Operating temps, now Buick V6 liniage

[Gary Derian]

Yes.  The aluminum V-8 was very expensive to make in 1961 so Buick quickly
raised the deck, increased the bore and stroke, removed two cylinders,and
cast it in iron to make the low cost V-6 in 1962.  Development began again
in the 70's when it was used in Starfires and Shyhawks (H-special bodies).
It went even-fire, the heads were improved, the oiling was improved, etc.
The 3800 got the cylinder banks moved to center the rods in the pistons and
the latest versions have a short deck and rods with roller cam and rockers.

The aluminum V-8 was designed in the early 50's and was first seen in the
Buick Y-Job show car.

Gary Derian <gderian at oh.verio.com>



> Hi Dave,
> A great deal depends on how you define the term "fresh design"..
> Actually, if you go a little furter back to 1964, you'l find a Buick
Skylark
> V6
> which had the same stroke and .059 smaller bore that the 80's 3.8RWD....
> It also had the same bore and stroke as the 300 V8 of the day, which
>  was based on the tooling and bore centers of the earlier, smaller
> displacement 215 aluminum V8..    Although the valve cover from a 1964
> Buick V6 was different, the head will bolt on the 1987 3.8 RWD engine...
> I think intake bolts are in differnt location, but I'm not positive on
that...
> The engine has seen significant design improvements and even
> changed hands in 1968, when it showed up in the jeeps.  It then went
> back to GM, and was available in the some 1975 J-Bodies (Lordstown Plant),
> and then later in the GM intermediates again. Sh*t, I just showed my age
> again..
> MV
>
>
> > Actually, The 3.8L Even fire buick wasn't related to a V8 (Except maybe
it
> >  calculated to the displacement of a 305 if you added 2 on).  It was a
> fresh
> >  design.  The Turbo blocks had the heavier deck surface, and the heads
were
> >  also a special casting.  The large open water port on the ends was
webbed
> >  to add strength, and the water jackets flowed much better than the NA
v6
> > heads.
> >  The oiling system on the Turbo V6 was also much enhanced over the NA
> >  counterparts.  I added an oil pressure guage (mechanical) and plumbed
it
> in
> >  to the rear end of the main galley (ran a line from the block out the
> >  bellhousing... it was a bear to get the trans in and out!) and I had
35PSI