I have a new 350 motor I am going to be doing in the next couple of months. I talked to a few older guys and the tell me to use the later rods and I told them I new that and one of them told me that the trick was to find a buick 340( like I would use the other 340)crank and stick it in my 350 as it was a forged crank. And some forged pistons and main studs and a I would have one strong bottom end. Have you guys heard of the 340 crank being forged?? I think the 300 motors were and they said ARMASTEEL on them if I can recall. If this is true then is it for all 340s or just one of the years and only certain cars??? IF there is someone out there that can tell me please I dont want to look for a crank if I dont have to. Thanks Doug
I have both a 67 340 crank and a 72 350 crank in my garage. They are BOTH cast iron. The only difference I can see between them is the shape of the counterweights. "Armasteel" is just a trade name for the GM cast iron. If there is a forged steel 340 crank... I ain't seen one yet. Greg
All Buicks from what I've learned, use cast nodular iron cranks. The earlier motors had an "N" cast into one of the counterweights, because thats what Buick specified for their cranks. Later on, Buick changed foundries that casted the cranks, and all this foundry casted was nodular iron for cranks, so the later model cranks do not have the "N" cast into them. The factory Buick crank is VERY strong:beer Mark
I know the cranks for 300 were armasteel which is pearlitic malleable iron, a kind of cast iron. Good, but not forged steel
