Thread: buick striaght 8 mods

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hey this may be along shot, but anyone got any info on performance upgrades for this motor?

Ive seen only two hot rodded Buick straight 8's. One was in a rail setup that was built for top end in the early 50's, it had 6 stromberg 81's and 8 straight header pipes and I believe a scintilla magneto. It didnt do that good it topped out at like 140 even being full race.
The other was a 53 special that I tried to buy but couldnt swing the cash. It had custom headers and intake. The intake had a small 390 cfm four barrel on it. It did have an awesome sound to it.
I know schneider will still grind a cam for anything, so thats an option. Anyways at least your not using another 350/350 like all the rest!

hey if you know how to get ahod of that company let me know, thanks for the info, another idea i had was to do a 331 hemi? i thought that would be pretty cool. gotta do something differnt though no 350 350 combos for me!!!

Okay I got Schneider's number right here.

www.schneidercams.com

or ask for jerry cantrell 619-297-0227

A 331 hemi would be pretty darn cool in buick. I dont know why only a very few even like to run these cool old motors. Its like there arent any motors out there other than the chevy 350/350 combo. Every thing I have has an oddball motor in it. My daily driver has a flathead six in it and it never gives me any problems.

thanks for the info, whats your daily driver?

A 53 plymouth. Its overcarbed so I can light the flames with it being 6 volt and using just a coil with a cut out switch. Your basic rat rod in that its flat black, flathead six, 3spd on the column, and the rears been jacked up since I didnt want to lower it like everyone else does.

thats awsome!! yea my cars actually getting sprayed ppg satin black and white pinstriped flames, how did you make your cut out switch? did you use another 6 or 12 volt coil?

In the 40s there was a factory dual carb option for the buick straight 8,I have seen a couple on ebay.

Ive got the engine way overcarbed so I dont need to kill its coil to give it enough unburned fuel to light up for one thing. Ive got a switch thats connected to the battery to the toggle under the steering column, then it runs to the coil mounted in the trunk. Then you just drill a hole in the tailpipe and screw in a long necked spark plug and run a plug wire from it to the coil. Ive got the plug about 8 inches from the tip so the flames are only about 10 inches long. If the pipes thinner and if the plugs closer to the end youll get a bigger flame.
I could never afford one of those kits to do it so I just built mine and played with it till it worked. On the funny side ater I set the grass on fire I started testing it on the driveway instead of the backyard!

thanks for the info!!!

I kinda liked the dynaflow. My dad refered to them as slush-o-matics since they take a while to change gear.

hey ledsleddoug51,

I have a 40 buick straight 8 that I considered pulling and grafting a new front suspension and going the chevy small block route. You made me think.......It would be different and interesting to use the existing 8. My issue is that I would like to increase the HP enough for the thing to get out of it's own way and sound like a hotrod. I am very interested in what you do with yours and any information, suggestions that you may have. Thanks in advance and good luck with your project.

Regards,

Doug

i got alot of differnt info on the original post, im actually considering mechanical injection now, i talked to hilborn about it, itll cost about 3,000 dollars, but how cool would it be to open the hood and have 8 throttle bodies staring at ya! also i think i could use the adapter that they make to go to a 350 chevy trans, and thinking about trying to make one for a 700R4, but right now those are just ideas.