Nope, the original 215 cci engine was designed by the folks at the Buick
division, but with corporate understanding the engine would be utilized
by other divisions. (ie Olds and Pontiac)
The main reason the "hot rodders" prefered the olds engine was it had an
extra head bolt at each cylinder (6 bolts per hole, vs 5 on the
Buick/pontiac version) The stud boss was cast into all blocks - it is at
the 12 o'clock position when viewing the block from the top-but was only
bored and tapped for the Olds versions, as the Oldsmobile folks felt that
with the turbocharger, the possibility of head lift was increased.
The Olds version was the turgbocharged engine. Pontiac, only reluctantly
offered the engine, as they were in the process of developing in-house
their own small displacement V8, and really prefered to wait it out.
As for the Olds version "breathing" better, that's really problematical.
Compared to the 4100 series Buick engines, yes the F-85 did, whether due
to some kind of magic by the Olds head designers or pure luck is open to
debate. However, the later 4300 series Buick engines, 1963 with 4bbl
Rochester carb, high compression and bigger valves, more than held it's
own on the flow bench, and because of the larger valve sizes, is more
receptive to head flow improvements.
Just my $.02 worth
Rick Morrison
72 MGBGT
74 Midget
On Tue, 07 Jul 1998 07:27:57 -0500 ccrobins <ccrobins@ktc.com> writes:
>Hi Paul,
>
> Thinking back to the original 215 V8.....Don't remember for sure but
>I
>seem to recall that the original design came out of the Oldsmobile
>division of GM. The Olds F-85 had the same 215 block with different
>heads - heads that breathed better, too. That's why hot rodders chose
>the Olds version if space wasn't a problem. The Buick version was
>narrower, so that's why it went into the MGB - it would fit. I seem
>to
>recall that there was a Pontiac version of the 215 V8 too. Lessee,
>which one of them had the turbocharger with the waste gate?
>
> Charley Robinson
> `69 B
>
>
>
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