Brother has a 425 nailhead he's getting ready to rebuild for his daily driver. It came out of a '65 Rivera. What mods will wake this engine up? He's thinking EFI, but wonders if there are cam/exhaust changes that will help it get up and move. Poor soul retires Monday and is wanting to get this project out of storage and on the road.
Thats a damn torquey motor...dont have to do much to it power a lighter car easily...they came with turbo 400 transmissions too which are probably about the best trans GM ever made. I wouldnt go too crazy with a cam or anything...maybe just cosmetics and enjoy 425-450+ foot pounds of torque...
These guys specialize in Buicks. http://www.taperformance.com/ If you wanted to go that far they even have aluminum heads and blocks! Like Gasser Dood said, they can run pretty well without a lot of work.
There are a few nailhead gurus on here that can help you out.I have a couple and they run great with just typical upgrades like intake,exhaust and correctly set up carbs. Poston Enterprises sells engine parts.There was also a great StreetRodder Magazine build of the nailhead a few years back that had allot of good info.I can't remember the year off the top of my head but I have the whole series in the garage library.I will dig them out.
talk to Russ Martin,Tom Telesco,Carmen Faso about nails...plus zman will point you in the right direction,he's one of the gurus mentioned before..They're damn cool in stock form...EFI would be below the bottom of my list
Hey, you speak of my brother Russ "Mr. Nailhead" Martin! Here is a link to his site. http://www.centervilleautorepair.com/index.html Brian
And fwiw, Buick nailheads because of their terribly designed heads exhaust ports came from the factory with what I will call a 3/8 to a 1/2 race cam stock. This allowed them to breath upstairs and as well as it gave a hint of a hotrod exhaust sound through their stock full exhaust systems at idle back then. pdq67 PS., GM meant for the nailheads to be 4-valve engines, but they wouldn't spend the money to widen the frames so Buick got stuck with half a pent-roof head design! And imho, they did DAMN good with what GM gave them!!
DO NOT use valve lifters that are not made for the nailhead. TA Per. sold me a cam and lifters and after I installed them the lifters pumped up and would not bleed off. It took 3 days to find out why. The engine was missing BAD too. You have to use lifters that do not have the oil holes in them to oil the push rods and rocker arms. Buick DOES NOT OIL THROUGH THE PUSH ROD on the nailhead. The lifters will pump all the way up and can not bleed down, just like having solid lifters. Use lifters that DO NOT have a oil hole in the top of them. TA Per. does not know anything about the nailhead. There good with the newer buick engines but not the nailhead. Just thought you might want to know. By the way, get a set of adjustable push rod. Get your part from centerville garage in CA. He is the best to buy part from. He knows the nailhead inside out.
Just got my finned valley pan from Russ Martin at Centerville. Looks great, tell him thanks on my behalf (christmas present from my woman to me).
The main thing holding back the Nailhead is the heads, they desperately need porting, larger valves etc. There is no better place then http://gesslerheadporting.com/ Give then a try they have quite a range of work they can do. Cheers, Doc.
Exactly what I thought! Two fours and some good exhaust and you are in business. You have enough torque to gear that thing any way you want.
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