RoddingRon
A man in his natural habitat....a Studebaker
At the machine shop I work at....one of the engineers also runs a weekly auction with his father. He was asking another guy there about an aluminum V8 that they had coming up in the next auction, and could this guy give him some information about it.....well that guy came to me and started asking me about how many different aluminum engines there were....I told him that when he went to look at everything to call me and I'd walk him through what it might be. Turned out that it wasn't the ZL1 big block he was hoping it was, so I asked if it was a small block Chevy design (Chevy made a few aluminum block 327's for use in Can Am racing back in the 60's)...nope wasn't one of those rare ones either and he couldn't find any thing other then a few numbers to say what it was....at this point I figured I knew what it was and asked him if the front timing cover was there, and if the oil filter was hanging off the lower passengers side of it. He said yeah there it is, and then he said...oh here it is...it says Buick on here. Yup, 61 to 63 Buick aluminum V8, all 215 cubic inches of it. Completely disassembled, but supposedly complete. So since the one guy wasn't interested in it (it wasn't a rare big block or even rarer small block Chevy), I told the auction guy if it was complete, I'd go up to $200 for it when it went through the auction.
When the auction was done, I ended up with the motor for $150...only problem is when I went to pick everything up, there was no crank and oil pan, and only 7 connecting rods and pistons...but I got two sets of heads and a whole bunch of other things that weren't even remotely motor related.
So now I have an aluminum V8 for the next fenderless hotrod I get into, but I need to keep my eyes open for a crank and oil pan. I found a rebuild kit that includes new connecting rods and pistons...just no crank.
When the auction was done, I ended up with the motor for $150...only problem is when I went to pick everything up, there was no crank and oil pan, and only 7 connecting rods and pistons...but I got two sets of heads and a whole bunch of other things that weren't even remotely motor related.
So now I have an aluminum V8 for the next fenderless hotrod I get into, but I need to keep my eyes open for a crank and oil pan. I found a rebuild kit that includes new connecting rods and pistons...just no crank.
