The Buick 350 does not require a torque plate for boring as all of the head bolts are blind, meaning they do not hit the water jackets, so the cylinder does not tweak when the head is bolted down. Jim had the block machined at a local shop to his specs. Jim has been building high-performance Buicks for over 20 years and is considered by many to be one of the best. We sent the block to Jim Burek at Performance Automotive Engines in El Paso, TX. Some parts were tweaked to get the most performance and we used some unique tricks.
Every part used in the build was an off-the-shelf part, no custom made unobtainium materials here.
Our goals are not that lofty, we are looking to hit 400 hp, retain a streetable demeanor, and longevity. All of this adds up to an extremely durable motor, which with a little tweaking, is capable of supporting 1,000 horsepower. The little Buick also features a deep-skirted block, higher nickel content, external oil pump and is 100 pounds lighter than the small-block Chevy. The Buick 350 has the longest stroke of all the GM 350 engines. Adding to this is the under-square bore\stroke (3.80” bore, 3.85” stroke) which yields incredible torque. This helps the Buick create low-end torque as well as excellent mid and high-rpm horsepower. The head design for the Buick 350 was ahead of its time, using tall, skinny ports to generate higher port velocities while keeping the air flow up as well. The long-lived rumors of bad oiling systems (unfortunately true, but easily rectified) and relative scarcity (built from 1968 to 1980) is harder to find than an SBC motor, don’t let that stop you, though, as these motors have quite a bit going for them.īack in March of 2006, we ported the heads for this motor. The original design of the Buick 350 differs so much from the traditional small-block Chevy that people are afraid of it. Most people out there are saying “What? A high-performance Buick 350? That’s crazy” Well, in reality, the only part that is crazy is how little aftermarket support there is for these small-block powerhouses. Since this motor was non-numbers matching, and a 350 to boot, we chose the latter. The progress of the rebuild had reached a point where it would be sitting for a while anyway, so out it came, ready for a rebuild.įor muscle cars, the rebuild process offers 2 options, go stock and keep it all original or pump up the power and add some ponies to the mix. 7 years later, the motor still ran nice, but the tell-tale blue smoke on start up and acceleration was increasing. I had no idea of the condition of the motor, but we fired it up and it ran, it was quite strong at that. We spent the next weekend dropping in the motor. As luck would have it, a good friend just happened to have a 1971 Buick 350 4-barrel that he had pulled from his Chevy truck (that is another story all together) and offered it to me for free. I was seriously concerned about my situation as this was my only car, and I was broke. I never did find the last 3 lobes of the camshaft. The only thing saving my right foot was a bellhousing bolt that didn’t shear off when the back of the cam hit the bellhousing, busting the entire ear, and bending the bolt. There were three or four 6-inch long slices in the inspection cover. The carnage was legendary- pieces of piston skirt came to rest at the bottom of the tranny inspection cover. Then just a month after buying the car, while cruising to Oklahoma City, on a date with my future wife no less, the stock Buick 350 lets loose at 70 MPH. Spending the $4,000 asking price was also a big step as that was pretty much all the money I had in the world, being a broke college student. When I purchased my 1971 Buick GS convertible almost 16 years ago, I knew I had found my dream car.