Thread: 225 buick oddfire.......anyone?

Tweet

Any have any info on the buick oddfire motors ?


I did a bunch of digging on the internet...but not a ton of info out there.

I am 95 percent sure my new project has one in it.......did new plugs and doing a carb rebuild, has rochester 2 jet 2 barrel or what is called a 2g carb on it.

Thinking of a HEI upgrade from the points, already has some headers on it.......probably as far as I will go with performance upgrades as it will not be race jeep.

Just wondering if anyoe has some experiance with these or some good reference info........still working on the firing order ad timing info....pretty neet motors with a very unique sound to them......It is starting to grow on me.

It's going to tough to come up with an odd fire h.e.i. dist.there are some out there but be careful the problem is the firing spacing I ran into this about 30 yrs ago on a friend of mines jeep. When the went to the even fire they splay ground the crank to make the firing pulses even the crank pin is ground in a step unlike the odd fire where 2 rods are on the same throw I don't know if this has helped you but it is so hard to explain in words without drawing but there are 2 rods on each crank through bt the are offset ground to even out the timing spacing sorry I give up thing to explain ...ted

Thanks,

I found a little info on the crank differences, but that explains it alot better.........I saw a picture with one installed in the block....but was not quite sure what I was looking at...makes sense now.

If it was not for the sound this motor makes I would just pull it and upgrade.........this video is NOT of my jeep, but it sounds pretty close to mine....odd sound at first from a motor...but it grows on you!

There was a shop in the LA area (maybe Ted will remember their name) who were "the" go-to guys on the even fire and odd fire engines when they were being used for racing....no idea if they're even in business yet but they built some wicked odd fires with turbo's that showed up at Indy for a few years.... It was a couple of guys from the old CAE company, my old pal Bill Weinkauf did some prototype machine work for them on the cranks and rods.... If one were to chase down some of their old parts !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks Dave!

I have been tryin to refrain from the need for power, I keep tellin myself not all cars have to have more power...........but then I see video`s like this and remember my inner need for speed!

Originally Posted by shawnlee28

Thanks Dave!

I have been tryin to refrain from the need for power, I keep tellin myself not all cars have to have more power...........but then I see video`s like this and remember my inner need for speed!

Yeah, I've heard of people having too much power, can't imagine it ever happening to me!!!!!! Friend of mine is a jeep guy, he sent me that video last week, wild jeep, think I'd put a rollbar on it!!!

Ted Dehan might remember the shop or maybe some of the people who were involved in the odd fire parts, he's from that same area....

He did have a helmet on......

I would have to imagine he has done hundreds of launches to keep it as straight as he did in those videos.......I would have like to have seen the videos of the first 50 launches......I would imagine soiled pants and big eyes were frequent untill they dialed it in.

Videos like that kind of give the wrong impression of how easy it is.....launches like that take tons of tuning, changes to everything over and over and a good wheel hand.


It would be nice to see a base line of what they started with...tune/gearing etc and how many /what changes untill they got it to launch and go straight like that.


To get something like that to launch straight on 3 wheels and stay straight and not go up in a smoke show takes more than rolling a fresh build out the door and lining up to race......

http://image.hotrod.com/f/techarticl...crankshaft.jpg

.

What a crazy odd thing...no wonder it sounds like it does...........

I have been doing a little more reading on these engines and who ever came up with this creative solution to making this buick engine from a v-8 to v-6 with that crank was a real thinker........he had the paramenters of using a existing design and molds......the constraint of cheap as possible and had to utilize what was available.

That crank combined with funny distributor and cap, plus the firing order..........

A note worthy similarity I have noticed, not sure if it was just the way it had to be back then or a planned thing,but my 93 4 cylinder ford fires in sort of the same way.....it fires 2 sets of coils with 8 plugs and fires one cylinder on compression and one on the exaust just like the odd fire does.....a little different system to do it with, but very close to the same result........of course this is done now for emissions.

I have also found that the 93 8 plug system on the 4 cylinder will also fire the v-8 with the same ignition............might just be the same as back then ....a case of saving money and using existing technology on more than one design?

Kenne Bell ,,not sure where they were from,,but I remember the name..From memory,,they were Buick specialists..I know,that a lot of those lil' odd fire Buicks came down here,as engine/trans deals for various second hand engine dealers,,and I know,that the jet boat guys were getting some of them(back in the 80's),,but as soon as they hit the floor,they were going out the door..

I'm not at all certain why it should do this, but when I looked at that picture of the odd fire crankshaft, the first thing that my brain kicked out was an image of the master rod set up in a radial aircraft engine; no similarity at all that I can figure.

Originally Posted by shawnlee28

He did have a helmet on......

I would have to imagine he has done hundreds of launches to keep it as straight as he did in those videos.......I would have like to have seen the videos of the first 50 launches......I would imagine soiled pants and big eyes were frequent untill they dialed it in.

Videos like that kind of give the wrong impression of how easy it is.....launches like that take tons of tuning, changes to everything over and over and a good wheel hand.


It would be nice to see a base line of what they started with...tune/gearing etc and how many /what changes untill they got it to launch and go straight like that.


To get something like that to launch straight on 3 wheels and stay straight and not go up in a smoke show takes more than rolling a fresh build out the door and lining up to race......

Anybody can make a long wheelbase car launch straight, takes a good chassis man to get a short wheelbase to do it!!! My friend Rick many moons ago traded into an Anglia with a big block and glide---whenever someone asked him how it launched Rick would tell them "Straight and hard----Straight up and Hard Left"!!!!!!! Had a really wacko ladder bar setup in the back with junk joints and tubing, we built a 'moly tubed ladder bar setup and 4" travel Koni coilovers in it, with a bit of tuning it eventually worked great and was a blast to drive---low 10's in the 135+ mph range!