'64 nailhead aluminum heads?

[nearchoclatetown]

Did Buick use aluminum heads on a 300 inch nailhead in '64? I'm familiar with the 215 aluminum motors, but never heard of just heads and intake from the factory on a 300. Thanks

[palbuick]

Yep

The 1964 was the only year that buick used the alum. heads on the 300 CI.

For years this little motor was not a sought after motor, just like the 215 CI motor. In the last couple years they are beigng scooped up, the hor rod community finally discovered them. They were light, high Compression, and could be built fairlly helthy.

Jim Schilf

palbuick@aol.com

[Guest John Chapman]

To add a bit more, the '64 300 had an aluminium intake also. The head/intake are interchangeable as a unit to the later cast iron head engines, but the cast iron heads/intakes will not easily interchange with the aluminium ones.

And to further clarify, the 300/340 engine isn't considered a 'nailhead', as it has much larger valves (relatively) in a more traditional valve angle.

These engines also have the BOP belhousing pattern, making later model transmission use a simple affair.

Cheers,

John

[nearchoclatetown]

Jim and John, thank you both. Are you saying the 300 doesn't have the traditional nailhead look, close horizontal valve covers? I have the chance to buy one, for a future project. Haven't gone to see it yet.

[Guest John Chapman]

That's true. What they did was to design the valve covers to resemble the nailhead, but they are positioned in a much more traditional manner. To the casual observer, they look close, but the difference is obvious to the Nailhead Nowledgable.

BTW, in '64 the 300 was painted silver and in '65-67, Buick Green.

There are a couple of guys around that are quite handy at tweaking these up to produce ~12.3 quarter times. Postons just rereleased the tube headers, and there are lots of internal bits for the motors, a surprising number of which fit the later 350 engine... well, it's really the other way around...

I've got a picture somewhere that I can post later.

Cheers,

JMC