BUICK V8 in new '56-57 big GM trucks

[krm712]

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!

[old-tank]

These engines were the 322ci and were lower compression than the engines used in Buicks. I have never seen one and have always wondered about what transmissions were used, etc.

Willie

[BUICK RACER]

The GMC 3/4 ton trucks, in '56 had the 322 Buick engine, not sure why, have GMC truck history book, but haven't had time to read it! More later!

[krm712]

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.]

[GMPARTSMAN]

Can't say anything about the '56, but in 58 GMC light duty (1 ton) trucks they used Pontiac engines. I was a volunteer firefighter in the 80's, and went to a firefighter's association meeting in Bayard New Mexico where it was in use in 1982 or 1983. It was a low mileage 1 ton chassis with 4 wheel drive fire truck. Bayard is outside of Silver City, in a largely rural and challenging (brushy, rocky,sandy, and hilly) area. A absolute need for wildfire supression speaking from past experience.

I don't have any documentation about GMC's, but I have a parts book at work (GM dealership) from '79 that shows the 322 Buick was available in the medium duty chassis lineup through the 1959 model year. I can only remember seeing one Buick equipped Chevy medium and that was in the early 70's. I have been in GM

dealerships since 1970.

[42crazy]

I came into contact with one of these engines, it was a replacement engine that was put into a car. I won't go into the details of how I know this. But, the odd thing about it, all the cast in place numbers were not Buick numbers, they were Chev. style numbers, starting with '9'. The parts, heads, block, etc. were all identical with the Buick, but the casting numbers were different. So, Chev. must have cast their parts. When you refer to Hollander Interchange Manuals, you can see all this. I also came across a '57 Chev. firetruck with a Nailhead in it, Paul

[krm712]

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.

[Guest Tom]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I was a buick parts man 66-74 in abilene,texas before going to chevy parts[a bad mistake].</div></div>

krm712, welcome to the BCA board. I couldn't help but notice you worked at the Buick dealer in Abilene TX. I have a '59 Invicta that was sold new in Dec of '58 from Lone Star Buick in Abilene. I have been trying to get some info about this dealer, but from what I understand, it didn't operate under that name for very long. Late '50's to maybe mid 60's. Was the dealer named Lone Star when you were there? Currently it is called Cisneros Buick, Pont, GMC

[NTX5467]

Prior to Cisneros, it was Fred Hughes Buick. I think it ended during the third generation of Fred Hughes' descendents. They also had BMW in the mix too, later on.

NTX5467

[NTX5467]

Whether it was a Buick V-8 or a Pontiac V-8 depended upon what "tonnage" the vehicle was. As in 1/2 ton, 3/4 ton, or heavier.

Automatics were HydraMatics. I suspect the "granny" New Process 4-speed would have been strong enough for the V-8s, as it was (as I understand) the same transmission behind all of the GMC 6-cylinders from 228-302.

I've seen some '58 GMC 1500 "fancy" pickups at some of the local cruises over the years, with a HydraMatic, but didn't see under the hood. Might have to go check them out.

Seems like all of the light truck engines were in the 7.5-8.0 to 1 compression ratio range back then. Maybe just a little higher than the export engines, but lower than the car engines.

Enjoy!

NTX5467

[NTX5467]

In the time that Dart built "Buick" and "Pontiac" cylinder heads to be installed on the Chevy 350 V-8 for NASCAR (and similar) races, it was in the middle '80s when Buick Regals and Pontiac Grand Prixs were still being raced. It was the cylinder head that gave the engine the divisional name of "Chevy", "Buick", or "Pontiac".

In each case, the cylinder heads had the correct valve placement and combustion chamber design as was the case for the traditional V-8 cylinder heads that went on each division's prior V-8s. In the case of the Buicks, the 18 degree valve angle was what made them so powerful, compared to the 23 (?) degree valve angle of the Chevys. Chrysler LA (273-360) small block heads also have the 18 degree valve angle, for the record.

All of these cylinder heads also had matching valve covers with the divisional name and correct divisional shape and hold-down bolt configuration. They also required the matching valve train components for each style of cylinder head too. They were all physical bolt-on situations, once you had the valve train to make it work, for the normal Chevy smallblock V-8. The GM Performance Parts catalog of those times had them listed in them too, in each division's respective listings.

For the time, these were pretty exotic items. Basically "race-only" and high rpm racing at that. I didn't know of many, if any, Chevy enthusiasts that put them on their Chevys for street or race cars.

It was amusing when the Buick heads made more horsepower than the Chevy heads did! On a Chevy V-8.

And then there were the Olds DRCE (drag racing competition engine) that was built around Chevy big-block architecture. Something for everybody! ALL available from your local GM dealership parts department.

Enjoy!

NTX5467

[krm712]

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