I have a 350 chev eng and there is a 1983 Buick for sale with a blown 305 motor CHEAP. I want to do this I just need to know if this will fit?

 

It might. See if the Buick has the Chevy engine in it already. I think all of the 305s were Chev SB.

 

it will easily fit and is almost a straight swap.

but, you mean straight bolt in? or physical size? physically the 305 and 350 are the same, straight bolt in... i just remembering my neighbors along time ago throwing 350's (actually 383) into the car, seemed no problem at all, but they had a th400 behind it, but the th350 out of the car would fit also.

 

If the buick has a 305 it's a small block chevy and a 350 sbc will swap right in. If the Buick has a 307 it's an Oldsmobile motor and in that case the 350 won't even bolt up to the transmission.

Where is the oill fill for the motor on your Buick?

 

Sometimes they put in unibells, which would bolt to both olds and Chevy motors. If it is the 305, not a 301 or 307, then it will be a direct swap.

 

You are correct! But it was really hit or miss as to weither or not a particular car had one or not. Even within the same year.

 

I hear you there... the only way to know is to look for the peak that looks like it has nothing to do there... It usually seems to be only installed behind the Olds or Caddy motors... almost like they knew the motor in there was junk, so lets make it universal just in case...

 

GM went "corporate" with the engine lineup in 82. No more B-O-P patterned engines.

No such thing as a Buick 305 after...well, never was a Buick 305, period.

Straight swap.

 

3.8 retained the BOP bell... the GNX/Grand National 3.8 motors were still the BOPbell, the 2.8 had the same as 2.5, 4.3 was Chev, Caddy still used the BOP bell also, untill they were all front drive. The 4.1 Cad had BOP or Unibell... Fiance had an 84, first front drive De Ville was 85.
Buick never had a 305, true Buick other than 231(3.8) was back into the early 70's, but the Olds 307 and Pontiac 301 were used for a bit.

 

The 2.8 used the METRIC bolt pattern the same as engines like the 2.5 or any of the FWD engines.

The 4.3 V6 used the std Chevrolet bell housing

The RWD 3.8's used BOP pattern bellhousing, The FWD 3.8's used the Metric pattern tranny

The 80's RWD Buicks were just as likely to have a 305 Chevrolet engine installed in them as a 231 Buick or a 307 olds.



NOPE; The BOP pattern engine didn't go away untill the redegsin of the full sized cars in 1991. In fact for some strange reason from 87 to 90 the 307 OLDSMOBILE engine was the std engine for the Chevy Caprice wagon.

 

That's not correct. It began with the Buick 231 V-6 (one of the few things GM actually did right) around 1975 (for example, was under the hood of the Olds Starfire) which also found it's way into Pontiacs (GP's), Olds (Cutlass, 88, 98), and Buck's (Regal, for example). But if you happened to be around back then (as I was) you will recall it all really began with a vengance back in 1977 when a guy took a Cutlass (the most popular car in America that year and an American car as should always be in this country if you're an American) to an Olds dealer to replace a fan belt that broke. The Olds dealer told him they didn't have it, but to go to the chebby dealer down the road as they would have it. Well, the owner inquired as to why, and the Olds dealer pointed to the motor and told him it was a chebby. The owner, infuriated that he paid the higher price for an Olds and not a poor mans chebby motor (IIRC, about $300 or so price difference and in 1977 dollars to boot), would up filing suit against GM since the chebby motor was cheaper to build than the Olds motor. He won, and several customers that got stuck with the chebby motor got a check from GM. Oh, the reason they snuck that chebby motor under the hood is because they were way behind on production of Olds 350's. So the cheaper chebby motor was stuck under the hood to get the car out the door with a 350 and satisfy the publics thirst to put a Cutty in their garage. The public paid, but GM failed to deliver and paid the price.

**My source: The Wall Street Journal, clear back then. And yes, the subject did make 6:00 news.

 

Fine. Point is, the distinct engine lineups pretty much were gone by the end of the 81 model year.

Also, let's try to forget the disaster that is rebadging.

 

The switch by GM from the Olds engine was during one of the gas shortages. In addition to the price of the engine, I think the thing that really made the people is the Olds engine had a better fuel mileage rating than the Chevy. It was a class action suit and a bunch of people got money from GM for the secret switch. Ford and MOPAR never promoted their products as having different engines in different brands so they didn't have a problem.

 

I didn't end up doing the swap, the 350 is gone and the buick went to someone else, just thought I'd let the curious know...