I just bought a rebuilt turbo 350 transmission for a great price and now have found a Buick 350 2bbl engine out of a 73 skylark. I currently have a '66 Skylark with a 300 4bbl engine with a power glide. My '66 sat for a very long time and the engine leaks from every where. I have had a very difficult time locating any parts and feel its better just to upgrade to a bigger engine, as I would prefer better performance. I am just curious are parts for the Buick 350 engine hard to come by? I'd want to put a 4bbl intake on it and a set headers. With that combo of upgrades what type of horse power would I be looking at?
I'll keep my response simple since many here can describe in detail all the different things you can do with a 350 Buick. There has been a big improvement in aftermarket support for the 350 over the last decade. Most parts are readily available and we should have aluminum heads within the next 6 months or so. I know my stock longblock 72 350 ran pretty well. A qjet, stock 4bbl intake, headers, points ignition and 3.73 gears got me to low 14s, high 13s. Plenty of fun for a street cruiser with lots of room for improvement. Start off by getting the motor in your car, make sure it is healthy and go from there.
Thanks for that. Good to know parts are coming more available. I like my 300 runs really well) but it's not giving me the power I want and really needs all the gaskets changed.
The 350 can make decent power. Even with stock intake and exhaust manifolds as we have seen on here. There are not alot of choices for some parts. Depending on what you are looking for. With headers and an aluminum intake, properly tuned carb and distributer, you could possibly see 180-190 hp from a stock 73 engine. The 350 likes air flow and compression upgrades. Higher compression and big valves with bowl port blending for those valves will net decent gains. Get a a higher stall torque converter for the 350 trans. A 3 series rear gear, all will improve performance, no change to amount of hp but Puts it to better use. You may want to consider your goals/money you want to spend before putting enine in, and decide if you may want to dive into it for upgrades . The 350 trans with the lower 2.52 first gear may even make the stock engine seem better thru torque multiplication.
If you like the 300, change the gearing in it and you'll be surprised on the performance gains. That st300 is the thing that is really slowing you down! 1st gear makes for a better 2nd gear than for a 1st gear to get that car moving! A st300 has around a 1.76:1 1st gear vs a TH350 that has a 2.52:1 1st gear vs 200R4 that has a 2.74:1 1st gear vs a 700R4 that has a 3.06:1 1st gear. Match a 200R4 with a 3.42:1 or numerically higher rear gear and match the 700R4 to a 3.08:1 rear gear or numerically higher so you can go into O/D by 45 mph. A 200R4 is a direct bolt in that can use the driveshaft as is but will need the matching rear gear change. The 700R4 will need an adapter that's around $50 and will require the driveshaft to be slightly shortened but if you have a 3.08:1 rear gear or numerically higher you won't need to change the gears. And the TH350 will bolt right in, use the same driveshaft and it doesn't have O/D so with a 1:1 3rd gear you can match any gear you want to with it.(mileage may vary) By looking at the above numbers you can see just by glancing at them why your car feels like a slug! You probably have a 3.08:1 rear gear at best? So take that number and multiply it to your 1st gear and the answer gives you your 1st gear multiplication ratio and compare to the o/d transmissions with their matching rear gears; st300; 1.76 X 3.08 = 5.4208:1 TH350 2.52 X 3.08 = 7.7616:1 200R4; 2.74 X 3.42 = 9.3708 700R4' 3.06 X 3.08 = 9.4348:1 Search for a 200R4 or even a 700R4 to swap in with a rear gear change to match and it will feel like a whole different car! New gaskets are relatively inexpensive and easy to replace, maybe while you're doing that you can do a cam swap? Way easier removing engine to replace gaskets and cam on engine stand than in car, plus you can clean and detail it while its there as well as the engine compartment. If after the gearing is installed and you think you want even more power/performance, the sbb 300 can be upgraded for the task. You can get 350 cubes with it using a crank out of a sbb 350 with a .050" overbore or 362 cubes using a set of nascar take out rods off of eBay and having the 350 crank stroked an extra .140" to fit the eBay rods. Top it off with a set of TA performance aluminum Rover heads for even more.
Thanks for that. Yes the money factor is one I need to consider. The 300 I have is very raw and by raw it's never been touched. The car sat in the barn for 25 years. Saying that it does need all new gaskets, I can't get one of the plugs out. A side from that it runs well. I could get that '73 Skylark engine running with accessories for probably $500-700.
