Re: Nice 6 Cyl. GSX for sale I looked at it for Mariann, but now she suddenly got the idea that she would race The Angry Ghost if I maybe buy another race car.
Steve, You certainly could interpret GSX as free with the bucket seats but since there's no option code for the vinyl bucket seats I read the seats on this window sticker as part of the GSX package. It doesn't really matter, I suppose because either way the customer paid $71.00 and got the items described in Y1 and below. It should say on there: I6 Slug Six, anemic 30 year old, generic engine that ruins brand loyalty. Symptom of GM's ills No Charge
That would be a fun ride with a Buick 350 built for 350+ horses. I don't think it weighs more than about 3000 lbs. If so, it would stay with a Stage 1 with 450 HP. :TU:
Re: Nice 6 Cyl. GSX for sale I hope GM got a good deal on that tooling since AMC put the 232 straight 6 in the Jeep and didn't need the V6 anymore.
That would be fun with a mild cam, headers, roller rockers, 500 cfm Holley and a T5.. I had a 68 Camaro with a six and a 4 speed that I never should have got rid of.
Well, I don't know about that; - those 6 bangers had pretty fragile rods, hop them up a bit and they flew apart. They did share the same piston as the 283, but other than that, they weren't very good. They were only reliable if you ran then slow and easy and did oil changes every 1500 miles. Perfect Grampa cars. It's not a Nova...yeah, and a LeCrosse isn't an Impala. I love the name; - Nova...in Spanish,"No Va"... meaning "no go". Pretty much sums those things up. Cheap, flimsy and nasty. As for the Apollo, or Apology, or whatever, just as flimsy, but better looking, load a Buick in them and watch them dog-track. They twisted faster than a groupie at an old Stones concert. Watch one poor unfortunate blow the back window out of his 72 Nova; - he had a 396 BBC in it, the car was well used and had a bit of rust showing, he started doing a brake stand, and it was only when we saw the C-pillar start to wrinkle that we yelled at him to get off the gas; - too late. Give me an A-body or a fullsize Buick any day over one of those things.
Hate on the 250 Cu. In. all you want. My wife's Nova went 201,000 miles on the original drive train (I sold it after that), most miles on the highway. The only reason for selling was because she wasn't strong enough to put a baby in the back seat, so we got a 4-door car.
In my experience, your example would have been the exception and not the rule. You obviously took good care of the car to get that kind of mileage out of it. I have known of a few high-milers, but they were all fastidiously maintained and driven very "legally"; - never over 60 mph, and never over 3000 rpm. Most of the ones that I used to fix (along with my own) usually died horrible deaths at the hands of some ham-fisted teenager who endlessly tried to "get rubber" out of it or race it. One guy I know hopped one up, built up the cam, put on a multi-carb set up and a header on it, and boosted the compression to about 11 to 1; - it pulled like an ox and thought it was a V-8 until he snapped the crank. The faster and marginally better 250 was the one Pontiac used in 1967-69; - it was an overhead cam unit that had a short stroke and it responded better to speed equipment and was a pretty snappy and light-weight engine. It's Achilles Heel was the timing belt; - that technology was in its infancy and a lot of owners had no clue that they had to be changed regularly. If that engine would have had a chain, it would have been a real contender and probably would have lasted a lot longer. It was a lot better of a design than that old Chevy boat anchor which was first designed back in 1929 and hadn't really changed much. Oh yeah; they shortened the stroke, bored it, and tried to give it a more modern or a lighter weight block. But it was the same old design, a warmed over Stovebolt. There were millions of those things up here in Canada, every Chevy or GMC pick-up had one, as did just about every 4 door Chevy or Pontiac (Canadian Pontiac, not US), so we got lots of experience tuning and playing with them. I can still tune one up with my eyes closed, and if I ever see another one again it'll be too soon.
Oh...you must be talking about the unpressurized stove bolts. My dad always had six cylinder three on the tree Chevys and he ran the piss out of them with no problems. I also had a dirt late model with Chevy six with the above mentioned upgrades. That thing screamed and never came apart.
I've also have seen these engines go a long way with a lot of abuse. Saw many chevy vans beat on and go on and on. Saw a van that the driver NEVER change the oil and he brought it into the shop at 82,000 mile because it was "tapping" . Pulled the valve cover and it was completely caked up even showing the ridges from the valve cover itself. We asked him if he ever changed the oil and he told us Thats Bull#@*^ . you never have to do that .
Re: Nice 6 Cyl. GSX for sale I talked to the previous owner at the Street Machine Nationals in St. Paul this summer. It's a well taken care of, original condition car. Barn find must mean garage kept.
It really is a pretty nice little car. That's why I said its no barn find. I knew about it because a good friend came within about 30 seconds of buying it. They spoke several times and agreed to meet, it just wasn't in the cards that day.
I know of one for sale that has exactly that! Its awesome, if I had the spare funds, it wouldn't still be for sale.
