NissanDiesel Forums

A pontiac 326 motor from back in the day- is it a chevy small block?

I hear that the pontiac motors had nothing in common with a chevy small block and that might not be good for what i need it for.

But take that up against my belif of its a GM small block, its also a chevy small block, you get one puzzled person

Pretty sure the 326 is a unique Pontiac creature, but Pontiac is probably the GM line I know the least about. I can tell you with certainty that back in the day, GM had 3 different 350s the Chevy, Olds, and Buick. Same displacement , same era, three totally different engines. So too with the big blocks - Chev 454, Buick and Olds 455 - three different engines.

goglio704 wrote:Pretty sure the 326 is a unique Pontiac creature, but Pontiac is probably the GM line I know the least about. I can tell you with certainty that back in the day, GM had 3 different 350s the Chevy, Olds, and Buick. Same displacement , same era, three totally different engines. So too with the big blocks - Chev 454, Buick and Olds 455 - three different engines.

ditto, the 326 is a pontiac design. This was back in the day when divisions were entities unto themselves. Pontiac as well had a 455 which was completely different from the Buick 455 and Olds 455. In the latter 70's all engine production was unified under the GM nameplate so divisions lost their individual powerplants. Remember all the complaining by Cadillac owners whose 78/79 Sevilles had Olds 350 engines?

steve a

What they said. The 326 shares no parts (well, possibly the carb, definitely the points/condensor/cap/rotor, but not the underlying distributor) with the SBC, and the bellhousing bolt pattern isn't the same either.

The 326 is part of a Pontiac family of engines, but I forget what the other members are. I was an Cadillac and Olds man. I can tell you about Cadillac engines from the 365 in '53 to the 425 in '80 or so. And, from experience, I can tell you about the one-year-only 1964 429ci, because I owned both a '64 convertible and a '65 Fleetwood, at the same time. In the parts books, they're the same engine, but I know different.

Or the Cadillac 390 ('59-63): the '59 has a bypass filter (cartridge, no drain, use a suction gun); 1960 got a full-flow spin-on below; 1963 moved the dist to the front of the engine (a lot easier to service) and larger main brgs.

(I owned a rare, one-of-975 1959 Eldorado Seville. You read that right. If anyone is truly bored and wants to know more, waste fifteen minutes with this page and the link off it to a pic of mine. I wrote that one up years ago -- like six years, probably.)

Useless info like that, I can remember. But I really don't know Pontiacs. I'd have to use Google to refresh, and you can do that as well as I.

Disturbingly, I am finding that I have begun to forget even the useless stuff. I can remember that the rings for a 1960 Corvair (another one-year-only engine: 140ci, where '61-3 were 145ci) will also fit a certain year Humber Super Snipe (3.375" bore). But I can't remember if the '64 Corvair (last of the Earlies for styling, first year of the larger 164ci engine has a generator or alternator. The cut-over year was right there. I used to know this stuff. But middle age is arrived, I guess. And my next pair of glasses will have to be bifocals, dammit.

(SeaMonkey spellchecks inline, as I'm typing. I just learned I can add words to its dictionary: RMB on a word it's called out as misspelled, and the menu item is right there. Just added "Corvair".)

glenlloyd wrote:[ Remember all the complaining by Cadillac owners whose 78/79 Sevilles had Olds 350 engines?

steve a

Well I don't have THAT recallection. But I do recall at that time the stink that went up when Olds Cutlass and Buick Regal owners found the small block 305 Chevy under their hood ... along with that undersized for the job TH200 automatic.