215 Engine
This car and engine grew out of the early '60's gas crunch. Up until
this time, the American car market had consisted of big cars with big motors
that used lots of gas.
In 1961, Olds (and Buick and Pontiac, referred to collectively as "The
BOP Cars") came out with their new small cars (Olds F-85, Pontiac
Tempest, Buick Special). Back in GM's experimental phase (prior to
the invention of product liability lawyers), a single body shell was
used to spin off three very different platforms. The basic body is is
unibody construction. Available was a new, all aluminum V-8, displacing
215 cubic inches. This engine was standard in the Buick and Olds, optional
in the Pontiac.
Olds and Buick used it to build the
conventional front engine/rear drive Cutlass (Jetfire) and Skylark
models. Chevy used this same shell to create the Corvair, with rear
engine, transaxle, and air cooling. Pontiac took the middle ground
with the Tempest, mounting the engine in the front but using the
Corvair transaxle to build a precursor to the Porsche 928 and the C5
Corvette. With the exception of the 'Vair, the cars were available
with the Pontiac slant 4 (195 cubic inches out of a four cylinder!
Literally a 389 Poncho cut in half!), the Buick V6, or the
aforementioned aluminum V8. Only Olds had the turbo (Jetfire) available.
The original motor was aluminum from Buick, it used cast iron sleeves.
The Olds versions got their compression ratio from the heads, and Buick's
from the pistons. Buick Special, Skylark, Olds Jetfire, F-85, and the
'61, '62 Tempest used a version of the motor with one extra head bolt. It
will still bolt to a later Rover block, but with one extra hole. They're
rare though. Intakes are believed to interchange, though.
The 215 V8 doesn't share the BOP transmission bell housing pattern, but some
strange, unique pattern. The starter
bolts to the engine horizontally. Meaning the bolts thread horizontallty like
on a Chrysler. Not Vertically like on an Olds. Also, there are no provisions
for an adapter like a small block Chevy in a bus, with a large flywheel, and a
horizontal starter pattern.
The 215 was powerful despite its small displacement. The strong motor
in such a light body with independent suspension all around made the Special
and F-85 one of the best cars in the early 1960's. The biggest barrier has been
the brakes which were inadequate at the time, and are even more so today.
Examples had 3-speeds, 4-speeds (Borg-Warner I believe),
a type of Powerglide that went into the Buick and Pontiac, and the
Slim Jim Jetaway type in the '62 Jetfire. They also had 2-barrel and 4-barrel
carbs (Rochester) for them as well as the huge 1-barrel side-draft on the
turbo Olds version.
Factory rating for the turbo motor was 215 hp out of 215 cu in. The
engine uses a unique bellhousing bolt pattern, so adapters are
required to install something newer (available from D&D). The ordinary
Buick's and F85's got a two speed powerglide unit.
A four speed was also available. My automatic is a 3 speed one.
I believe that only the '63's actually had the 4-speeds although I've
met someone who says he has a 4-speed '62. The 4-speeds were of the Corvette
Borg Warner T-10's. The production of the '62's began in the middle of
April & so that string was begun & stopped for the '63's very quickly.
Jetfire Engine
In 1961, the F-85 had a 155 HP version of the 215 ci. engine, and the
Cutlass had a 185 HP version. The 1961 versions of the motor were rated
at 155 hp, but later years saw increases - up to 200 hp normally aspirated
for the Buick version and 215 hp in turbocharged
form from Olds (the 62-63 Jetfire).
In 1962, Olds, along with AiResearch, introduced a 'turbocharged' (called
Fluid Injection) version
of this engine, which put "Turbo Rocket Fluid" (½ distilled
water, ½ methyl alcohol) into the carb. Along with a 10.25:1 compression ratio,
yielded 0-60 in 8.5 seconds (with the manual tranny).
The turbo was a Garrett TO-3 with an integral wastegate, the
first. Unfortunately, due to the 10:1 compression ratio, boost was limited
to only 5 psi, not the best use of a turbo.
The induction setup itself is fairly sophisticated (especially for
1962), with something like 54 separate connections to the intake
system. The turbo has an integral wastegate, being the
first mass production turbo application to use a wastegate.
The turbo has a large oil line running directly from
the oil pump to keep oil present to the bearings. If they get hot
(running hard) they must not be shut down without a cool down period.
This was arguably the most complex induction system build to that time,
with something like 50 different hose connections in the intake system
(pressure sensors, wastegate, fluid injection, fuel, etc).
Olds attempted to get around the boost lag problem by using a high
compression ratio (10:1!), which limited boost to only 5 psi. Fluid
injection (Turbo Rocket Fluid) was used (a water/alcohol mix) to suppress
detonation. Properly running cars will not go into boost if the
"Turbo Rocket Fluid" resevoire is empty.
There is an automatic shutoff for this. Parts for this injection system are
even harder to get than the turbo parts.
The carb is a rare single barrel
Rochester side-draft unit, whose only other application was on the
Corvair Turbo. While they resemble the Corvair carb, they are much larger.
They share some parts with an ordinary 2-barrel V-8 Rochester
such as floats, needles & seats, etc.
The Olds' turbocharged Jetfire was supposedly quicker than the 4V version, but it
had maintenance problems due to its complex mechanics for that era. It attained
the magic goal of 1 HP per CID.
A power boost on the order of 40% was claimed. The automatic Cutlass
with 10.75:1 compression gave 195 HP @ 4800 and 235 lb/ft @ 3200. The Jetfire's
10.25:1 compression gave 215 HP @ 4800 and 300 lb/ft @ 3200.
Top speed for a 4V was just over 100 mph, but 0-60 took almost 11 seconds
with automatic, although the stick did better. The biggest problem with
the Special/F-85 was the 3-speed "slushbox" transmission. Which, according
to a Motor Trend
road test, "seemed to take forever for the Hydra-Matic to get a good,
firm lockup into the next gear, and the engine lost 2,000 rpm on
each shift."
Oldsmobile scrapped this system in 1964 due to reliability problems. The
'performance Olds' then became the 442 in '64.
Rover, Buick 300, 3.8, etc
Not long after the motor was put into production,
gas became plentiful again. You all remember the late '60's,
early '70's, "Why build a 215 when you can build a 455?" It was the
dawning of the age of muscle cars.
At this same time, across the pond,
the British were just beginning to turn away from the famous 4 cylinders.
They were selling off their designs and tooling, left and right, to the
Japanese. The only new motors that British car companies seemed to have produced,
though, were those HEAVY I-6 motors. They attempted a V-8 with the
Triumph Stag, but due to poor design, the motor was plagued by mechanical
failure (a Triumph having mechanical trouble, never!)
GM, still
having fun with the 330, 425, 455, etc. decided that it had no use for the
215 design, and therefore, sold the design, tooling and manufacturing rights for the
motor to the very willing British Leyland company (Rover/Jaguar/Triumph).
It has evolved into the 3.5, 3.9, and 4.2 liter
engines in various British cars (Land Rover, Rover 3500, TVR, TR8, +8, etc.)
The engine is a direct fit in the MG, as it was offered in the early
1970s, as the MGC (ie, next after the MGB). The full-up engine (carb-to-oil
pan) weighs about 305 lbs.
The 215 was redesigned
from an investment casting to a sand cast aluminum block making it
slightly heavier, but it is said to be less prone to cracking, and better
at vibration dampening. Basic dimensions remained the same: bore,
stroke, bearing sizes, distance between bores, etc. 215 manifolds
still fit the 3.5l blocks as do all of the original 215 aftermarket
upgrades.
Buick, having had
given up the 215, recast the block as a cast iron version: the Buick
300. Slightly taller and larger bore, but the same bore to bore and
bearing placement. This engine was equipped with a 3.4" stroke crank
that had larger bearings and a different rear seal assembly. This makes
the crank a ½ inch or inch longer out the back side and the flywheel
bolt pattern different.
About this time, Buick, wanting smaller and more fuel
efficient cars, decided that they needed a new powerplant. They wanted something
light, so they went back to those same 215 bore dimensions. They
made it a V-6 in 198 cu in form. This original V-6 was optional in the Jetfire.
Later, from this original V-6, Buick 232 was born. The front
covers of these motors will still mate up with the old 215's and the
Rover blocks.
The Buick 3.8L V-6 is a variant and can supply bell housings, water pumps, and
various other common block parts for the 215. There are some small differences
between the Buick 215 and the Rover 3.5l in many aspects of the design.
Front Cover/Oil Pump: Don't know as much about the 215's front cover, but
I've had plenty of experience with the V-6's. The way Buick made these front
covers/oil pumps does make it easy to increase the volume and/or pressure of
the oil pump. The one detractor in this case, however, is that it is
aluminum and aluminum gouges fairly easily. One often-bought service part is
a "wear plate" to make up for the grooving the steel gears will do to the
aluminum lower oil pump cover. Another is a high-volume kit that gives you
longer gears and a spacer plate to make up the difference. Also packaged
with the kit is a selection of pressure relief springs to tailor the pressure
of the pump; however, this engine still has scary oil pressure, but I drive
it daily and it runs just fine.
Another thing you can salvage-yard find are all sorts of oil filter mounts
(it's the same piece as the lower oil pump cover) to either change the type
of filter you use (I moved up from the 2-ounce capacity Starfire filter to
one for a Buick wagon) or even the angle the filter mounts on the engine, in
case you have clearance problems.
Another nice part is the Edelbrock intake manifold, they list it as a Rover
part, I believe.
[ Thanks to Ken Snyder, others for this information. ]
Buildups
Normally aspirated versions of the motor
are still somewhat available, and there are a couple of shops which
specialize in the motors (D&D in Michigan is the one that advertises
in Hemmings every month). Parts are available to bump displacement
out from the original 3.5 liters to 5.0.
The hot setup to use in this
case is to swap the heads for those on a 1964 Buick 300, which is the
same basic engine with a cast iron block and a displacement bump. The
300 heads are still aluminum, however, and will bolt to the 215 block.
It is possible to drop the crank and heads from the 300 onto a 215
short block and get a 5.0 liter all aluminum V-8 that weighs about
310 lbs fully dressed.
The basic block was fitted with DOHC 4-valve heads and turned into an
F1 racing engine by Repco of Australia in the early 60s. Mickey Thompson
also ran one at Indy in the early 60s. Mickey Thompson used the 215 block
along with his own forged
crank and aluminum pistons to make an off road race engine. The crank
was 3.5" stroke, quite a bit larger than the 2.8" stock one still used to
power the Rover 215. This brought the CID up to 250 and it had a higher lift,
higher rev cam, as well as Mallory Dual point ignition.
Another interesting bit of trivia is that the 1964 Buick 300 is actually
a cast iron version of this motor with aluminum heads - in fact these 1964
heads have larger ports and valves and will bolt to a 215.
Many articles have been written on installing
this crank into the 215 case to get the 215's light package with the
increased stroke and displacement of the 300's crank. It does, however,
require engine rear seal machining, crank grinding, and some funny
business to get a manual tranny to bolt up.
They can be bored as high as 60 thousandths without going through
the steel cylinder liners. Piston's and rings were available a while ago.
Alan Friedrich
Just when you thought that nothing else could be done to this
poor block, Volvo (yes family sedan/wagon people) valves, it was
discovered, would fit into the 310 aluminum heads to increase flow. Also,
Chevy Carrera rods (300, 310, 340) were quite a bit stronger than any of
the others. Stronger than even M. Thompson's box welded rods.
A side note,
The 310 is also sometimes referred to as the 340. Back then, Buick often
put the largest number from among CID, torque or horsepower on the air cleaner.
The 310 engine generated 340 pounds/foot of torque. That's how you end up
with people referring to the 401 nailhead as a 445, or the 425ci as the
465, since those were the numbers on the original air cleaners. Just
something to know when looking for compatible parts.
In Britian, some 215s have been
bored and stroked to an amazing 4.5 to 5.0 liters through the use of the
factory crank from a diesel Rover (known as the Tundra something or other).
Now then, does this not sound fun to you, an Olds F-85, with the aluminum
Rover 3.5 liter block, bored to 3.8 liters, stroked from 2.8" to 3.5"
using a Mickey Thompson crank, Big aluminum head via Buick 300 etc. Volvo
oversize valves, a 3.8 liter front case w/HEI ignition and still able to
hang a serpentine belt with all accessories on it, and bolted up to a
Borg/Warner 5 speed tranny?