Vette Motor?
25 Answers
check the engine stamping pad on RF of motor below cylinder head where you will find the serial number and a 3 digit engine code.. check the bottom of these pages for the engine code. http://www.idavette.net/facts/70.htm http://www.idavette.net/facts/71.htm http://www.idavette.net/facts/72.htm http://www.thedirtforum.com/gmcastingnumberlocations.htm
Thanks Haward this information is great. I will have to remove the valve covers to see the motor vin. Someone had said it was not a vette motor because there was no double hump on the front casting but from what I have found, that casting was used until 1969 so now I have to check with the motor vin. Thanks to everyone for your help. I will post when I find out what motor it is.
yes 3 letter code on front of the engine passenger side you dont have to remove anything ,you might need a good flash light to see it.
BUICK DISTRIBUTOR IS ON THE FRONT OF ENGINE, VETTE THE DISTRIBUTOR WILL BE ON THE BACK OF ENGINE, NEAR THE FIREWALL. 65 BUICK WOULD HAVE BEEN A 430, OR MAYBE A 431. YEAH 430 SOUNDS RIGHT.
@ Denis, just because the guy has a buick doesn't mean the engine is a buick. what if it's a pontiac engine or a chevelle engine then how do you tell the difference?
you kids aren't old enough to remember ... In 1965 buicks top V-8 was the 401 NAIL HEAD motor . It was called nail head because the valves entered the cyl. heads vertically . IE - the rockers worked backwards giving a very short intake tract but an extremely long exhaust port thru the head wich added significantly to the engines tendency to run hot at high speeds and crack exhaust manifolds . the distributor is IN THE BACK as the small chevy . the drop dead clue to a nail head motor would be the turquoise blue paint and the valve covers that stand horizontally to the motor (straight up ) . in other words they don't mount at an angle perpendicular to the V of the block . The 430 and 455 did not come out 'till '67 and '69 respectively . these motors had the dist. in the front at a 45 deg. angle on the left side (pass) as you look from the front .. and were all painted red ... there was in 1966 a 425 cu. inch version of the nail head motor which was also painted red but it also hs all the nail head tell tale features along with a rochester quadrajet carb witch makes it rather rare and unusual ... The buick transmissions were where it was really at back then , they used a thm 400 with a VARIABLE PITCH TORQUE CONVERTER which changed the stall speed of the converter according to throttle position .... PBN
OH YEA , Jason , the 454 didnot come out 'till 1970 but it used the '69 427 block . casting #3963512 with a 4.25 inch bore and a 4.00 inch stoke .... OK ? and it's a chevy not a buick ...PBN
yeah.. 68 Riviera and 70 LeSabre were my kid years. XP
TO TRIP65; NO ARGUEMENT THERE. MY EX AD A '80 MALIBU CLASSIC, THAT HAD A BUICK ENGINE IN IT. PONTIAC I BELIEVE HAS THE DISTRIBUTOR UP FRONT. CHEVELLE IS IN THE BACK, BUT THERE ARE SO MANY VARIABLES WITH GM CARS THAT ALMOST ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE WITH BOTH ENGINES & TRANNIES.
yes thats true most chevys in the 80s had buick engines in them. pontiac distributor is in the rear of the engine. Everybody used to swap out engines in the 60s & 70s . For example when i bought my 65 lemans it had a 68 chevy 396 in it. now it has a 71 455 GTO engine.When i bought my 1st GTO it had a chevy 400 in it . the trannies were another thing ,like you can't bolt up a pontiac auto trans to a chevy engine and vise versa. A 4 speed on the other hand all you have to change is the bell housing. @ Pete I was just saying that in almost 50 yrs that buick probably saw a few different engines . and yes this kid is old enough to remember when these cars were on the road. what was nice about the 60s were the only import car was the VW beatle. Just about every car on the road then was American made. the only hondas were motor cycles. remember that Pete? lol
I REMEMBER WHEN WE DIDN'T GIVE A RAT'S ASS ABOUT M.P.G., ALL WE CARED ABOUT WAS M.P.H., AND THE MORE MPH THE BETTER. AND ONCE IN AWHILE YOU GOT LUCKY, MY BUDDY RON PICKED UP A 67,68 FIREBIRD FORMULA 400 WITH EDELBROCK INTAKE & THREE DUECES. BRAND NAME ELUDES ME. BUT HE PAID "NOTHING" FOR IT.
wow i never saw a firebird with 3 dueces, i had a GTO with them but pontiac stopped making them in 66. the only company that made them aftermarket is Barry Grant. When i started driving ( here we go ) lol gas was 69 cents a gallon. no worries there.
yea I remember the first time I ever bought gas it was 32 cents a gallon . I think it was 1969.... and when eveybody was buying those HONDA minibikes back in the seventies , I was still riding my CUSHMAN despite the fact that every one made fun of me and my old fart scooter ....
wish i coulda kept the 70 LeSabre 455.. parted it in 1989. 19 years with the family.
OUCH, JASON THAT HURTS!!! A 455 SHE MUST HAVE BEEN "SMOOTH" ON THE FREEWAY.
yes.. stock 454 that just needed some tlc. original lt blue paint, slight rust on the hood, black vinyl top coupe, and POSI. it hauled @$$!
in 1980 when GM came out with the 401 oldsmobile engine (FAILURE) It was deemed LEGAL for CORPERATE makes to use CORPERATE engines ... meaning unless you bought a cadillac or a GMC , your GM car be it a pontiac ,chevy ,buick ,olds could have ANY CORPERATE DIVISION ENGINE INSTALLED .... Later that year a supreme court decision made the installation of CORPERATE engines into CORPERATE vehicles illegal except for vehicles made for export to foreign countries ... anything sold in the USA had to have it's correlating Division engine installed in that Division Vehicle ..... ie , chevy ,chevy .... buick , buick , ...etc .... remember ? I doubt it ...............PBN
THE 401 IN 1980 WENT INTO THE FIREBIRD FORMULA AND A FEW T/A'S . 'CAUSE 1979 WAS THE LAST YEAR FOR THE PONCHO 400 MOTOR THIS to a die hard poncho man was UNACCEPTABLE , then the junk thinwall block, thinwall deck,thinwall headed OLDS 401 was RECALLED DUE TO CRACKING OF HEADS ,BLOCK , ETC. there was even a crank shaft failure with less than 100 miles on a new "bird" ( I allways thought that the dude that broke his crank was running flat out for who knows how long , lost his coolant when both heads cracked and kept it floored 'till it siezed a piston ," Z"d a rod and busted the junk cast crank ...hoping to score a warranty pontiac 400 from a dealer somewhee (LOOK AT THE BOTTOM END OF A PONCHO 301 FROM ABOUT 1977 OR SO 'TILL 1980 AND YOU WILL SEE WHAT A JUNK MOTOR LOOKS LIKE BEFORE IT BECOMES SCHRAPNEL .... OR WORSE YET ,GROWS UP TO BECOME thE "OLDSMOBILE SAUSAGE GRINDER 401"
GENERAL MOTORS HAS BEEN USING ROCHESTER CARBURETORS SINCE THE FIFTIES . THE 3 DEUCES ... YOU GOT FROM GM ON THE GOAT (389 CU.IN. HPERF) WERE 2-G ROCHESTERS IF ITS A FACTORY SET UP AND MOST LIKELY 3 STROMBERG "97"S IF IT'S AFTER MARKET . THE STOMBERGS FLOWED A BIT MORE ON TOP BUT WERE A BITCH TO KEEP IN SYNC. 'COUNTA THE OF IDLE TRANSFER SLOT WAS VERY SHORT AND THE ACCELERATOR PUMP SHOT WAS LOW VOLUME .. ANY MORE QUESTIONS , ? BOYS ?
correction on the 1980 olds motor , it's was a 403 not a 401... I got twisted .
MY FRIEND'S FIREBIRD WITH THREE DEUCES WAS BOUGHT USED FROM A PRIVATE PERSON. SO THEY MAY NOT HAVE BEEN STOCK. BUT BROTHER SHE DID MOVE!!
yeah and they have a very distinctive sound when those other two carbs open up . do you know if its a chevy or pontiac engine? sounds like tons of fun !!!
My 1965 Buick Skylark convertible has a Wildcat 310 in it.
