Suggestions on a Pro-touring 350 Buick build?

Off track here, buy I've been watching a lot of diesel engine vids, not tiny diesels like you find in pick up trucks, but OTR, marine, locomotive, and huge stationary diesels.
The common design feature I see is the deep skirt block, like the 350 and V6 Buick, plus the smaller bore verses the stroke.
Ima wondering why Buick designed a deep skirt block for their small blocks?
Did they have future intentions for more power?
Im not bashing the big blocks, but it almost seems as it was a knee jerk reaction by Buick to keep boring the 400 to 455 to keep up with the Joneses so to speak, and they ended up with a glass house.
Ahhhh Im thinking too much again

 

Good Question Mark. I'll ask Denny Manner @ Nationals if I get a chance to talk to him. 350's (& V6's) are nearly indestructible in comparison.

 

then lets destroy one no guts no glory

 

That would be AWESOME!
Was he head of big block design only or all V8 Buick’s?
It would be interesting to hear what he has to say about the 350’s and V6

 

You haven't been able to.

 

still working on it

 

I think Ethan is building a 430 with a turbo for that reason, looking for thicker cylinder walls.

 

I spoke to Dennis on the phone once and he stated that it was just the progression that ended up at the 350 and it wasn’t designed for performance in most aspects. He did find it very interesting that we were using it for performance though. I’m still interested to hear anything else he has to say about the design.

 

LOL, I find it interesting he finds it interesting

 

Yes I mean he almost made me cry when he just said “no, it wasn’t really about strength or performance”. I was like what the heck!!! I wanted him to say “we designed it to handle boost from turbos like the v6”.

 

Seemingly they had a really good foundation on hand for building some serious SBB performance but other than maybe the 350's 215 lineage, they really seemed to not have much interest. Of course it was Buick so performance machines wasn't exactly @ the top of management's list of priorities - Denny & others did much of the Stage 2 development on their own time. The Stage 1 and GN's dominating performances of their respective times were probably more of an accident/coincidence than intentional.

 

I do have some plans to go pretty crazy with RPM and boost levels using a test engine however first I want to prove some reliability with my good engine.

 

Buicks Turbo V6 program, actually their whole V6 program was intentional

 

Did he elaborate what it was about then?
Was the 350 designed as a light weight casting, and the skirted block was kept to keep the block "in shape"?
My reason for such curiosity is all the attention for performance is on the 455, and rightfully so, big bore, short stroke, 455 cubes, but the block is weak for performance.
Heres the 350, smaller bore than stroke, but deep skirt block, mains are a reasonable 3"
Then theres the 231 V6, same bore as the 350 (3.8) but a shorter stroke (3.4) so that makes the 231 V6 over square like the 455, but still shares the same bore as the 350 that every body says is too small for performance, but yet the Turbo V6 is a force to be reckoned with, and with the 3.4" stroke guys still dont wind 'em that high, maybe 6 grand, yah dont really have too with the turbo.
I'll leave the turbo stuff for the V6 engine, Im anxious to see what the TA heads do for my 350.

 

No he didn’t really elaborate at all. He said it’s a good design but also that they hadn’t really had any high HP aspirations for it.

 

True in the sense that they had the NASCAR & IndyCar racing programs & even NHRA until turbos (Buddy Ingersoll) got banned, but did they really intend to build a production car that at the time would be the fastest in GM's entire lineup including the same year Corvettes and become legendary in automotive performance history? Idk about that.

 

Good question!
It DOES seem out of character for Buick to "poke the bear" so to speak, and end up with a V6 powerplant that out does the Chevy V8 in the Corvette, then put this beast of a turbo V6 in a 2 door Regal, the name Regal is cool, but sounds about as badass as calling it a Buick Princess
I remember the "Free Spirit Hawk" from Buicks commercials and literature from the 80's and thinking "How Cool!"
Buick is nothing more than a name anymore thats slapped on various Generic Motors Cars.
I must be at the age Im experiencing nostalgia

 

Shoulda told him he ruined it for everybody LOLOL

 

I am about to look in to starting the build. One thing, Should I start at the back of the car? Drive line then transmission, then the motor? Building them for the expected power.

Tim

 

Nonsense.