Buick never made an intake for those heads but Tony Branson did when he raced it. Below is a pic of the top end parts we picked up later from the motor. These are the actual parts that were used when the motor was raced. The bottom of the intake was hand fabricated with the center section of a dual quad Offenhouser Turbo-Thrust 360 degree Power Port intake affixed to the top plate. Once the intake was done, he topped it off with a pair of Holley 4500 double pumper carburetors. To finish out the motor he installed a Mallory dual point distributor, and did other modifications as well, including building a high volume oil pump, which was probably the first one made for a Buick. The headers are the original Kustom Stage 2 headers he ran on the car, and the top flanges were cut to go around the vertical bosses "freeze plugs" on the early 70 heads. They stick up past the outlet ports on the heads. I had a nice talk with Tony years ago and he went over the different things he did to the motor while he was racing it. It is very interesting stuff and I wrote everything down. Just to give a hint, but not to jinx anything, we are currently working with Denny Manner and may have some interesting things to report in the future with all of this. Duane
Thqnx Duane, kinda looks like the regular block up on top but in Fritze's article it says it was re enforced? That is one pretty block, why oh why didn't they make it a production Stage1 type of thing??
The blocks were definitely reinforced. They shaved off material from the sand cast "plugs" so each web was as thick as they could make them for the main caps, and then cast special center 4-bolt main caps. Not sure about the lifter galley area. I know Denny said he cast at least 3 and possibly 6 of these blocks. Maybe there were variations. Duane
I love history, dad told me they had these parts back in day when he was young and racing buicks, first I've ever seen pics of these
I'm sorry I meant just the lifter gallery looked the same. The front and back of the block look scalloped but the thick 3 mains are were the real stress points are if i'm correct? Edit: Just re read your post., wow that is some good stuff!!!!
Seems like not enough meat for those extra bolts....and that lifter galley...looks deburred but still in the breeze
I know Tony said he fabricated and ran a block girdle as well, but obviously the set-up was strong enough to hold up to the HP they were generating at the time. Today's motors, with the HP they are generating would I'm sure be a different issue. "Duane thanks for sharing these, but man what a mean tease, there may be something to report???? Lol" I can't say any more about that at this time. I may have a pic of the car before Tony ran the 4-bolt motor. It was a Blue 69 GS and I think Dave Tumas sent me the pic. When our motor went in Tony put a huge fiberglass scoop on the hood, for the tunnel port intake, and he told me exactly how he built it. At that time the car was painted Red with Gold Lettering. We have zero pictures of the car when the 4-bolt was in it. Maybe someone here could help find some. Duane
Update, Dave Tumas also has a pic of the car when it was running our Engine and was Red with Gold Lettering. He is going to send copies to me and I will post them later. Duane
Besides the lifter area, you really think that couldn't handle a 1000 hp build? The small block block is suppose to handle 1000 hp?? How thick are the mains on a BBC?
I have read the complete post again. Very impressive. Great posting. Thanks for all the details and the pics.
OK, here are the pics of the car. The blue car was how it looked before the 4-bolt motor was installed, and the red one was with the Tunnel Port motor. This is the first time I have seen what the car looked like with our motor in it. Thanks Dave. Enjoy. Duane
That tunnel ram right there is what's missing about hot rodding in general anymore. If they don't make it, make it yourself and see what happens. Super cool, thanks for sharing.
Yes. Tony was giving the Hemi's Hell with the Buick. Chrysler offered to sponsor him and stop running the Buick.
