Thread: Want to set up 231 Buick in '30 tudor Model A Ford

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Somewhere I have a stack of magazines with articles on how to build up a Buick V6 but I guess they're in the attic somewhere. There was a great deal of information on these engines around 1979 in the previous smaller form of Street Rodder and in Hot Rod following the gas crunch of the mid-70s. In fact I think Brian Brennen was the guy who tried to popularize the V6 as the de facto standard of rodding and published a whole series of articles on a total build of a '29 Ford roadster with a Buick V6 from the Sears catalog. As gas prices eased a bit folks went back to the SBC but now maybe gas prices will cause the V6 to come back. There should be a lot of them out there including that Buick Grand National turbo model which beat Corvettes easily, but I guess you will have to look a bit. One cautionary note is that the later heads were much improved by Smokey Yunick and the early heads on the odd-fire were poor. Smokey Yunick described the intake manifold on the early odd-fire as "below horrible" so it would seem that a later engine would be better in stock form. It looks to me that there is a strength/rigidity advantage in the very short bock and high rpm should be possible. I recall an article in Hot Rod documenting over 2 horsepower/cu inch from a Buick V6, but at rpms over 8000. Another cautionary note is that I started (did not finish) a steel (rust bucket, archaeology project) '29 Ford roadster and gathered together a '39 Ford three speed and an adaptor plate for a GM V6 out of a Monza only to find that there are several size V6 engines and although the most of them are 231 cu in, there is a smaller model from the Monza. I rode in the car it came from and it was pathetically underpowered. If I were doing it again I would look for the later model 252 cu. in. engine with the later heads on the even-fire. But at higher rpm and with a low rear gear it would seem that 500 HP is obtainable from the V6, in stock form it might be another reason to look for the 252 version. One last suggestion is to go to your public library and look through the microfiche copies of Street Rodder and Hot Rod from 1977-1987 and you should find a wealth of information on the Buick V6 as a rod engine.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder