I recently purchased a '52 Buick Special Deluxe, 72K miles, 263 straight eight, 3spd manual from the original owner. The car has not been molested in ANY way, is all original, and in nice restoreable condition here in the dry rust-free TX panhandle. THIS IS A COOOL CAR... AN ALL-ORIGINAL BOMBSIGHT BUICK! I bought it intending to redo the original str8-8 engine and keep it mostly original with some vintage hop-up goodies (vintage dual carb intake and dual exhaust manifold came in the trunk with the deal!!), but EVERYBODY and I mean EVERYBODY in my acquaintance has been insisting that the ONLY way to do this car is to sh*tcan the original engine and drivetrain and put in a (yes, as you can guess) small block shivvy and a TH350 with a 10 bolt rear end. So I logged on here to find out how doable that would be, but instead read about lots of the waaaaayyyyyy cool projects you guys have going with wildly different engines and... I'M SOLD ON THE STR8-8 AGAIN! IT'S STAYING VINTAGE IRON AND I MEAN IT THIS TIME!!!!!!! All you unimaginative dullards can take the SBC/TH350/10blt stuff and shove 'em where the sun don't shine! Ain't gonna do it EVER unless it's a Chevy car and DAMN FOR SURE NOT MY NIFTY-TWO BOMBSIGHT BUICK. Full stop, end of story, over and out! THANKS AGAIN, HAMB-ERS!
Was heading for the sack when i saw the Buick thread. Good score - a good call for sure, speed parts. a electronic ignition is said to wake them up a bit. I'm going to Rod my 46 Buick Super Ragtop, i'm putting a 1950 Buick 248 cu in Straight Eight in it, it has 60,000 mile an original motor & trans i bought for $150.00 A guy's wife wanted a automatic in the 50 Special fastback, so out it came and after a sub frame a 425 Caddy & auto went in. Good for me, i scored bigtime on that deal. First i like to get them running & driving
Good on ya, run that straight8 and be different!! I've laughed in the face of at least a dozen people who've told me to swap out my nailhead for an SBC in the Byooik. "Hey man, you should take that thing out and put a smallblock in there, you'd find parts a lot easier." Yeah, sure, let me lose 50ci, 100hp, and probably 200lb/ft of torque for the sake of "ease of replacement parts."
Excellent choice ! I have a friend with a 50 ford flatty that puuuuurs, and he catches tons of crap for not swapping it to a sbc ! I dont understand the mentality behind that. Good choice on keeping the straight 8
Thank friggin' goodness. the Buick Brethren win a new member. Welcome. It won't be fast - but it will be smooth and COOL. I love how smooth the I8 runs man. It purrs like a kitten. And it looks SWEET!
when i had my 52 riv hrtp i poudly wore a t-shirt that said "my eight is straight".. the engine always ran great mine was a 3spd.. its one of my favorite cars i regret selling it...........
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