white and yellow paint scheme, I'd prefer the rust over the yellow. This thing deserves a home, a mechanical run thru, and a driver, just as it is. I'd rather see it on the road than sit for a restoration for 30 years. Or worse yet, parted out?

 

I'm 99% sure that is correct. W means big valves only, no special cam. I base that on my Lesabre being a W code car. My own personal research never found that big cars got a special cam like a Stage 1 GS would have.

 

Does anybody have a better picture of that air cleaner decal? What else does it say?

 

It's really hard to read even if you zoom in. It's dirty and a somewhat low res picture. My best guess is it says: 470 (or is it 370) horsepower

 

Looks like the drivers side says 370 horsepower. Can't tell if passenger side is the same

 

Also I wasn't previously aware of any car that had the "455-4" decal on a chrome lid from the factory before.

 

Yep, passenger side says same thing.

 

Idk

 

Looks like it was probably cut from a small block Chevy decal:

 

I'm sticking with that's an original 455 decal piece, with the 370 HP. It looks way too perfect and original.

 

Per Dennis Manner:

71/2 Riv, Riv GS and Centurion had an optional Performance Engine.. it was the "A" code engine for that year (TA, WA, XA, ZA) - 71-4 respectively.

The engine package consisted of 1/8 inch larger valves (AKA Stage 1 valves), a special camshaft, identified with 3 machined grooves in front of the first lobe, and what we know as the "stage 1" fuel pump with the deeper bowl. Cam Specs were in between the standard cam, and the Stage 1 A body camshaft.

The engine option was renamed the "stage 1" for 73/74, and again optional in the Riv and Centurion. This was a different "Stage 1" engine that was used in the Century.

Although the engine specs remained the same thru this production period, ratings varied from 33o Hp /455 TQ in 71, to 245HP/ 360TQ in 74.

The engine output did not change in these years, just the testing methodology. From GrossHP to Net HP in 72, and then to a new SAE spec in 74.

As far as the air cleaner lid, the special performance engine/Stage 1 engine in those big cars in those years did have a chrome lid, with the 455-4 sticker. That part is OE on this car. In 73-4 that sticker was changed to "Stage 1".

The "370 HP" stickers were someone's creative add on, as the engine in that 72 was factory rated at 260 HP that year.

Too bad it's as rough as it is.. would be a nice cruiser, but you would have to be in love with it to do the work, and spend the time it would take to bring that one back.

JW

 

Well there ya go. For the life of me that sticker looks so bone stock it isn't funny. I still have a hard time believing someone made it. But I've also never seen one in my life. I do know that the 70 455 in the Riviera I think was factory "rated" at 370 hp. Can't remember what legit stat book I was looking in. It was just a number either way most likely right?

 

Your correct Ken.. the "F" motor for 1970, which was standard across much of the big car line, and optional in the Lesabre and Centurion, was rated at 370 HP at 4600 rpm. This was a bit of a ratings game they played that year, no engine could be rated much more than the "Hi Performance" Stage 1. Because of insurance mandates that put Risk insurance on anything with more than 10 HP/lbs, and to get a favorable classification for the NHRA stockers, they listed the curb weight of the GS 455 HT at 3652 and as such, the engine could not be rated at more than 360 HP.

With this limitation, the entire engine line was then rated at an rpm below peak HP. 4600 was chosen. The big car line was heavy enough that the HP/lbs was not a concern, so the SF motor found in those cars could be rated accurately. But not so much as to raise the eyebrows of the Stage 1 buyers.

I understand why this was done, but it's too bad now.. Having the 70 STage 1 identified in the industry as a 375HP engine would be nice, has a good ring to it, and is closer to reality. I have heard from reliable sources that the production line Stage 1's would put out 376HP at 5200 rpm. But I have never seen documentation on this. You want to keep the paper trail limited when your playing with the numbers..

The Torque number, 510@2800, which was the same for all the 70 455's, is more indicative of the performance of that engine series. And I had another of the buick engineers of the that time period tell me that they competed with the other GM divisions, based more on Torque than HP.

And one test drive by a perspective buyer would sell them the GS over the other GM intermediates. As Mr Manner often says : "You Buy Horsepower, but you drive Torque".

JW

 

Yeah I had one of those motors in a 71 GS455 years back when I ran the numbers. That's the only way I know. It was built supposedly by Scotty at Pee Gee Performance. Very peppy in the A Body.