engine swap question

Just a quick question. I've got access to a 79 Buick staion wagon with what I'm told is a 350? and an automatic. I've heard that the Buick,Olds and Pontiac have some differences from thier chevy cousins. Did Buick make a 350? I was thinking of using this engine and tranny in my truck. Would generic small block chevy motor mounts work for this combo?
I know that the engine in this car was either rebuilt or replaced. Is it probable that someone put a 350 chevy in there and bolted it up to the buick transmition. If it is a buick, are they compareable in price to rebuild to a chevy?

Thanks, Clint

 

Yes Buick made a 350, and it is nowhere even close to kinda similar to a chevy. Completely different. None of the mounts or anything will work. It will cost quite a bit more to rebuild as well. There is, however, a decent chance that it could be a 350 chevy in there. Just check it out I guess.

 

OR, it could be a Pontiac 301 or a Olds 307,350 or even a 403. You never knew what you might get in those late 70s thru early 80s GMs. If it is the Buick mill then the distributer will be in the front, the Pontiac engines are open under the intake with a pan to seal the valley and the intake on the Olds engines seal the valley like a small block Chevy. The turbo 350 tranny are all pretty much the same except for tail housing length and the bolt pattern for the Chevy is different from the others. The bottom 2 tranny bolts do wind up in the same place though making pretty simple to fabricate an adapter.

 

The Buick 350 is a unique animal...it features a shorter deck height than it's bigger 430 and 455 cousins, but parts like the front timing cover will be familiar to 'modern' Buick V8 and V6 vets. Intake manifolds are unique to this engine, and Kenne Belle offers a performance aluminum 4v intake for it.

The cool thing about the 350 Buick is that it is super light when compared to a Chevy 350. I forget the actual numbers now, but the Buick 350 is the lightest of the GM engine family V8s (escept for the old aluminum ones!). Jeep also used the 350 Buick engine for a couple of years, so AMC fans may have encountered them as well.

But, anything goes for late 70s and early 80s GM cars...they used all kinds of engine combos...Olds in Pontiac, Pontiac in Chevy, etc, etc. To identify the engine in question, here are a few characteristics of the Buick 350:

Distributor in front of the engine at an angle.
Large aluminum timing cover with integral oil pump.
Most factory valve covers have slight ridges in them.

I built a very mild Buick 350 for my ex-wife's car, it ran great and delivered exceptional gas mileage to boot! Finding parts isn't as easy as locating Chevy stuff...but I dig the little Bueys for their light weight and strong midrange pull!