Seeing how its a low compression engine already, to gain a but load of power without changing the engine you can add a turbo setup to the sbb 350 in the car now and go fast right away! Some fabricating and a cheap eBay turbo and you're shredding tires!(I beat you to it Sean!) Even on a junkyard worn out factory sbb 350 with a turbo on it makes great power!
Who's selling turbo apps for these cars. That would be area I've never went. Was either Buick GN turbo or Porsche, BMW, Subaru Volvo but never a muscle car...be kinda cool.
so, why stop at four gears, why not five or even six? Sell that four gear and go five if it were mine(not really, id build a 2004r, as I row a ten speed all day at work). Look for that 8.5, 71-2 as above. Look under those cutlass and skylarks at the yard(I know not too many out there any more). I don't see any thing wrong with the 350 other than the cubic inch limitation. Probably get decent mileage .
Hahah cause I own the four speed and has a new in the box clutch. Hell I'll trade the three speed wt clutch and flywheel for an 11' inch flywheel!!!! That fits the four speed. Yeah I make take a cruise down south...dig in a yard...or go to a bone yard up here in Massachusetts. Ring 1/2 inch 3/8 9/16 ext and get to work.
I know it is a pipe dream, especially up there. I bought an 8.5 about ten years ago out of a wrecking yard at Dayton , TX for $200. But if you put out the feelers I'm sure you can find something. In the broad scope of things I think a nine inch like moleary put under his is the way to go. If I wasn't so cheap that is really the path I would take. Order, pay and bolt it in. Way easier than scowering the countryside looking for old broken junk to try to polish up into a usable piece. you know what you have and want to spend. . I'll admit I am limited with cash and my desire to part with said cash that I do have. http://v8buick.com/index.php?threads/build-thread-project-rusty-hulk.293656/page-23#post-2681035 not sure where in this thread the nine inch came to play but i know it is in there.
I agree with spending up front and bolt up. Sometimes I think spend and other times I'm like stop being lazy and do some digging. I have back in the day bolted up yard parts only to spend a weekend trying to make work to finally learn were junk. Nice days spent wt pals, father and brother but at 44 I jut want to cruise wt my daughter for an ice cream ahaha
Hi, Your original question, I have 355's in my 65 Skylark with a M22W(Autogear wide ratio muncie) and with 245/60R14 tires, I am always running half the rpms\speed 60=3000 rpm, 70=3500 rpm 80=4000 rpm etc. I would guess 373's would be good for a street/strip car, but any highway you will have to decide if you want the car screaming down the road that much or not, a OD would allow for better cruise rpm. Also if your tire size is taller it will lower your rpm's a little, you might want to look for a rpm calculator and type in your variables and see what your cruising rpm will be and decide how that plays with how you plan on using the car. Regards,
Schu just be careful where you get your gears. Summit and Jegs say they have the correct fitting gears but they don't fit. I just went through this. Larry will tell you. I had that issue this spring your 8.2 rear end is not compatible with anything that summit or Jegs sell. Only Fabercraft makes gears for your set up. No one does it. So let me save you the time and the headache that I literally just went through The only new gear sets for that rear are 3.42 and 3.64. They are made by Fabcraft. No one else makes new gear sets for the 68-70 Buick only 8.2 10 bolt. People mistake it for the 64-67 BOP 8.2 10 bolt. It is not the same rear. (copied from Larry's Reply on another post. https://fabcraftmetalworks.com/product/RAB4-08342/1968-1970-82--Buick-GS-342-Ring--Pinion-Gears/ https://fabcraftmetalworks.com/product/RAB4-08364/1968-1970-82--Buick-GS-364-Ring--Pinion-Gears/
So glad I waited on rear end because just left exhaust shop. Passenger manifold fracked just before connection flange. Pal welded it. No idea if will hold. Prob end up buying headers. I knew was a reason I didn't jump on a manifold dag!!
Before you decide to spend $$ on headers, make sure you're not going to turbo it because the headers would no longer be needed.
True. I joined a 350 perf group page and I'm getting some very informed information. A tad overwhelmed but def welcomed information. I'm a bit reluctant to go turbo route because I know from my old GN it takes a lot trial and error and Rand D to dial in properly. Mine had a 2000$ or something FAST management system and still took one guy to set all parameters properly to run perfect. Again this was 2002...I'm going to prob take time and build engine. May cost more in end then buying and swapping 455 but just have to commit. Hard to give up on new engine I feel. Weather turns soon up here in NE so I'll have winter to ponder. Either way I'm keeping Buick for long haul. Car has soul I'm really digging
Get the self adjusting power adder FI from something like these guys; http://fitechefi.com/ That takes care of fuel delivery AND controls the tune! The best part about these are that they cost less than what you said you have in your controller. A properly setup blow through carb is almost the price of the FI, plus you don't need to dyno tune the dam thing so that makes it less!! Those make it easy and a lot less expensive to run power adders now!
Before you decide on gears you have to decide on where you are going to end up: First 3.55 vs 3.73 is not big enough difference to worry about on a street car. Purpose of the car. Are fuel costs a consideration? (premium vs regular vs fuel mileage) Is weather a consideration? (traction in poor driving conditions make a a stout cars tough to drive) Final engine, cam, horsepower/torque you want. A cam designed for higher RPM and tall gears make lousy cruising buddies. Good low end torque and short gears make a car slower because you spend more time shifting and less time putting power down. (do some homework oh who uses what in the combination you are shooting for). Many guys on this forum run tall gears. I have gone from 4.10"s to 3.42's and not lost 0.2 of a second in the quarter but it is a great highway cruiser now. I have also had to go from 3.42's to 4.10's because a cam made urban cruising a bucking nightmare. I've owned/own cars that were/are a nightmare in wet/snow conditions because they overpowered conditions too quickly, driving them is a lot of work. My latest 600 hp nightmare just went from 3.73's to 3.23's and might go to 3.08's but taller gears shock the tires harder and make it tougher to pedal the car. Mikey
Very insightful info sir. Appreciate time. I'll secure the rear end housing then built up gears when I proceeded is safe plan. Thanks.
