I'm looking at a 63 Wildcat and a 65 Electra 225. Both have Nailheads, both have single 4 barrels. How do I know what size they are, and are they interchangeable?
as far as i know, both cars stock should have a 401 nailhead, but check out www.buicks.net . there's a ton of info and lots of very helpful cats on the forum there.
Could be a 425 in the Electra. It was optional in ALL full-size Buicks except the LeSabre. It was optional in the wagon too (badged LeSabre but they were a 4600 series). The 63 Cat will be a 401. Look on top of the block, between the heads, behind the water crossover. There is a small strip of the block that is in front of the lifter cover. Stamped on there is the code. 1965 is M, so it will either have a LT (401) or LW (425) stamped there, along with the car's VIN. If the first letter is different (M, K, etc.) it is a different year. K is 64, M is 66. They are interchangeable with one modification; since the 63 is a Dynaflow and the 65 is a ST400, the end of the crank in the earlier car has a bigger hole. You have to turn out a plug to reduce the size iof the hole, or Carmen Faso sells them for about $45
[ Tom Telesco carries that part also.203-324-6045 is his number. super nice guy and can answer any buick question. Ironhunter is right on all the information. TP
Well the 425 does have more cubes, but either is fine. Hell I've got 425's and 364's but no 401, I guess I need to get one of each...
The reason I'm asking is that the 63 is wrecked, but the engine runs good. The 65 is a complete 2 door hardtop in nice shape, but the engine has a rattle in it. I'm thinking of swapping to make one good one.
You really want to use the sp400 3 speed over the 2 speed dynaflow if you have any kind of interest in performance. Huge difference between the 2. Kind of a shame that the one with a good motor is a dynaflow car & the one with engine issues is the sp400 car. I'd get the aforementioned hardware from carmen faso so you can run the 3 speed.
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