Newbie from Iowa with a 350

[Irishjeeper]

Hello all. Glad I found this board. Hope someone can guide me.

I have a 1964 Jeep J200 Gladiator Truck that had an original Tornado 230 ci inline 6. I am doing a frame up resto and wanting to keep it pretty much stock looking, but use it as a daily driver and a few local holiday car shows.

I got hold of a Buick 350 2 bbl V-8 and a TH 400 that came out of a 1968 Gladiator pickup. All is original. And the price was great. Going to use these for my truck.

I also have bought from EBay an original 1968 Quadrajet 4bbl to go on this 350 motor. Since I'm not going to be offroading or drag racing, I want to rebuild the Buick 350 and the Quadrajet and set it in my 64 J truck. It will look period, and have some dress ups like chrome valve covers, new painted block, quality hoses and new HEI and colored wires etc. The engine can be rebuilt anywhere .10-.30 over, as it is all stock. I want to burn modern gasoline...so that means different valves I believe. Throw on a double timing chain and it should last me the rest of my life. But am asking a few questions of you guys...

1) Can I just buy an Edelbrock 4 bbl intake manifold and swap it with the original heavy bugger, and put that 4 bbl Quadjet without changing any cams, cranks or other part of the engine? Doing this won't cause it to run funny or anything will it? I'm wondering about CFMs and highway driving on the interstate.

2) Is there a good source for parts to rebuild this motor? Pistons, gaskets, valves etc.

3) Any info or tips to improve the rebuild? I read once somewhere about some oil groove issues, or fixes relating to that on some article somewhere. Not sure what they were talking about.

I also just found another Buick 350 for sale here in Iowa. It is a 1971 and loose, and is very cheap. Under $200. Might play with that one too as a project after I get this first one done. Thanks for any and all help.

 

[bob k. mando]

1) Can I just buy an Edelbrock 4 bbl intake manifold


since when does Edelbrock have 4bbl intake for the Buick 350?

the only thing i'm seeing on their website
http://www.edelbrock.com/automotive/mc/manifolds/

is the Performer Dual Plane.
http://www.edelbrock.com/automotive/mc/manifolds/buick/performer.shtml

which seems to only be available for the Big Block Buick or the 215ci / 3.5L small block. neither of those options is going to fit on the Buick 350. the BBB intake will not work because the BBB has wider cylinder bore spacing ( 4.75" vs 4.24" ) and a slightly taller deck, so the intake would be both too long and too wide.

the 215 intake is for a SBB, but the 215 has a much shorter deck, so that intake won't even physically fit the 350 without spacer plates. the much, MUCH bigger problem is that the Buick 350 has a different valve layout ( EI, EI, IE, IE vs IE, IE, EI, EI ) than all of the other SBBs. so, even if you had spacer plates under the Edelbrock Rover style, none of the intake runners would line up.

there used to be two aftermarket intakes available but Poston went out of business.

TAPerformance.com is the primary Buick vendor for BBB and V6 Buick stuff, but they do have a dual plane 350 intake and they are bringing an aluminum head to market for it. a single plane is on the way, but you woudn't have any use for that as you aren't racing.


http://taperformance.com/products.asp?cat=101


I want to burn modern gasoline...so that means different valves I believe.


i don't know why. usually, people talk about having valve seats installed in old blocks to run unleaded. this is unnecessary with Buick / Olds / Caddy blocks as the cast iron used in those divisions was much higher quality than that used by Chevy. numerous engine builders have reported no issues with running unleaded in both big block and small block Buick engines.


also, i wouldn't bother overboring the cylinders unless the bores are pitted or something. you're only going to gain a couple of cubes. unless you're going to put shallow dish pistons in to bump compression, paying ~$1000 for new pistons and all that machining is a waste of time.

from 1968-70, most of them were running 10:1 from the factory. you go much higher on compression and you're going to have to run premium just to keep it from knocking.



Any info or tips to improve the rebuild?

you probably want to run the RV cam TA has.

look for the post on oil passage mods. all of the SBB, V6 and BBB have the same basic oiling design and they can pretty much all use the same mods.

be sure to get a 5/8" pickup off of an early 80s v6, at a minimum.

 

[Irishjeeper]

Wow. Thanks for the info. I was looking at ebay for manifolds and thought I had one. Was going to order...but you just saved me a big headache.
Looks like its a straight forward rebuild. No special valves and no over boring. TA looks like they have all I need.
Thanks again for all the help.

 

[carmantx]

Make sure you keep in mind, the Buick 350 is unique to Buick. No interchangeable parts with other GM 350's.
TA performance foes make an aluminum intake for your engine that would require no other engine mods.

What is the number on the quadrajet you found? The quadrajet design was improved after 68-69. If you got the 68 quadrajet, it can be built well with good parts, just not best design. Should be 7028244. Make sure you have a buick 350 quadrajet for it to perform correctly, as each carb from factory was calibrated for the engine it sat on. These quadrajet's were 750 CFM.

 

[Irishjeeper]

Yes, that is my Qjet serial number. I have enclosed some pics. Will talk to you about rebuild, and marry it to my TA manifold and rebuilt Buick 350. Thanks for info.

 

[carmantx]

Looks like like that carb is original, which is very good. Too many of these older carbs get ruined by the big generic reman shops and mismatch the parts. This one looks like it will be a great carb for you.