just wanted to let everyone know that there is a little bit of info on our 350 buick in the HOT ROD magizines engine build up special .
I just picked up the Hot Rod Special - ENGINES - Winter 2002. I wanted to have all build ups of the 350's and the BB's all in one issue.
Dan, I'll try to get it sent to you if someone doesn't beat me to it. Haven't done it before, but I'll give it a try! That Hot Rod ENGINES special is still on the newstands in the mean time. Check it out!:grin:
Cool.. i'm the newsletter editor among other things for my club... I've decided that our next newsletter is going to be heavy into the 350 Buick... That hot rod article may have some things that I could put in the newsletter. I'd go buy it, but I only buy Car Craft... Dan
Dan, The original article on 'the Other 350's', was in Car Craft - the Feb. 2000 issue (P.42). Do you have that issue?
I took a look at the article about the 350 and was interested in some of the info that they had but I found at least one bit of old information. They said that there is no available new rod bolts for the first gen. (pre 73) rods. I just ordered a set from TA Performance. I will be picking them up from UPS today. Dave at TA says these new bolts will greatly reduce the possibilty of throwing a rod. I hope he's right. Well that's my 2 cents.
Jason - Welcome to the Board!:TU: It IS good to see that the older 350 rods have some strong bolts available now!!:bglasses: The only thing I didn't like about the article, was that it looks as though Poston is still pushing 'high volume' oil pumps - hate to wonder how many more folks will ruin parts from misinformation like that.ou:
there are 2 sizes of bolts (per a conversation with TA) for the early non-capscrew style (can't remember the sizes), one is available and one is not
I read that article and have the issue, no scanner though. Anyway, it isn't anything most people don't already know, no urekas or anything. Fairly mild build up from what I remember. The above comment regarding the high volume oil pump did spike my interest though, please elaborate as I have this on my 350 and ran it for 25K without issues. I beat the hell out of that thing too. I always had a rock steady 60 psi of oil and from my experience having oil pressure is a good thing. What's the deal? Thanks for any info.
I'm glad to hear you're NOT having trouble with the HV oil pump! Seems like you're the 'exception' rather than the rule though. The HV pumps are very rough on dist. gears and cam bearings from loading them so much! They 'usually' eat both of those parts up rather quickly!:eek2: I think the 455 is more sensitive to it than the 350 though. I think the general rule of thumb, is to keep your oil clearances 'tight' (.0015-.002"), use a booster plate and adjustable pressure regulator. Not to mention all of the block and cam bearing mods for the oiling system.
The high volume pump for the 350 uses the same size gears as the stock pump for a 455, so it does not have the tendency to tear things up as the 455 high volume pump can. Now I myself normally use stock pumps with the thrust plates on almost everything I do. The high volume pump on the 350 won't cause a problem, is it needed ? Not necessarily. The biggest thing that usually causes problems is when you use the high volume pump with the red spring(455) I have not had problems with the high volume pump on the 455 with a proper spring to reduce excessive cold oil pressure. Jim Burek
I did have to initially cut back on the spring pressure, cold oil psi pegged my 100psi gauge, after the swap didn't seem to bother anything, but then again I haven't looked under the front cover yet. I'll post to everyone after inspection. I put in the HV kit with the new thrust plate and kept my tolerances for everything in spec. We'll see.....o No:
Just thought I would mention that yesterday while I was at the machine shop working on my 350 I found a very interesting thing. One of the bolts, on only one of the rods, was .005 bigger then the other, needless to say I had to buy one new rod to replace the one with two different bolts. :af: I still can't believe that Buick used two different rod bolts on the same rod, but that is exactly what happened. If you plan to re-do any rods look out for this problem.
Can someone email the Buick 350 article to Dan? I haven't gotten things sorted out with my scanner yet, as far as emailing. Hate to keep you waiting Dan!
If someone scan the Buick 350 article, he may think e-mailing to overseas people too:ball: There's no way here to buy HotRod jcgtreize
The larger valves in the engine build article caught my attention. Has anyone put the larger valves into their heads? I have a very healthy 1970 GS350 engine with a K.Bell cam package, TA intake, TA headers, mildly ported heads. Does anyone have an approximate idea of what performance this might add to the 350 engine?
HOT ROD magazine engine build up Can someone please email the Buick 350 article to me ? We don't have that Magazine here in Norway.
