Buick straight 8!! And all aluminum 1960's Buick V8 ?

[Tim Cucci]

Saw this yesterday afternoon while I was picking up my rods an pistons at the machine shop. My machinist had found a 49 Buick 4 door sedan in a yard full of weeds while driving by. The car has a Straight 8 engine. He had the engine out and disassembled in the shop. Then he said "Let me show you something else" . He walked me over to look at an all aluminum V8 Buick block he was working on. This was out of a Triumph TR8 from the 60's. I had never heard of these Buick engines much less ever seen them. He also had a Chevy 409 , GM 2-4's aluminum intake for Q jet.

He is going to build a Rat Rod with the Straight 8 in it.

 

[BuickMike]

Buick built a 215 ci all aluminum V8 in the early 60's. It was in the '61-'63 Skylarks. It was also used in the '62-'63 Olds F-85. They had a model called the Jetfire which was turbocharged. They used Methanol injection too. I believe you had to buy it from the dealership and it was called Boost Juice. Lots of people let the meth tank run dry and hurt the motors, so many of them were converted to NA. Buick ditched the motor and replaced it with the 300 V8, which had aluminum heads in '64 only. Buick sold the motor plans to Rover, who used the motor in the Range Rover, as well as the Triumph TR8. They eventually made it 4.2 and used it through the early 90's. I believe the Lotus Esprit V8 Twin Turbo (215 DOHC V8) shares the pedigree that started as the Buick aluminum V8 too. Really neat history behind that platform.

 

[BuickMike]

Also, the TR8 was made from '78-'81 with the 215. Check out this info on the Jetfire:

https://www.hemmings.com/blog/2013/04/18/yesterdays-car-of-tomorrow-1962-1963-oldsmobile-jetfire/

 

[BuickMike]

The straight 8 was called the fireball. It was eventually replaced in 1954 with a compact V8 design....AKA the Nailhead.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buick_Straight-8_engine

 

[fast86gn]

If I remember right (which can be rare at my age) Ford bought Range Rover and owned the rights to the Buick V8 for awhile? Which is very strange but true. I think?

 

[BuickMike]

Yup. Ford owned Land Rover, Jaguar, and Lotus for a while if memory serves correctly. Oh, and Aston Martin too.

 

[Chuck Leeper]

We used to drag race a st 8...It was in a altered roadster. Torque monster. Weighed a ton!

 

[Pronto]

My autoshop teacher in high school had buick skylark with the 215. He was very proud of it.

 

[S10xGN]

There was an early 50's Buick with a straight-8 in a yard near us when we were kids. I remember pulling a couple valve springs off it with just our fingers!