Stage 2 cars

So I have heard there is only 2 factory stage 2 cars but I believe there is the Reynolds, J and B, and Wiley Coyote. Is one of them a dealer equipped stage 2 and the other 2 are factory race cars. Are there any other famous Buick A body race cars.

 

If I'm not mistaken "Greatscat" is factory stg 2

 

Wiley Coyote isn't a Factory assembled Stage 2, Though it does have GM produced iron Stage 2 heads or at least used to.

 

As fast as s 1970 cars go ... The Reynolds car , JB car And Coyote all left the assembly lines As Factory Stage 1 cars and were converted to Stage 2 later . There was only ONE Factory built Stage 2 car . A White GSX clone which was destroyed after testing . Hope that Helps

 

Sounds lgreat . Another one for my list.

 

I read that 150-200 sets of heads were made is there a registry of them, it seems like it would be good to know how many still exists.

 

I also read that 1235714 was the casting number for the heads.

 

The fact is no stats were kept on How many Stage 2 heads were made . Common knowledge is 75-100 sets made
. Many heads were not useable due to the type of low production casting that was used . We many never know the number actually sold .

 

I think members on the board that own Stage 2 iron heads is less then 20 !
Bill

 

Twenty years ago I talked to an old guy and he said that he worked at the factory that machined the Stage II heads. He said that there was six pallets with 50 heads on each totaling 300.
After going through quality control and machining they had 102 good pairs. He also said that he remembers it very well because it was his job to count them.
Of the ones that went to salvage, who knows how many got saved and fixed.

 

So 300 heads means 150 sets? I heard the same thing regarding casting issues and somewhere between 75 and 100 sets were usable. I had 3 sets, one set with the vertical bosses. Still have one set that was on Great Scat. Have the TA stage2's on her now.

 

Don't forget Tony Branson's car that had the 455 4-bolt main motor with the Stage 2 Tunnel Port Heads. Those heads were also the 1970 style heads with the vertical bosses/freeze plugs. The Stage 2 heads that were offered to the public for sale were a later design and were not available until 1972. There were very few of the original style 1970 Stage 2 heads made.
Duane

 

Geez Duane that name _Very Few_ keeps popping up....

 

Duane, did you ever put the tunnel port heads on the flow bench just for curiosity ?

 

We stuck them on the 4-bolt main motor for display. I believe Denny Manner may have flowed them, but have no info on that. He said there were 2 sets made but said the other set was destroyed in testing. (There is a pic of our heads in I think the May 1970 issue of Hot Rod. Maybe someone could post it.)

Denny brought a couple of valves that he had when we first displayed all the parts together. I remember they weighed nothing. I think some were titanium and the others were hollow.

I also believe this motor was the first time a high volume oil pump was created/used. From what I heard they took 2 gears and welded them together, then made a real deep spacer. I know Tony was sharing info back and forth with Kenny/Bell, and think this was the start of their high volume pumps. I have a ton of notes about all this but have not looked at them in years.

The heads sure do look crazy with the push rods running in tubes in the middle of the intake holes.
Duane

 

Here are 2 pics. Denny has his hands on our heads. The set in the middle is a standard set of the 70 Stage 1 heads.

Also, just to add a little history, according to Denny, our heads/motor was the last of the development for the performance aspect of the Stage 2 program. After this Denny, and the other engineers, had to switch gears with developing engines to run on unleaded gas with lower compressions for the 71 model year.
Enjoy.
Duane

 

Here are a couple of pics of the heads and block.

You can see the "X" cast into the back of the block. From what I was told the experimental blocks had this.
Duane

 

Thanks for showing the pictures. I've seen pictures of the heads before but not this good and close up.

 

No problem here are a few more.
The first two pics show the differences between an Early 1970 Regular Stage 2 head and the Stage 2 Tunnel Port Head. If you look at the two you will see they are 2 totally different castings, with different bolt hole configurations and different water jackets.

Last is a close-up of the intake side of the Tunnel Port head. You can't tell from the pics but the tubes the push rods run thru are actually oval in outline. They did that for clearance when the push rods change their angle while the engine is running.
Duane

 

Look at the size of that intake port!!
That's almost unbelievable...it looks absolutely H U G E ! ! !

This is the first time I've ever seen it.
Did they make an intake to match it? Does it still exist??
Any pictures of it, at least?

I wonder what kind of flow numbers and HP they were seeing?

Thanks for posting these Duane! It's so cool to look back at the wild stuff that was on the minds of the Buick engineers like Denny Manner. It also makes me wonder what could've been, if only the circumstances hadn't dictated a wholesale shift because of unleaded fuels, rising insurance, EPA regs, embargoes and gas crisis, and changing crash safety equipment requirements. I wonder what could've been.....