What's your favorite car?

[human]

Beautiful car

I've always liked that body style Cutlass with a two-tone paint job. It really sets off the lines nicely. And that dark/light jade stone green is especially pretty, simultaneously sporty and sophisticated. My dad was still working for Oldsmobile back then and he said the two-tones sold especially well in the Northeast but we seldom saw them down here in the South. Most of the Cutlass coupes of that era sold down here had the vinyl landau roof treatments, of which I was never particularly fond. The cross-laced alloy wheels are a nice touch also. I had those on my '91 Cutlass Supreme coupe (FWD W-body) and later on my '95 Pontiac Bonneville.

 

[vacerator]

I had

a dark maple red and claret red '85 Cutlass Supreme brougham V8.

 

[suckolux]

I had a gorgeous 82 Cutlass Supreme Brougham, light and dark gray, mom loved it too, loaded and comfy, slow! It was only here a year, it was a lemon I am afraid. Pretty car, wish my PA rode like that did, or maybe it did and my body wasn't as fussy then

 

[vacerator]

Yes David,

I drove a friends '82 with the 260 V8 and it had no power. The paint job was awefull also. The shocks were too mushy. It rode well on a smooth road, but hopped on bumps like a boat on choppy water.

 

[suckolux]

Ahh, mine was the 231, 125 hp I think and it drank oil. It was a year old when I got it, always wondered if it was a lemon or mistreated?

 

[electrikbroomgu]

1982 Cutlass

My mom had a light green 82 Cutlass also with the Buick 231 engine. She got it with 30,000 miles and it was in beautiful shape. It never used oil until around 100K but that was traced out to leaky valve cover gaskets. It was always very reliable and mom loved that car. The base suspensions on these were like most other American made cars of the time. Soft and ride oriented. They did offer upgraded suspensions and tires on all of these however and mine has both and combined go a long way to curing the flabby suspension

 

[vacerator]

That old 231 Buick V6

still had old tolerances, and they did use some oil. The 2 barrel carburetor hesitated on left turns, and they were notorious for spinning crank shaft bearings.
The later version got fuel injection, roller valve cam followers, and was greatly improved, but still not perfect.

 

[human]

231 V6

The 231 V6 had a long and storied run both with GM and briefly with AMC. Originally developed in the early '60s, it was a V6 version of Buick's Fireball V8. They made the V6 version literally by shearing off two cylinders, which gave it an unusual firing order for a V6 resulting in a somewhat rough idle. This was eventually corrected in the late '70s. Tooling and production of the engine was sold off to American Motors in 1967 at the height of the muscle car era but GM bought it back in '74 when consumer focus shifted to fuel economy. GM originally wanted just to buy the finished engines from AMC the unit cost was going to be too high so they just bought every back and began manufacturing the engine again in-house. The engine eventually evolved into the 3800 V6, gaining not only multi-port fuel injection but a supercharger option as well. That would be the engine in your Park Avenue, David. The 3800 ended its run in 2008 when the plant that built it was closed down.

 

[suckolux]

That 82 was the newer one after the odd fire one in my 76 Century. The 82 was under warranty and they offered to replace/ rebuild the heads at 20,000 miles I think it was?It got traded off.

 

[vacerator]

Last cast iron block

GM engine.
There was also a mid 80's Buick 3.3 Litre 3300 90 degree banked V6 that Grand Am's, Olds Calais, and Buick Sommerset's had as an option over the 2.5 litre Iron Duke 4. I think maybe also in the 6000's, Ciera's, and Century's.

 

[suckolux]

If I recall 3 Liter too! Saw one in an early front drive PA and Cutlass Ciera

 

[vacerator]

Yes, 3 litre also David

in Olds Acieva, Skylark also.

 

[electrikbroomgu]

3300 and 3800

I have seen many 3300 and 3800 Buick V6's with 300-400K miles that still run as new. My friend is co-owner of a small dealership that sells loads of these cars and high miles is the norm. The Series II 3800 did have the upper plastic intake manifold issue but once that is corrected and replaced these mills are usually good for a load of miles.

 

[suckolux]

I used to manage a quick lube, true they did rack up the miles!

 

[human]

I had the 3.0 liter, 2bbl carb variant in an '84 Buick Century. Probably one of the last carbureted engines GM made.

 

[electrikbroomgu]

Last GM carbureted engine

To my knowledge was the 1990 Oldsmobile 307 4BBL V8 as in the Full size B-body station wagons and the Cadillac Brougham. The Buick 3.0 2BBL V6 lasted until 1985 and was succeeded by the Chevy made 2.8 2BBL for the 1986 model year. We worked on many mid to late 1980's Honda's with carburetors and a few Mazda's too.

 

[kenkart]

I remember

A guy in my hometown that had one of those early 80s Cutlasses with the 260, He took it out and put in a 403 out of a late 70s 98 and boy would it go then!!

 

[suckolux]

I thought that 260 looked choked with that half quad

 

[vacerator]

They were choked

David. My '77 Pontiac GP has the 301 with the half quad. It tries to suck in more air when you floor it, but well, it's choked.
Fuel economy was the word of the year back then, because the cars were still heavy. Secondaries only engage when you floor it anyhow.
They did the half quad because the primaries were smaller venturies than the two barrel Rochester carb.
I pulled the carb off once, to see if the manifold had four holes. It doesn't.

 

[suckolux]

I assumed that! My dad had a 76 Ventura with that motor, always wanted a 4 brl and duals to see if it could pass something then! It was fine at lower speeds, actually was a really good car, nothing broke, ever.

 

[vacerator]

Wow David,

my ex had a '78 Phoenix, but he ordered the V6, and it spun a bearing then seized up because he fell asleep drunk with the engine running and it overheated. He passed out next to the front of the car. I should have done a 180 degree spin and ran, but hindsight is 20/20. A former life, live and learn. He was a GM shop rat. We dropped a 260 in it, and it ran another few years until the dimmer switch shorted and the car burned up. His mom had a '79 with a Chev.305, an no troubles either.
Willow Run assembly turned out some good cars back in the day.
My partner is great now. 23 years we're together.

 

[suckolux]

That 260 felt like the power of the v6, but it was smooth

 

[human]

You're right about that. My sister had a '78 Cutlass Supreme with a 260 and its performance was pretty anemic, even compared to my '77 Buick Skylark that had a 231 V6.

 

[vacerator]

Smooth

yes! An Oldsmobile V8 hallmark. The low 2:29 or 2:56 to 1 rear axle ratio didn't help either.
I never drove one with a 3:08, but even the 301 or the 305 V8's with a 2:56 had enough power.
Once those old 231 V6's were broken in, you could feel the roughness of the engine in the gas pedal.

 

[suckolux]

I would guess, just a gut feel it was around 135 hp

 

[dartman]

Spread bore carbs

The spread bore carbs were developed to help drivability, fuel economy, and emissions. Carter made the Thermo Quad and GM had the Quadra Jet. Very small primaries and huge secondaries. If either is setup properly the car will pull smoother, get a bit better mpg, and emissions should be better. The old square bore carbs the primary bores were slightly smaller then the secondaries and MPG and emissions were not a concern when they were designed in the fifties and sixties.
I run a ThermoQuad on my Dart and it is the smoothest, best pulling carb I ever have had. I tried a Holley, AFB, AVS, and I tuned all of them the best I could and the TQ is the best of them for me. The spread bore was the most advanced design of carb Americans came up with but most of their runs they were smogged out to death, tied to early horrible emission based computer control and severely locked down as far as adjustability.
Early ones can be tuned very well if you can find a strip kit for it. I have them for the AFB, AVS, and TQ. You have to use a intake designed to use them, most aftermarket later ones can use square bore or spread bore carbs interchangeably. Otherwise you use what the car came with but they did make adapters that sorta worked.
Test drove a ram charger suv that had a 2bbl to 4bbl adapter on it and a small holley. Had to be horribly in efficient and choked down. It did seem to run ok though.

 

[vacerator]

Horsepower

was 145 for a 4 barrel 305 in 1986.
Torque was decent, or maybe it was the 200 R4 transmission, but that first to second gear shift was abrupt at over half throttle.

Ford used a variable venturi carburetor with computer mixture control but it did not work as well as a Quadrajet with computer mixture control.

 

[suckolux]

I was guessing on the hp of the 260

 

[vacerator]

David,

the 260 only gave 105 H.P.

 

[suckolux]

wow, I think the odd fire 231 was that too. must have had more torque