Our Beloved Dauntless Gets Some Love

How Buick's Fireball V-6 birthed one of the most successful engines in history | Hagerty Media

 

Great article. Thanks for sharing!

 

Thanks for sharing!

 

Nice read.

 

The article leaves out a few things. The final year of the 215 V8 had an optional 11:1 compession ratio, a different cam, and the optional 4bbl. It was the 4300 series, and made 200 hp. I don't remember the torque, but it was noticably stronger than the 185hp 4 bbl version. The '62 Pontiac Tempest used the 215, and Olds also offered the 215 V8 in 2bbl and 4 bbl versions of the Cutlass for '62/'63. A turbocharged version was offered by Olds that made 215 hp in the Jetfire, though this was not thouroughly developed. They attempted water injection due to too high of compression ratio, and when the water/alcohol mix ran dry, it burned holes through the piston crowns. These are the BOP 215's named for Buick, Olds, and Pontiac, and have a unique bellousing pattern, along with the 198 V6.
As far as the 225 V6, those continued from '64 through the '67 model year as the base engine in the Buick Special model, overlapping '66 and '67 with the Jeeps. I'm pretty sure that Buick was still building the engines for Jeep for part or all of this time. The oddfire 225 engine was too unrefined for Buick, so it was dropped for '68-on. The 225 was ideal in our Jeeps and the rough fireing order did't really bother anyone. It made what is arguably the best Jeep that was built until AMC dropped a V8 in, and even then, opinions vary.
-Donny