Thread: Streetable HP?

Tweet

Originally Posted by mopar34

Dave wrote:



Yeah and probably similar to the one I went to, a one room school on a back country road. Not a lot of fancy gadgets, but buckets of common sense.

Ya you do have that Olds .

Financially I am relatively stuck with my SBC 350 but I wonder why I did not take a longer look at the Buick 350 which has the longest stroke of the GM V8 families. I recall a Hot Rod article about "The other 350". With a stroke of greater than 3.84 inches but smaller pistons than the SBC 350 (3.8" diameter) the Buick 350 has more than 300 ft. lb. or torque at low rpm but the stock engine peaks out around 270 HP. This shows the shift of the torque peak to lower rpm values so I wonder why the plentiful Buick 350 did not become more popular. It is almost 100 pounds lighter than the SBC, but maybe 1" wider than the Chevy. The added width might be a problem for some cars but it is not much more than the SBC. I became interested in this mainly because of the lighter weight of about 450 pounds and the longer stroke interested me too. Maybe some of you know whether a 700 R4 trans bolt pattern will be a problelm for a Buick 350? On the other hand the SBC with even a modest cam improvement can easily approach the same torque values so maybe the more plentiful SBC and all the aftermarket parts still make it the engine of choice. Still it looks like the Buick 350 is a great street engine!

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder