Ok,
I know it sounds crazy, but this came up in conversation the other day, talking to a guy who advertised a 67 for sale.
He gave me the VIN, and it reflects as a 1966, then said the motor was a 425, with the title stating it was a 1967.
Title error is my bet.

BUT--------------------

The guy swears he has a friend, who ordered a 67 new, early in the year, and had a choice to order it with a 425 or 430, and that he ordered the 430 and reqreted it.

WELL..............I never heard of such a thing, and anyone who would want a 425 in lieu of the 430 is suspect in my mind...

Anyone hear of such a thing? The guy says they called these 425 67's, 66 1/2.

Never heard of this even being a possibility. If the VIN is 66 then it is a 66. If its titled as a 67 the title is in error just as you suspect. I bet if you looked at the car you would see the numerous other telltale signs of it being 66.

As far as ordering a 67 with a 425 that would have been a huge change because there are so many differences under the hood between the two. Not exactly something the assembly line could deal with.

Nice story though.

Jason is right there are many differences, starter motors are on different sides, distributors are on different ends, different bell housings / transmission cases, etc. To accommodate the different engine, there are also differences in the center link and who (Darwin) knows what else.

You need to ask this "friend" what his sox were soaking in before he started smoking them.

Ed

What I find funniest is that there are folks who have sworn to me that they had a 'late' 66 with the new 430 engine and then there's the folks who insist they bought one of those early '67s with leftover 425s. Folks, it didn't happen. In each case that's been investigated, it's been just hot air from a seller. (Well, maybe more than hot air... stay tuned to a future Riview for a good story on this very topic).

Now there are definitely areas where parts carried over...
a) Late '66s have '67 style trunk lining material
b) Early '67s, up through September '66, have a '66 horn bar on them.

But there's a world of difference between a horn bar and an engine carryover.

Darwin Falk
1966-70 ROA Technical Advisor

Thanks All,

I passed on the car, and having owned a 66 in the past, this just looked like a normal 66 to me. I never learned the differences between 66 and 67 like I did the ones between 63,4,5.
That's why I hoped Darwin would chime in.
the article will be an even better read for me now.

Classic. Thanks for the laugh Ed.

My Dad's 67 Riv was delivered the 2nd week of September 1966, with a 430 in it. They said" There is no break in period on this new engine - drive it anyway you want to." After 3,000 miles from NYC to DC to Moline, IL the engine produced terrific knocks. Local Buick dealer said "It is just break in noise." Local Chevy service manager took top end off, called Buick engine dept. and got this response.

"This is the best news we have heard in three weeks. We have been waiting for an engine to break down - don't do anything more - we will be there tomorrow with a new engine. The next day three Buick test engineers showed up, swapped the engine, and gave normal break in directions. Their comments were - "Now maybe we can get marketing to stop that fool no-break-in campaign. They had rushed the 430 to production, and were using the customers to test the engine!" The Riv now has 198,032 miles! Les Lee ROA 6726