A friend called me recently , and after chasing down a couple scrappers, he ended up with 3 nailhead engines. One I think is a 54 with 2bbl, and a pair of 55 with 4 bbls. Are these hot rod material? Are parts available? I have somewhat of a hold on early hemis, but know nothing about these.
Of course! Theyre good lookin engines and hold interest to those looking to build a car correct to those years. Worth saving for sure!
Tom, The '54 could be either a 264 cu in or a 322 cu in. Good chance it is 264 w/ the 2 bbl. Specials had the 264. If it's from a Century, Super or Roadmaster it's the 322. Supers had the 2 bbl, Century and Roadmaster the 4 bbl. The '55s with 4 bbl should be 322..........the Special had a 264 w/ 2 bbl for '55, but all Century, Super and Roadmaster came with the same spec 322 w/ 4 bbl. EDIT: The only downside to these great old engines is that any transmission worth having requires an adapter. Both Dynaflow and manual shift trannies are not very useful. The sticks came in two varieties "5 bolt top cover" and "6 bolt top cover". The former is weak, the latter is strong, but both are 'selector type" shifters and awkward to convert to floor shift. Adapters are available though, www.tranmissionadapters.com for sure and perhaps Wilcap. Ray
264 doesn't have a harmonic balancer. Nothing wrong with a 264 except it isn't a 322. Don't believe they were available after 55. 1956 322s were the highest HP, 364 came along in 57.
Get an adapter and rock it man... these motors are great motors and look awesome in a sea of SBC out there this will stand out and deff is period correct... My 54 322 is a great running motor for sure... the dynaslush is deff not what you want in a hotrod but in a cruiser like my super is its fine and dandy...
Go to nailheadbuick.com and click on Tech Info. It will tell you all you want to know. Great site for parts and info.
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