Re: [AMC-list] AMC and Buick ???

[adh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Sandwich Maker)]

" From: "cliff" <am401@xxxxxxxxxxx>
" 
" Here's a query for you AMC history buffs.
" 
" A recent post on one of the Jeep forums stated that Buick and AMC shared 
" foundry facilities and collaborated on engine design. I know that the 2nd 
" gen Buick OHV V-8 is remarkable similar to AMC but I have always read that 
" this was the result of some sort of industrial espionage and nothing else. 
" As always I would like to correct the misinformed.
" 
" The Jeep forums are very good web sites and some of the friendliest folks I 
" have communicated with on-line but their AMC knowledge is lacking. No 
" disrespect of AMC is intended by their misguided info. At least they know 
" the 390 is not a Ford and the 327 is not a Chevy!!
" 
" Cliff Danley

the closest i know of:

buick designed the infamous 215 aluminum v8 in the early '60s.  alcoa
was agitating detroit on aluminum engines and i've always thought this
was one result, along with an aluminum mopar slant six and the
aluminum nash ohv 196, but i don't actually know.

the world - and particularly antifreeze chemistry - wasn't yet ready
for aluminum engines, so these all had short production lives.  the
buick, afaik the only one designed in aluminum, was converted to iron
and enlarged to 300, while rights and tooling for the aluminum version
were sold to rover.  they had already developed a 198-cube iron v6
from the 215; from the 300 was spun a v6, 225 cubes.

jeep started looking around for a more powerful, modern engine to
offer in their cj5 and ended up drawing a bead on the 225.  an
outgrowth of the little 215, it was very compact for its displacement
and actually weighed less than willys' ancient go-devil 4, which dated
from the late '20s, and even in mild grocery-getting trim made double
the hp.

for '67, gm decreed that all divisions would share the chevy i6; the
225, now redundant, was sold to kaiser.  the only change they made was
a heavy flywheel with which the engine could idle smoothly as low as
200 rpm.

in the meantime, the 300 grew taller decks and was stroked to 340 and
then bored to 350 cubes, gm's smallest and lightest 350.  when
kaiser's supply of amc 327s dried up in '68, they bought 350s.

when kaiser sold willys to amc, both the 225 and 350 were replaced
with amc engines, the big heavy i6 widely viewed as a step backward
for the cj.  but the gas crisis was just hitting and gm was starting
to look around for economical small engines, and amc seized the chance
to sell the 225 back to gm in '74.  pistons from the 350, still in
production, bumped it to 231.

the 215 lasted at rover until '04, by which time it'd grown to 4.6L
and 225 hp.  brit specialist stroked it to 5.0 for their sportscars.
it still used the same timing set and front cover as the buick v8s.
rover's new owner ford replaced it with their own engine, shared with
new ford divisions jaguar and aston martin as well as in lincolns and
thunderbirds.  aston, jag, and land rover still make versions.

the buick v6 finally ended in '08, after much evolution.  it was
partly replaced by a descendant of the infamous chevy 2.8 v6, now
3.5L.
--
afaik there was no engine design or engineering relationship between
amc and gm.  in the early '70s, gm did sue amc over the use of
ball-stud mounted valve rockers, and lost.
________________________________________________________________________
Andrew Hay                                  the genius nature
internet rambler                            is to see what all have seen
adh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx                       and think what none thought
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