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Re: Engine Swap- Buick Aluminum Block

To: british-cars@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: Engine Swap- Buick Aluminum Block
From: doug@dsg128.nad.ford.com (Douglas Mitchell)
Date: Sun, 2 Oct 94 09:45:52 EDT

On Tuesday September 27, Matt Silveria wrote:


I would recommend that you *not* go with the 350 cu V-8 Buick.  As
said, the original, "Rover" V-8 was an aluminium small block Buick.
These engines were "o.k." but not great - why do you think GM sold the
thing to the Brits?   (No bad blood intended, just that a big us auto
maker would do something underhanded is no big suprise.

And my reply is:

I'm sorry that you feel this bitter about the Buick/Rover V8, but the reason
that GM sold it was that they felt that it was not a powerful enough engine
for the American horsepower race. I happen to know that the 3.5 L engine is
on of GM's best built, most dependable engines, and I am very well acquainted
with it's primary designers.

This engine was run in the 1962 Indy 500, with Dan Gurney driving the 
Mickey Thompson/Harvey Aluminum Special. It did not complete the race, but
not because of the engine.

There is a good, if not complete, article on this engine on Triumph.

Doug Mitchell - I work for Ford, but my Dad designed engines for GM.

PS - Sorry about being so late with this reply, but our server hasn't
recognized either autox.team.net or triumph.cs.utah.edu since Tuesday.

Doug


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