Buick 215

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clementine

clementine

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Hellllooooooo FABO!

The title almost read "Are there any other Buick 215 nutjobs out there?"... but I would run the risk of outing myself

So, my friend has a 1963 all aluminum buick 215 motor that came in Pontiac, Buicks and maybe a bunch of stuff.

GM bagged on it in the mid 60s and Rover bought the rights. The buick version is not to be confused with the Olds version that is a 300?

Anywho, my friend has a few 4 bbl intakes and both the Olds and Buick heads.

Somehow the Olds heads are free HP upgrade and bolt on but one of the headbolts is not used.....

Can anyone confirm or deny any of these allegations and let me know if i ....i mean, my friend should just use the stock Buick 215 heads and call it good.

Thanks in advance,
Clem

Oh, if you know the answers, then you probably know what crank to use as well. Please include that tidbit as well. Is the Olds crank used to stroke it?

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I had a 71 opel manta that was gonna get it, but it had to go to make room.

Plan is to just get it back together.

Just tryin to figure out if its worth it to put the Olds heads on it and stroke it.

I still do not understand how they use the Olds heads without all the bolts lining up. I guess no turbo.
 
The one Bill had was new inside and assembled. All we had to do was get gas to it after we built the truck around it.
 
Both Buick and Olds had a 215ci engine ending in 63. The 64 Olds 300 is a cast iron block with Alum heads which will bolt on to replace the 215 heads. The 300 heads have larger ports and flow more and have larger valves. The block shown is a Rover block. They changed the block to add another bolt to each cylinder. If I remember correctly you can build a 4.6L engine using the 300 crank and some new sleeves to allow a bigger bore. Be sure and check some of the later Rover engines but study changes in each version.
 
Blucuda413 said:
he block shown is a Rover block.
Click to expand...
How can you tell this is a rover block?

This block does not have all holes that line up with the 300 heads (or at least i think they are 300 heads).

Or.... these heads do not have all the holes that line up with block.

I'll get a couple pics to show difference.

AND.....are all 300 cranks created equal?

I really should find the correct forum, but i figured one or two of you could give me enough info to make me dangerous.

Thanks!!
 
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I thought the Buick 300 crank was the stroker for the 215.
A friend had a Buick 215 in a Vega, in the mid seventies. Ran low 14s. Then one day.....mid 11s. (383 chevy swap.)
(Opel you say? Mine...)

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The block shown has an extra head bolt hole on the outside of each cylinder. The GM 215 blocks did not have that head bolt hole. The crank for the 300 is excellent to stroke the 215 but some machining is required. There's some excellent articles out there one I recall is by D&D something. One of the old articles used 300 heads, 300 machined crank, 265 Chev pistons and Chev small journal 5.7 rods. Sleeves were required to get the cylinders large enough for the pistons.
 
My bad I've got some wrong info above. The 300 engine is a 64 Buick engine that is cast iron block and aluminum head engine. Same basic design as the 215 Buick. The Olds version of the 215 had 6 bolt holes per cylinder, the Buick version only had 5. The 300 Buick went to 4 bolts per cylinder. I have read some articles that said the English 215 had 4 bolts but I have a block which I pulled out of a nearly new Rover which has the 5 bolt configuration. Maybe I have it straight now.
 
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