EFI straight eight Buick

[Buickguy3]

GH, The problem that we had, was that we went through 3 different companies and eight months getting anybody to commit to make them. Then, none would make them as thick as needed to be able to set the side clearance, so we had to have all of the journals welded up [1/4 on a side] to close the gap. Grodin did them for us, but the beam was so wide that we had to grind a notch at the base of each side of each cylinders foe clearance. In the end, they are a beautiful piece of work as are the CP pistons, and have held up very well to the abuse that we have subjected them to. In the end they were probably worth the wait. Doug

[panic]

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[GH]

Doug, I had to grind a notch on each side of the lower end of each cylinder for rod clearance. Had to do the same with the GMC.

[Buickguy3]

This will give everybody an idea of what the old stuff looks like next to the new stuff. On the left, is an original piston, on the right is a 1951 Nascar straight 8 piston, and in the middle is the one that CP Pistons made for us.[img][img] Hope it shows up.

[GH]

Doug, here is a photo of the Venolia pistons. The left one with the dome and a hole in it is the old one. The right one is the new one, flat top blower piston. The other photo is the rework on the intake manifold for changing blower size from 4-71 to a 6-71.

[Buickguy3]

G.H. , In retrospect, the next pistons we get will probably be domed similar to the one you show with the hole in it. The ones that we are currently using don't have any squish area. Buick wasn't wrong on a lot of things in their 1939 design. We are currently holding the compression at 8.0/1 for obvious reasons. The crank and bearings looked pretty good, given the abuse we subjected them to in our rookie outing. Mostly because we are limiting our RPM to 5000. D.G.

[panic]

The domed Venolia - what's with that big valve-relief-looking cut out?

[Buickguy3]

G.H. Check out the little article in the little Laurel Mt. paper this week. They heard about the old straight 8 SaltCat, but got more interested in Frank's other straight 8 powered hotrod. They did a pretty good piece, but unfortunately, the pics. of the SaltCat don't come up on-line. The editor of the paper drove 20 miles to Columbus on a Friday nite to do the article. Frank spent 5 years putting the twin turbo car together and when he got the running chassis together he put the front bumper and grille on the chassis and drove it on the trailer and took it to car shows and ran it on the trailer. It runs no mufflers and 3 inch exhausts people were so impressed with the chassis, he actually won People' Choice twice awards. Anyway, check it out at www.laureloutlook.com . [after this week it will be archived at Nov. 26]

[RichFox]

Nice story. Neat car.

[Buickguy3]

GH
We fired the straight 8 today for the first time with the EFI. Surprised the hell out of ourselves. It runs and sounds good. We can see that it's a good thing that we got on it right away when we got home, as there are many hours of tuning to do before August. Right now our test track had a foot of snow on it and it's supposed to be -20 tomorrow. Indoors, we can last about an hour before we have to quit the CO and switch to Bud. Then all progress stops. This is a shot of the engine before we got the radiator in yesterday. At least, we know it works. DG

[4sfed]

GH
We fired the straight 8 today for the first time with the EFI. Surprised the hell out of ourselves. It runs and sounds good. This is a shot of the engine before we got the radiator in yesterday. At least, we know it works. DG

Congratulations  . . . now how about a couple shots from the intake side?

Jim

[Milwaukee Midget]

Outstanding! Shared ports are tricky to dial, but you've got enough time to make it right.

That big Beauford has gotta sound sweet.



Chris

[Buickguy3]

   After some months of planning, that was a big relief. We had to set it up as an SFI [sequential] system as a batch fire system it had some really weird mixtures from cyl. to cyl. Now we have to wait 'til the snow on the test track melts to get started on the set-up. [In Montana, the nearest reliable dyno is about 200 miles away]. Wish we were closer to the Electromotive people. I'll post a couple of intake shots, but it will take a couple of posts, as it only lets me do one at a time. DG 

[Buickguy3]

 I'll see if this is better. DG


     P.S. Didn't mean to take over Gary's thread.

[bvillercr]

Too late.   It's ok, the latest on my build is Gary and Sumner talking about their spoilers.