Need cam info for 40's-50's Buick

[toolmakeron]

Asking for a friend. Anyone here an expert on older Buick stuff. My friend is concerned about a 322, and about the 62* or 66* lifter banks for cam grinding purposes. Best if I pass his # on. He doesn't go online, rather talk than type . Thanks for any help

[Geoff2]

You could try Isky cams, they do a lot of cams for older cars.

[Schurkey]

Asking for a friend. Anyone here an expert on older Buick stuff. My friend is concerned about a 322, and about the 62* or 66* lifter banks for cam grinding purposes. Best if I pass his # on. He doesn't go online, rather talk than type . Thanks for any help

Buick "Nailhead" V-8? The only OHV V-8 I know about that was deliberately designed to not spin the lifters--no lifter crown, no taper on the cam lobes, lifter bores not offset from the cam lobes. If the lifters spin, it's by coincidence not design. At least, the early engines were like this. I don't know if that continued through to the ending year in '66.

First ones were made for the '53 model year.

I didn't know there were variations in lifter bank angle. I know Oldsmobile did that, though.

Might try the Nailhead section of V8Buick.com.
http://www.v8buick.com/index.php?forums/da-nailhead.9/

[pdq67]

As I see it, the big problem with the old, "Nail-head", Buick engines are that they can't breath up top because of the terrible exhaust port.

The, "nail head", Buick head was supposed to be a, "pent-roof, hemi type", head, but it got nixed due to car frame widths so it turned into a 1/2 a pent-roof head.

Buick compensated for the lack of good exhaust port flow by cam timing. That is why your Grand Dad's old Buick had a lope to it!

BUT, BUT, BUT!!

Hunt up, "TV", Tommy Ivo for the word on them!! At least I think he ran them?

pdq67

[Truckedup]

Oregon Cams does a lot of vintage stuff and does a good job on regrinds

In the 50's there was a road racer "sports" car, " Old Yeller"powered by a Nailhead The Buick V8 could run 7000 rpm with reliability...

[PackardV8]

Is he looking for a stock regrind or something higher performance? As mentioned, the OEM grind is already pretty long.

We can do an OEM for $100 exchange.

jack vines

[Schurkey]

My friend is concerned about a 322, and about the 62* or 66* lifter banks for cam grinding purposes.

Any more info on this? So far as I know, Buick didn't play games with lifter bank angle...but I'm ready to learn something.

Sixty-something degrees seems wide for a V-8 lifter bank.

[Truckedup]

[engineguyBill]

In summary of previous posts:

- Isky is a good source of information concerning Buick nailhead V-8 cams, as well as other vintage engine info.


- The Buick nailhead V-8 does use a non-tapered cam lobe, therefore the lifters do not spin - or at least they are not designed to do so. I believe that the lifter angle is the same for all of the nailhead V-8 engines though.


- "TV' Tommy Ivo did use Buick naihaad engines in many of his early hot rods and race cars. A T-bucket roadster, single engine, dual and four-engine dragsters. The race cars were engineering marvels, beautiful cars that made a lot of noise and tire smoke but weren't really very fast. Ivo's later dragsters were powered by Chrysler HEMI engines.

[Truckedup]

In summary of previous posts:

- Isky is a good source of information concerning Buick nailhead V-8 cams, as well as other vintage engine info.


-

15 years ago I was building a GMC 302 inline 6 and called Isky to see what grinds they offered...The tech rep on the phone was friendly and talked for awhile but had almost nothing to offer because it needed to be a regrind .I did have a NOS GMC cam to regrind.....Oregon Cams had about 8 patterns that would work on a regrind, the owner was very knowledgeable about vintage engines,my self and other used them ,nice work for a nice price...

[Krooser]

I believe Charles @ Camcraft Cams in NC has blanks for Nailheads.

[Dutchman]

Bullet did mine solid ft, stout 452 started life as a 425. This was about 5 yrs ago. Very happy all around.

[pdq67]

In summary of previous posts:

- Isky is a good source of information concerning Buick nailhead V-8 cams, as well as other vintage engine info.


-

15 years ago I was building a GMC 302 inline 6 and called Isky to see what grinds they offered...The tech rep on the phone was friendly and talked for awhile but had almost nothing to offer because it needed to be a regrind .I did have a NOS GMC cam to regrind.....Oregon Cams had about 8 patterns that would work on a regrind, the owner was very knowledgeable about vintage engines,my self and other used them ,nice work for a nice price...

You should have talked to Ed himself!!

pdq67..

[engineguyBill]

15 years ago I was building a GMC 302 inline 6 and called Isky to see what grinds they offered...The tech rep on the phone was friendly and talked for awhile but had almost nothing to offer because it needed to be a regrind .I did have a NOS GMC cam to regrind.....Oregon Cams had about 8 patterns that would work on a regrind, the owner was very knowledgeable about vintage engines,my self and other used them ,nice work for a nice price...

Finding suitable cam cores for vintage engine applications is a huge problem - don't throw those old cams away, they are valuable . . . . . . . . .

[engineguyBill]

You should have talked to Ed himself!!

pdq67..

Ed doesn't spend much time around the shop these days. You can probably find him at one of his "warehouses", sorting through his collection of "stuff" or at one of the nearby restaurants in Gardena visiting with other "oldtimers". Problem is Ed, has outlived most of the other oldtimers.