Buick engine manufacturing source

[electra225]

Here you go, Chris. I asked for 1960's engines, but the text says it started in 1905 so it will include your '38 engine.

https://www.bing.com/search?q=were%20Bu ... F2D7E279BD

[TC Chris]

Wish this site saved drafts. Trying again. Star with the saved link. My great-aunt Edna wrote a memoir of her young childhood. Great-grandfather's railroad job took the family to Flint for a while until it took them away to Manistee. Aunt Edna listed her little friends in Flint, including Margery Durant. That sounded familiar--yes, Billy Durant's daughter.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margery_Durant

He founded Buick, Chevrolet, and General Motors, between firings and bankruptcies.

Your engine link took me eventually to Wikipedia, which said this abut "Buick City" production:

"For the engine assembly plant (Factory 36), the engine block and cylinder heads were cast at Defiance Foundry in Defiance, Ohio and earlier at Saginaw Metal Casting Operations in Saginaw, Michigan. "

So I'm guessing that the '38 engine blocks were cast down the road in Saginaw at the big foundry there. Machining & assembly in Flint....

Chris Campbell
"

[electra225]

Yep. The frames were built by the individual plants. I wasn't aware that the Saginaw complex cast engine blocks. I thought those were all cast by Defiance in Ohio. There is no mention in the article I linked about Tonawanda. The big Chevy engines all had "Built in Tonawanda" stickers on the valve covers. Did they cast engines in Tonawanda or just assemble them there? In 1955, Buick sold so many cars they were literally building engines on hand trucks on the side of the line. They failed to get the piston rings installed correctly, with oil consumption issues resulting. I remember seeing engine blocks stacked like cordwood after they unloaded then from the train car. The machining and assembly took place at Flint. My understanding is that all the Buick engines were built in Flint, then shipped complete to the other assembly plants. For the first two years, the Dynaflow plant built the new Chevy Power Glide. Power Glide started out as a smaller version of Dynaflow, complete with torque tube drive. Reverse was on the bottom thru 1957, it started "slipping" (shifting) in 1953. Power Glide was basically a mini-Hydramatic by 1963. One of the great transmissions ever built....

When Buick introduced their new V-8 in 1953, they got the nickname "Nailhead" due to their small vertical valves. This restrictive valve arrangement was necessary so the new V-8 would be as silky-smooth as the Straight 8 it replaced. Only rated at 188 horsepower. By 1956, the valve sizes and head porting were much improved. The 1956 version of the 322 was rated at 255 horsepower, probably conservative. You could use the 1956 heads on the older versions of both the 322 and the 264. A well-tuned 1956 322 with an AFB carb would run off and hide from the new 364 introduced in 1957. The 364 was smooth and competent, but it was not fast.

[TC Chris]

Google's AI tells us this about the Chevy small block:

"In 1961, Chevrolet V-8 engine blocks were cast at General Motors' Saginaw Grey Iron Foundry in Saginaw, Michigan. Once cast, these raw engine blocks were shipped to Flint Engine in Flint, Michigan, where they were machined and assembled.
The specific casting plants and the types of V-8 engines they produced in 1961 include:
Saginaw Grey Iron Foundry (Saginaw, MI): Cast the engine blocks, cylinder heads, crankshafts, and connecting rods for both the small-block V-8s (e.g., the 283 cid) and the "W-Series" big-blocks (e.g., the 348 cid and the newly introduced 409 cid. Chevrolet-Flint Engine (Flint, MI): The primary facility that machined and assembled Chevrolet small-block V-8. Tonawanda Engine (Tonawanda, NY): While Flint handled small-blocks, the Tonawanda plant handled the assembly of large-displacement big-block engines."

And for the '38 Buick:

"In 1938, Buick engine blocks were cast at the Buick Motor Division Foundry located at the sprawling Buick manufacturing complex in Flint, Michigan. These cast-iron blocks were for the overhead valve straight-eight engines used in models like the Special, Century, Roadmaster, and Limited."

Chris Campbell

[electra225]

So Tonawanda only built the big block engines. The 366 used in medium duty trucks had Tonawanda stickers on their valve covers as well. I owned three new 366 engines. Wonderful, quiet, smooth, torquey and dependable as the day was long. They were governed at 3500 rpm, but you could get more out of them replacing the factory Holley four-barrel with governor with an AFB with no governor. The 366 would run to 5000 rpm for short spurts and not object. I never had one that used oil. The exhaust manifolds would crack and the timing chain was only good for about 75,000 miles. We had a 327 in a Chevy dump truck that ran 5000 rpm all day, every day, for ten years before we had to do anything to it outside of oil changes and spark plugs. Its downside was that the truck had hydraulic brakes. Getting it to "whoa" was the big issue with that truck. Thanks, Chris.......