BBB standing for Big Block Buick. Y'all know I'm a bit of a Buick afficionado. And mentioned more than a few times how much torque and HP is available from the BBB without getting into too many mods. The engine I'm running in the 32 is very similar to the engine listed. Main exceptions are, and I'll list the stuff in my engine: KB roller rockers, shafts etc. and probably a little sturdier valve train. The cam is a touch milder. Carburetion is a 750 cfm Carter or Edelbrock. (Ran a compe***ion Carter for a while and now have a street Edelbrock on it.) My heads flow a little less and my engine is 9/1 CR - which allows the use of 87 octane all year round with no problems. Only real flaw with using the BBB is you do need to make oiling mods, but the site listed below has some good pictorial instructions on that. First up, dyno figures - keep in mind my engine is in a 2400# car. You'll have to do a little extrapolating as well because the column headers don't line up exactly, but it's easy to figure out. 1. Level 1 engine dyno testing results Home Level 1 Specs and Pricing RPM Torque HP BSFC Fuel lbs/hr Air SCFM A/F Ratio Water Temp Oil Pressure 3300 518.3 325.7 .496 152.4 377.5 11.34 153 61.1 3400 522.0 337.9 .489 156.0 385.0 11.30 154 62.1 3500 530.8 353.7 .473 157.7 401.5 11.66 155 63.2 3600 536.6 367.8 .471 163.2 414.7 11.63 154 63.5 3700 542.8 382.4 .463 167.0 436.2 11.96 155 63.6 3800 543.9 393.5 .459 170.3 450.6 12.11 155 64.2 3900 539.9 400.9 .449 169.7 466.6 12.59 155 64.6 4000 547.3 416.8 .451 177.0 486.1 12.57 155 64.9 4100 543.6 424.4 .453 181.3 496.1 12.53 155 65.3 4200 542.7 434.0 .432 177.0 510.6 13.21 155 65.9 4300 536.7 439.4 .463 191.9 524.2 12.51 156 66.2 4400 531.0 444.9 .450 188.6 540.2 13.09 156 68.1 4500 526.4 451.0 .430 183.0 549.1 13.74 158 69.0 4600 516.8 452.6 .440 188.0 561.1 13.65 158 70.6 4700 506.2 452.9 .464 198.2 567.8 13.11 158 71.2 4800 503.1 459.8 .499 216.7 582.7 12.30 159 71.5 4900 499.6 466.1 .495 217.6 585.6 12.32 160 72.1 5000 483.8 460.6 .477 207.2 597.5 13.20 160 72.4 5100 479.3 465.4 .462 202.9 605.2 13.65 160 73.1 5200 471.1 466.5 .484 212.9 611.1 13.14 161 73.4 5300 460.5 464.7 .491 215.3 618.1 13.14 161 74.1 5400 453.9 466.7 .514 224.2 625.5 12.77 161 74.1 5500 438.2 458.9 .523 225.9 633.8 12.84 160 74.3 5600 427.7 456.0 .517 221.7 638.3 13.18 161 74.7 And let's not forget... this is not even a Stage 1 valve size engine! This thing idles like a sweetheart... just enough cam to know it's not stock. This combo is excellently suited for 2.93-3.42 gears, with a 2500 stall converter. This is the "ragtop" or "Convertible" motor that I often allude to. Stay tuned for dyno results, from the Level 1A motor, with a revised cam, and the TA Stage 1 aluminum heads. We are looking for near 500 HP with a very mild idle, and stump pulling low rpm torque! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Engine specs can be found here: http://www.trishieldperf.com/Level%201%20engine%20specs.htm Granted, the BBC and BBF guys can probably come up with similar, but the down low stump pulling BBB's are hard to beat. Plus, you can buy a parts car with a running BBB in it for $200-$500 in most areas. With an attached T-400 and engine weight about 15# more than an SBC (once the BBB's heavy cast iron intake is removed) I see the Buick as a very viable option for those who want power without a huge cash outlay. I know that Buick speed equipment can be costlier than the other stuff, but most times, if you're talking about big blocks, the prices aren't that far apart. More BBB stuff is coming out all the time.
I can't wait to see the number after the Stage 1 heads and cam adjusments and stuff....gonna be a great street/strip motor. Since you are a big Booick fella, what size are the valves in the Stage 1 Heads and how much bigger are the Stage 2 heads? Thanks, Greg
Look at those number's! Killer tech! No high-jack intended, but how many of us have or had a 455? Myself a '72 455, car cost $125.
Wow I just signed on to look for bbb info I am goin to pick one up tommorow night... 455 with 400 auto
[ QUOTE ] Wow I just signed on to look for bbb info I am goin to pick one up tommorow night... 455 with 400 auto [/ QUOTE ] hows your truck coming along?
Jay- what is the motor that the older Electra 225's had that they labeled [on air cleaner] as a "435 SUPER WILDCAT"? Is that actual CU-IN?-tourqe or Horsepower-or what?
choprods, Buick engines have the torque rating on the air cleaner lid. That engine may be a 430, predecessor to the 455.
Choprods, I'm pretty sure 38Chevy454 is right on the money here. I think that air cleaner decal was on my mom-in-law's 68 Buick with 430. I used that engine as a dummy when I built the 32. Coulda built the 430 with good results, but I'd decided I wanted a 455 and stuck to my guns there. Looking back, I shoulda kept the 430, it would have been perfect for B/Street Roadster at the lakes - which is where the 31 on 32 rails roadster was originally headed - but I got a 455 for it as well. And tossed the 430 after salvaging the crank & rods out of it. That was stupid. Course then, I would have had to run against all the high winding SBC's.... Those of you who are interested in the BBB's would do well to drop in on the Buick V8 board and see what they have to say over there. There's a bunch of technically astute people there and they have a lot of good info on doing a budget build using stock valve train stuff and the particular valve train stuff you want to use. Without getting too far afield here, one of the weak points in the BBB's is the 455's rocker shafts and rocker arms. There are some excellent - and strong - replacements available from the Buick speed houses, but for the way I run the engine in the 32 (hardly ever over 4 grand) the stock stuff would work well. They have a section devoted to Nailheads as well. Buick stuff
I the buick board is a pretty good board. started checking it out when I got my 430. I kinda wish I had a 455 over the 430 because the rebuild kits for the 430 seem to run about $100 more than the 455. I'm going to keep mine pretty stock. I don't think I'm really gonna be needing more power than what it puts out.
Blownolds has a good point here. The 400-425-455 Olds' are an excellent base for a budget build. Nice part about the Olds' is there are more parts available for them than the Buicks. The Olds is a little heavier than the Buick. The Olds distributor is in the back, Buicks in the front. The Olds oil pump is in the pan, the Buicks is external. (Not sure if that's an advantage or not, but it's really easy to swap the oil pressure relief spring in the Buick plus there are adjustble oil pressure relief devices available for the Buick. Not to mention you can build/rebuild the Buick oil pump into whatever you want. High volume, high pressure or both. Here's a small indicator of how well you can do with a mildly built on a budget Olds. The Buick would turn in the same times I'm sure. When little brother got started drag racing his Henry J we started out with a stock frame, straight axle with parallel springs - didn't sit too high - stock width 9" Ford rear, 10" slicks, T-400 done on a budget at his friends trans shop, fibergl*** front clip, a fibergl*** trans tunnel and a nicely done roll bar setup. Six pointer if I remember right. Had a 2 1/2 gallon Moon tank up front and a Holley comp elec fuel pump. A Winters shifter controlled the trans. The engine ran a hydraulic cam - think it was Engle, not sure, but we always ran Engle back in the day - Edelbrock torquer intake with Holley 750 double pumper on top, home made headers, points ignition, Mallory coil, good plug wires and a little bit of home-porting on the heads - mainly on the bowls. Some aluminum roller rockers, quality valve springs, retainers & locks as well as 11-1 or so .030 over forged pistons and shot-peened rods. Most times he shifted at 6500-7000 rpm, but every now and then he ran it to 8 grand. People would watch the car run and ask what rpm he was shifting at, I would say 8 grand and they would just cringe. He never broke anything in the bottom end with this engine. The Henry J, with it's stock width rear axle always went straight and was easy to drive. We'd seen other Henry's running about the same times that didn't go straight and talked to ex-Henry owners who were always surprised at how good little brothers HJ handled. We heard more than a few interesting tales from the ex-Henry owners. Anyway, with the above combo and gaining a little experience at the track it wasn't long until the HJ was running low tens at 125 mph. A fun - and safe - ride in anyone's opinion. Eventually he went on to a stroker motor, stroker motor on alcohol and now the car wears a tube frame and is powered by a 500" DRCE engine which pulls it to 8.13 @166 mph. More fun than most can stand.... Here's a pic of the car as it is today. If I can find an early days pic I'll post it later.
sorry if this was mentioned earlier in the post...I didn't read it thoroughly, but...Are their any particular year Buicks/455's that a guy should for in a parts car or are all 455's essentially the same (with the obvious exceptions of the Stage 1's)
The 70 seems to be the best choice. You want to be careful on mix and match with block and heads. You can end up with an overly low compression ratio. Do some digging on the Buick V8 board, they were talking about head/block matchups a few days back. Should be in the street/strip forum.
Oh, I just meant by my "long live BOP" comment that it's cool to see Buick's, Olds's, and Poncho's that are way over the top, something that puts 95% of the Chevy's out there to shame. The thread I posted from ROP shows a high-flying '72 Buick.
www.TAPerformance.com has alot of good info and parts for the BBB's, and some stuff for the Nailhead guys as well....
An extremely naughty power to weight ratio. Any idea how much of that 2400 lbs is attributed to the engine and transmission?
[ QUOTE ] An extremely naughty power to weight ratio. Any idea how much of that 2400 lbs is attributed to the engine and transmission? [/ QUOTE ] Most SBC x T-350 32 roadster's seem to come in at 2300#, but I think the figure may be around 2200-2250#. A reasonable estimate on engine/trans weight, converter, aluminum intake, no headers/exh manifold would be right around 800 - 850#. You can probably add an extra 80-100# to my 32 with the 2 1/2" x .120 four point roll bar and folding top. And heater. And Lexan windwings. And g***er style 2 5/8" x.120 wall rear bumper. Got 3.70 diff gears though....
Zonk, meant to add, nice table. I'm guessing you copied it as a pic? I just did the copy and paste bit, but your way is much better. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This is probably not the best spot to ask, but I've been looking for a dyno chart comparing headers to exhaust manifolds for quite a while. Haven't seen one of those for a long time.
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