does anyone know why aftermarket vendors don't make many buick 350 parts like intakes and distributors. I was on back order for over a month for a new hei distributor and when i finally got an answer on what was taking so long they said they were dicontinued. I know you can buy a used hei and convert aftermarket parts but that costs the same as a brand new distributor sometimes.
Who did you contact for the distributor??? They told you it was discontinued?? As far as I know, the difference between a Buick 455 HEI and a Buick 350 HEI is the number of gear teeth on the cam gear- and that gear comes off, it's held on by a roll pin. Look in the parts wanted, and parts for sale section here, ask members here, get a copy of Hemming's Motor News, do a web search (buickfarm.com, off the top of my head, although there's others, too)- there is no reason you can't get parts. I am assuming you've seen TA Performance's Stage 1 350 aintake? You just need to look in the right places. I'd love to know who discontinued that distributor, out of curiousity The reason it seems that no one carries Buick parts is plainly that it's an unpopular series of engines. Buick as a company never pursued racing all that seriously compared to other muscle car makers, so it's name wasn't assosiated with performance like Ford and Chevy- and now some folks don't even remeber that Buick made their own V8 engines until '76. Without the name recognition other car companies had for high performance, nobody bothered making parts for them like they did for Ford and Chevy, because it seemed nobody wanted to hot rod a Buick engine. Guys like Tommy Ivo seemed to do alright, though
accel was the company that discontinued the distributor. I bought the stage 1 intake from TA. Heres another dandy I bought an hei distributor off the net for a buick 350. Ive been waithing for one for over a month and a half. it finally came today and guess what. It's a points and condensor distributor.
Hmmm. I'm pretty darn certain that the only difference in the two distributors is the gear. Let me go search that topic... Here's a bit from one of the threads I got info on. You may wish to contact davessmallbodyheis.com. Here's the part of the thread: Russ, Yes you can swap the drive gear from a 455 dist and use it on the 350 dist in your 455. That is what I am running now. There are concerns with the HEI cap however. I don't recall if you are running a GS style air cleaner but the large cap hei won't fit under the cups of the air scopes. Also the heat from the coil on the cap type layout causes problems that could be eliminated by relocating the coil else where. And yes the advance cruve requirement are different from a 350 to a 455. I am in the process of having a distrutor built (OEM style HEI components in a pionts distributor. www.davessmallbodyheis.com is building a distributor for me. Check out Dave's web site. Pretty reasonable, does quality work and he will set it up exactly the way you want it. He will send you some pictures for you to see and other from here have used his stuff. I haven't seen any complants. Jake Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged 03-04-2003 12:32 PM Jake G'S 350 Member Registered: Oct 2002 Location: New Jersey Posts: 85 Almost forgot If you go the 350 distributor route you need to drill out the shaft of the distributor to accept the larger roll pin that accompanies the 350 drive gear. Not a big deal however. Good luck Jake note from Chris: This last part confused me a lot. This is about a 350 distributor going into a 455, not the other way around, and yet it's said that the 350 roll pin is bigger, "so drill it out". That seems to be incorrect to me- the 455 should be bigger, is what he means, I think, other wise: how could drilling it make it smaller?? Find out exactly what the roll pin difference is. I have an extra big block Buick HEI laying around, but it's at my shop, an hour away. If I get the chance, I'll go up and spec out the roll pin hole.
