History Barn Find Brand New 215 Buick V8

Did you buy it to display or was your original intention to use it? I say clean it up, (wear a respirator for the mouse people), and install that thing and drive it.

 

I have to ask. the discolor on the headers, and the motor mount, the paint job, Unless it has been sitting out side, not to sure about the never been run...just asking? great find none the less.

 

Absolutely. You are not going to get to take it with you....unless you got better connections than the rest of us.

 

You're right...and I was gonna say...there are plenty of other pathogens in feces anyway, so it's not good to breathe the dust. Rodhotz has the right idea...wetting it down and scrubbin' it with soap and water will keep the shit from getting airborne.

Btw OP, the engine's a cool find. Good luck with it. Put it in somethin' light.

 

I'd be peeking in the spark plug holes looking at the tops of the pistons looking for signs of mouse houses since the ex manifolds appear to be open. Those little bastards will crawl in anywhere they can find a hole, including inside of water passages and inside of the block and oil pan. Better look to be safe than not and be sorry later.

Nice find by the way.

 

You're fortunate in that it's already got a stick flywheel; they're not falling out of trees. If it were mine, I'd take no chances and pull the heads and pan to make sure that no surprises had developed over the past fifty years.

 

X2 with this. Those little bastards can and will get everywhere. Get a set of gaskets for it and tear it down. Inspect, lube it up and put it all back together....then run it!

Definitely a score!!

 

Whenever I buy a body shell or engine, I stop at the do it yourself car wash, put on my respirator and blast the hell out of it while it's on the trailer. 3 bucks worth of quarters, pretty much gets rid of anything (Rat turds and nests, black widows, etc) that already didn't blow off on the freeway.

 

Of course it's not been run, it doesn't have any plug wires.

I'd pull the heads and pan, check things out, put on new gaskets and put it to use in something. It would be neat in one of Speedway's tribute T's.

 

I bought it's counterpart an Olds 215 and might put it in my '29 Roadster. The light weight (about 320 lbs) compared to my 8BA flathead (about 650 lbs) kinda makes the swap a no brainer. Think of it, half the weight and twice the horsepower.....
Mine has an Isky cam and lifters and is bored 20 over...
Cool find...get the break in lube ready....

 

I thought the Buick 215 engines had a 'nailhead' valve train configuration.

 

The hantavirus is destroyed in less than 30 minutes when exposed to UV (according the sources I have read), so leaving it out in the sunshine for a little while should do the trick. Then wet down the engine to keep the dust at bay and scrub, wash the engine, and spray/wipe down with WD40

 

Now I must fear rat turds? What's happened to us?

I say run it.

 

X2

Bob H.

 

The only thing they had in common with a nailhead were similar looking valve covers.

 

Thanx

 

Run that thing!

 

When's the next time you're ever going to find a NOS engine like that? Sure. Buuuut... when's the next time you'll be able to buy a really new vintage engine like that to build a car around and drive it? Eh? Eh? Eh? And which is more FUN...

 

Nothing has "happened to us", and it's not about "fear"...it's about knowing how to avoid gettin' sick, that's all. You're no tougher than anyone else when it comes to disease, no matter how badassed of a hot rodder you think you are...lol.

As far as the "display" or "run it" issue goes, the engine isn't really that special, aside from the fact that it may have no miles on it. Which simply means that you won't have to rebuild it. So take advantage of that. First verify whether it's in-fact new. If it is, clean it up, service and detail it. Test-run and tune it. Then either sell it for what it is, or use it.

 

I'm envious. But such is life, cool on you man!

 

I have 2 of the Oldsmobile versions. Expensive to build. You can run the T5 trasnmissions with the Chevy bolt pattern. If you use a V6 T5 you can run a V6 S-10 clutch. I had to have my flywheel redrilled for it. If I get a V8 trans all I need to do is change the pressure plate.

You have the hard to find bellhousing and flywheel. That's a good start.

Parts are available from Auto Zone, but not cheap. Search British V8 for tons of other info.

 

Another interesting tidbit, the Buick and Olds blocks are the same, the Olds has 6 head bolts around the perimeter of each cylinder, whereas the Buick just has five. The ones installed in Buicks have the boss cast into the block for the sixth bolt, but due to the difference in valve train the sixth bolt cannot be used in the Buick, unless you bolt Oldsmobile heads to it. I guess it's a good thing they had the extra bolt in the Olds version, since some of them were force fed with a turbo in the Jetfire models.

Cosmo49 and Beau, thanks for the tip on the T5's, I'll have to look into that, as I do have one Buick and one Olds 215 sitting in the shelf. I fell in love with the little motor way back in 1971, when my sister bought a low-mile '63 Buick Special with the 215 in it.

 

Built a '63 motor for my A coupe. Understand your skepticism. Too many "too good to be true" stories out there. The guy I bought mine from planned to use it in a mid-engine kit car. He put all the money in the motor and bought all the right good goods but never assembled it. He said " You come down and I will show you every bit of the work I've done on the motor." Took Us two hours to go through it all. It was all there just as he said.

Mine is running a vintage Kenny Bell cam, NOS vintage Mallory black cap dual point, D&D bell housing, Rover cast headers, and T5 trans. For now I will be running the stock Q4 carb until something better comes along. Kind of get a kick out of the two SU set up I see on the UK Rovers. Seen guys fab a four carb manifold with the same carbs.

 

It was also used in some Pontiacs (same as the Buick). Olds heads are different than the Buick. The little motor that COULD! Rebuild it and run it....

 

Donate it to me and I promise to display it in front of my firewall all over the roads and car shows of Oregon!
Wonder how it would look all polished up...


Hook it to a T5 in a '27 roadster...or same roadster but with an old Pontiac Tempest transaxle...imagine the unreal weight distribution...

 

To the "rat" rodders on this thread: I can't count how many rats nests I've blown out of old car bodies, with no mask or respirator and no consequences whatsoever. I'm just lucky I guess.

I just sold a 60,000-mile Buick 215 on Ebay complete with GM180 trans and all accessories.

 

The Hantavirus waring is correct.
Wear a paint mask when you clean it, and do it out i free air.

 

I would clean it up and display it. That's very cool to find something like that.