krm712

Some members speak of honda and other's quality reports,but these reports should also include the difficulty of repair under the hood as one of the main point factors in POWERS or any survey.Some of these superior[?]autos like honda are impossible to work on without a cutting torch to create a little room.I do ALL my own repairs[also put a water pump and head gasket on kid's honda;a 3800 buick is a dream to work on compared to most FOREIGN cars.Buick had very few slip-ups on getting things right[one was NO adjustment on a/c belts back in '69 big-block cars;you prized them in place,but then again,vw bugs a'c belt took 90 minutes to put on by vw dealers best mech]

Fred C. Hughes switched from dodge to buick ,if i remember correctly,in '58 and he died in rome,italy during a trip won thru buick in 1960.He had been a ford dealer previous to dodge beginning in about 1920.Fred Lee ,Harold J. and their mother continued with buick until they they got out of car business;they had extensive rental property and were legendary in their ability to keep and make money.They sold opels all the time opel was over here.Fred Lee's son Mike ended out the family's auto business.The dealership was consistanly the top roadmaster-electra-park avenue selling dealer in dallas zone[oil money].Bragging on buick's big block engine,we only sold three big block engines and only two opel engines in the eight years i was lead[usually only]counter parts man there;we had a large area-wide parts business,selling a lot of body parts for pontiac-olds chevy and cadillac,anything if we could get a part number[olds used quite a few opel numbers and we would get in some strange looking freight!Busting a radiator hose would eventually lock up a latter buick engine,but those old 322 and 364 engines could run nearly without water,getting the manifolds and heads transparent without damage;oh,the stories i can tell of the abuse that those old buicks could take and keep taking,the straight 8 also. ken malone

Tom mcCahill did that '62 comparison between a wildcat,t-bird and a chrysler 300,i am sure.I looked for that mechanics illustrated to verify this,but i believe it was with over 1200 car mags that i gave away to buick rep's son long ago.Car owners cursing me because of their cars not running right back in the early 70's caused me tofinally leave dealership work in disgust,and i kept only a fraction of my collection.TOM did many road test of buicks including one great one of 65 RIV GS that should be a classic.

Changed casting numbers remind me of all the screaming chevy did when two buick enginners designed the "DART" cylinder heads for chevy 350's.Dart started building with BUICK stamped on every one,with a buick part number on them.These heads produced 40 h.p. over ANY high performance heads chevy could build at the time.GM top brass had buick name and influence removed from these,but new generation chevy engines are somewhat buickey now!As to those 322 engines with funny numbers;you can be sure they were buick built,buick quality,not touched by chevy hands.

Do these cars still exist?I have always wanted to see them,not just pictures.

The parts books back then had one page at front of book for export engines parts.I worked with two truck drivers at different companies who drove these buick powered chevy trucks and they said that they had 4 bbl.carbs as i remember and that one company hauled bulk grain shipments and the other hauled general freight for MERCHANTS FAST MOTOR FREIGHT out of abilene,texas,using these buicks mailly on the el paso run [444 miles one way] grossing out usually around 75,000 lb.even back then.These were NOT low h.p.,low torque engines;just the oposite without any blowers on them [ a greyhound bus driver demanded to look under the hood at sierra blanca one night after they nearly blew him off the road[merchants regurarly sent two drivers on this run for the chevy powered trucks took forever to reach el paso]The bus driver shouted "i dont believe it,i dont believe it after looking under hood and merchant men countered with "do you see anything else down in there?"BUICK sometimes built "special"engines that certainly promoted their tri shield.I knew of two '57 specials that were certainly SPECIAL.These two cars still exist in disrepair here in ballinger,tex area,i believe.A halfmann south of town has-had one and jimmy crawford has his dad's[our old family car] up on blocks in their ranch barn.[i am disabled,sickly and too poor or i would save these great machines.]

"Buick's First Half Century" is a buick nut's "HOLY GRAIL".I wrote BUICK in '58,asking for info and BUICK sent me and my brother each a copy of their great history book.These should be reprinted and every buick nut surely would love a copy.Mine is looking tired and my brother passed away and his copy was lost.

I remember TOM MC HILL [?]an early road tester,did a comparison of the '62 wildcat 2 dr. ht with a '62 t-bird.He reported the wildcat as the faster,more powerful,more solid car.He loved all the future troublesom gadgets on the ford.

These engines were put in these trucks because of strikes at chevy engine plants.No other modifications were done to the trucks i have been told by men who drove them.These units were wonderful,scary,tooo fast to be believed;all this rolled into a plain jane wrapper.pontiac engines were put in pickups.I was a buick parts man 66-74 in abilene,texas before going to chevy parts[a bad mistake].I am a life-long buick-nut with many stories from straight 8 days to current,barely buick vehicles.The parts books back then showed no distinction given to these truck engines,yet they gave outlandish performance and speed compaired with anything else on the road per truck drivers back then[i later drove semis for 11 years].Please relate any more info out there on these unique buick-powered trucks!