I met an older fellow who has built many Buick, Olds and Pontiac hotrods throughout the years. Basically, he starts with a very light weight junker and throws a large engine in it. It started with Nailheads back in the 60's. He knew I liked Buicks and gave me his 2 cents worth several months back. He told me they were not as strong as Olds 455's. That I needed to put Olds in my cars! He also said that most good Pontiac 455's would out power our Buicks. He is talking from experience (probably 50 rods over the years). 90% of the engines he used were stock too. Why is he saying this? Is there any truth to it? By the way, I will never pull a Buick out of a Buick.
He's saying it because that's what worked for him. I would hazard to guess he went from nailheads to BOP 455s and concentrated on Olds and Pontiac because Buick didn't have much of a performance image and performace parts were easier to get for big cube Ponchos and Olds' engines back in the '70s.
You may be right. He did not ever use high performance products. I mean CHEAP hot rods with stock engines. But, in his defense, some of them would burn the hwy up.
I've raced olds powered cars for years before changing to Buick,and the main reason I switched is because one of my mildly modified oldsmobiles(1977cutlass, 455,w-30 cam,torker intake, 830 holley,10.5:1 comp. mildly ported E casting heads) was beat by a '68 GS 350 with a stock 430, from a Wildcat. IMHO it's easier to make power with a Buick than an Olds.
Olds has severe oil system problems. Cylinder heads have a pre-historic combustion chamber. On the plus side, the connecting rods are forged, and the 400/425 had forged cranks, a few of the 455's had forged cranks, but most are cast. Big and small blocks are nicely related, and many parts interchange. Pontiac has oil system problems, especially the large-journal units. Cylinder heads have pre-historic combustion chambers. Most connecting rods are cast-junk. Most if not all cranks are cast. There is no "big" and "small" block, all the blocks are the same size. Crank journal diameters are larger in the 421, 427, and 455. Buick has REALLY SEVERE oil system problems, on so many levels it's amazing they work at all. Cylinder heads are better than pre-historic. Big blocks have forged rods, but flimsy blocks and cast cranks. Different Big vs. Small blocks, with limited interchangability. There are aftermarket fixes for most all of this stuff. The trick is knowing enough and spending enough to fix the issues, preferably without just buying aftermarket EVERYTHING which works OK as long as you have a Nomex Visa card. The famous Car Craft 455 shootout showed the Buick out-performing the others, but that was with substantially more dollars expended. Pay your money, take your choice. ANY of those engines can be successful and fun.
I do like them all along with the 454, but all in the vehicle intended to be powered by them. Those Olds and Chevys in Buicks just kills me.
MMMMM Interestingly enough if you read the article the Pontiac motor out powered the dyno. It was lower on horsepower but torque was unmeasurable early in the rpm range.
69 cutlass s I had a 69 cutlass s with a 350 rocket and th-350 trans with a stock open 273 rear. That run 15.80's and i removed the motor and put in a 70 455 with C heads and headers with a mild cam and aluminum intake with a rochester carb and a 2200 stall converter with the same th-350 trans just added a b&m shift improver kit and put a 373 posi in the rear and the car run 12.80's. Everything swap out ok and i had less than a grand in the motor swap. Olds motors are torque monsters i did not expect the car to run that well.:beer
