Buick 350 swap into Chevy S-10

Looking for a vehicle to put my Buick 350 into and figured that a S-10 would work rather well because of its utility and availability of aftermarket parts. The Buick will be built mostly stock with aftermarket alum. intake and 1 step above stock.

Question: I know Buicks have not been too popular and with the issue of the stock oil pump, has anyone found an alternative way to fixing a wore out front housing/oil pump housing besides the pricey TA piece? I thought about welding a cog belt pulley onto a big block mopar oil pump and mount it externally with a bracket with external lines. Any other options?

Trans will be a 200R4, have to put some of this stuff to good use that is laying around the house.  

for question number one...   yes.. but why... "because its there" is only a good reason to climb mountains..    it will be a lot of fun...

#2      why not get a good used timing cover off a pre 80 v6 with the 14 bolt v6 pan..... or check out  one through dorman  # 635-504   fits 5.7 and other motors also...  

Thank you, now thats what I am talking about, one step closer to making this project real.

Why am I doing this? Outside of car shows I have seen and heard 1 Buick 350 run in the real world and that was for a brief 1 day experience when I was less than 10 years old. I have the engine, I can hook it up to a modern trans and a small pickup will suit my family well. I have a 05 Duramax right now so overloading the S-10 will not be an issue. Want the S-10 for those grocery/parts runs on cheap gas.  

I forgot to mention that I don’t see any excitement, fun or challenge in putting a Chevy 350 in an S-10 anyways, they are everywhere at car shows. Kind of boring if you ask me.  

Cool idea.  Wayne is right, find a RWD Buick V6 with with the 14-bolt pan (pretty much guarenteed '79 and earlier) for a timing cover. If it's just the pump cover worn out you can get a booster plate to create a new wear surface.

 If you don't have an HEI, you can grab one off a V-6 and change out the pickup coil magnet with an 8 cylinder one and it'll be good.  Or pertronix the points distributor.  
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The Silver Buick- '77 Skylark coupe w/ a Fuel Injected Buick 455&TKO-600, '72 Centurion Conv't - 455w/TH400, '67 T-bird 4Dr (suicide) w/428&C6. Needing to replace a '69 Firebird 400.

http://www.bangshift.com/forum/index.php?topic=6189.0

I love the idea of putting the Buick 350 in the S10. It's a pretty light engine in stock form at 450 lbs. It should work well.

The V6 cover works fine. I've got one on my 5.0l Rover/Buick stroker engine. fit perfect.  
-Nic '73 Vega GT, Aluminum Wildcat 5.0

silver buick... will changing the pick up coil only make it work???

i seem to recall that the there are two different V6 hei units..    both of the reluctor has the pole tips at one third spacing.. or one sixth....   this lines up with the even spaced pick up pole tips on an even fire motor... and on odd fire motors.. the pickup coil pole tips are spaced...  two together space two together space two together..

putting a six cylinder shaft and reluctor will prevent the motor from ever running..


why did gm go to an even fire motor...???  when they went to the electronic spark timing... they had to...  

how does that work...   when the engine is being  started... and below 400 rpm.. the pick up coil signals trigger the module directly...    the signal has to go over 0.6 volts ac..   +0.3 and - 0.3 ... when it goes above the +0.3 threshold.. it turns on the power transistor and completes the circuit through the primary winding..  when it drops from the +0.3 or more to 0.0 (where the tips align)  the power transistor opens and discharges the primary... collapsing the magnetic field through the secondary windings..   HIGH VOLTAGE comes out of the secondary..

when the engine speed is above 400 rpms.. and the computer takes over... there is a variable voltage signal from the ecm to the module..    when it goes into computed timing..   the ac signal from the pick up coil is held for milliseconds.. this time delay let the computer discharge the coil before  the next pulse is generated...  hence the ability to move the spark way advanced from the baseline timing..    

there is also .. some built in advance in HEI modules..   i have not investigated how much...    msd used to have a knob for the dash board that allowed you to vary the base timing..  but it would also effect the total timing rpm wide.. i think that this set up with a detonation sensor to give a warning of detionation would be great for dyno testing... so  you could vary the timing a bit remotely  to look for those extra horses...

one more thing... a huge tip... how do you know if a pick up coil is working.. an ohm meter test.. yes. that works...  but next time you have one hooked up for an ohm meter test..    before disconnecting the test leads.. switch the meter over to 2 volt or 20 volt AC...  then spin the distributer shaft..  it the reluctor is good.. it will generate over 1 volt ac...  if it fails to generate 1 volt ac.. it may not turn on the power transistor to charge the coil...

this time delay is also why the late model small cap hei units with the reluctor in a riveted sandwich on the distributer shaft cause weird problems when the trapped magnet cracks..     (look straight down the top of the shaft with the rotor pulled off with a bright flash light.. see any cracks...  you will know that is more than likely the problem...  the module and ecm require an nice clean ac signal out of the pick up coil.. when it gets these ramdom signals... it causes misfires ... the next spark past the weird signal is either early or late...


as for the hei.. for our buick friend.. he should probably find or buy a unit for a 76 buick. both 350 and 455s were available as i recall for 76.... they came with hei.. and i think that was the last year for a v8 buick...

there are a whole bunch of aftermarket units also...  

"silver buick... will changing the pick up coil only make it work??? "

Wayne you are absolutely right, I forgot you have to change the reluctor too (the spikey thing, it needs 8 points).  I forgot that I had pulled some off distributor shafts at the junkyard when I converted my 231 oddfire HEI for my 455 Buick.  There are two kinds, depends on which way the distributor rotates, you have to get one that rotates in the same direction as the Buick Distributor, but doesn't have to be off a buick engine.  The 7-pin distributors I believe have the extra 10* advance built into them (as phased from the reluctor points to the rotor contact point).  Good Catch.  
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The Silver Buick- '77 Skylark coupe w/ a Fuel Injected Buick 455&TKO-600, '72 Centurion Conv't - 455w/TH400, '67 T-bird 4Dr (suicide) w/428&C6. Needing to replace a '69 Firebird 400.

http://www.bangshift.com/forum/index.php?topic=6189.0

********UPDATE!!!!!!!!!!!**********

I got an 87 Caprice instead of the S-10 to put the Buick 350 into. The winter tires already mounted kind of made it an easy choice being that it was mid Winter when I picked it up.

I have the cam and lifters to remove from the block before I take it for inspection.

It was interesting comparing how far down in the hole the pistons were at BDC compared to the Chevy 350 short block that was near by during disassembly. Also the deep skirt made for a robust look compared to the Chevy. Should be an interesting ride when done.  

Keep the updates going as you progress. Far down eh? 3.90" Stroke, how about wrapping your head around this one, the Buick 455 uses that same 3.90" stroke, 105cid more all in widening the bore!  
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The Silver Buick- '77 Skylark coupe w/ a Fuel Injected Buick 455&TKO-600, '72 Centurion Conv't - 455w/TH400, '67 T-bird 4Dr (suicide) w/428&C6. Needing to replace a '69 Firebird 400.

http://www.bangshift.com/forum/index.php?topic=6189.0

I'm telling ya, this engine is trully an underdog engine with some really interesting aspects. If there could be a way to mount a big block mopar oil pump externally to this engine I would think that the major drawback to this engine would be solved.  

Cam is out. Will take lifters out once I find a piece of cardboard to hold them in order for photos and future reference. Found one lifter that concave instead of convex. Cam must have been made pretty good back in the day since there is no visible sign of damage to that lobe. Next will be to make arrangements with my mechanic to see what is or not needed when he sends to his vendor for hot tanking and inspection to see if this core is any good. I may do some oven cleaning myself just to make it less messy for me to handle.

This build will be pretty basic, RV or 1 step above stock cam, higher compression and polished/debured combustion chambers to play around with the national mandated E10 or future slated E15, and an alum. intake in order to see if the Buick is indeed nearly 100lbs lighter than the Chibrolett it will replace. I also want to see what affects on handling the lighter weight will have on the Caprice.

Should make for an interesting commute to work if I start going hay wire with the handling part.  

One more thing, if I have one laying around I will put the smaller primary Q-Jet on instead of the larger 800cfm ones for severe throttle responce and economy. I am hoping to squeeze out better MPG than my 318 Dakota which gets 21mpg.  

*****UPDATE*****
I had difficulty finding sheet metal and other small parts for the current Buick 350 I had so I searched the locals for a parts car. I scored a 78 Lesabre with a reman less than 3000 mile Buick 350 in it for a reasonable price. The 305 is out of the Caprice and the B350 is out of the Lesabre and close to being installed. I have to wait on an adapter plate from summit to mate the non-universal 200r4 to the Buick engine. All is going well so far and will soon experience the torque of the small Buick in the Caprice. The now spare 350 will get greased up and put away for the time being.  

Yay!  
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The Silver Buick- '77 Skylark coupe w/ a Fuel Injected Buick 455&TKO-600, '72 Centurion Conv't - 455w/TH400, '67 T-bird 4Dr (suicide) w/428&C6. Needing to replace a '69 Firebird 400.

http://www.bangshift.com/forum/index.php?topic=6189.0