There was a guy who lived across the street from me several years ago who had one just like this one, color and all, except it had the Buick V-6.
I believe his was either a '63 or '65. The year was odd-numbered. But I wish I had been able to get a ride in it. I love drop-tops, and an open-air Jeep is no exception.
Kinda Sorta, the Buick 3800 is the engine that was voted one of the 10 best engines of the 20th Century, it was based on the earlier Buick 3.8 V6 but totally reengineered its kinda like saying the GM LS or Gen V engines are in the same family as a 283 Chevy V8 from the early 60's. Balance Shaft Equipped, Even Fire, Fuel Injected, Electronic Ignition equipped 3800 V6 2bbl Carbed, Odd Fire, no Balance shaft, Points Ignition, 1976 Buick 3.8 The 1st one with run 200,000 smooth miles making 200hp, and returning 28-30mpg, the 2nd one will run very unevenly for 80,000-100,000 miles, needing tune ups every 3000-5000 miles, wear out the rubber motor mounts every 40,000 miles due to the inherent vibration of the odd fire 90 degree V6 configuration. and get 18 to 20 mpg doing it. It will also rust proof the floor boards of your car with all the oil it will leak out of every gasket surface on the engine once it gets around 40,000 miles on it. I have owned several of both types, 3800's are very good engines indeed, I would like to have the last of the line that were made in Australia that were made with aluminum heads & blocks, the 3.8's will make you wish for an inline 6 in my experience, but they can be built to make good power, the 231 in my 78 Sunbird wagon makes around 250HP, but it has all the other issues with rough running, poor mileage, and oil leaks.
Which is why I can't figure out why you haven't transplanted a Camarobird 3800 drivetrain into your Sunbird....
I'm definitely not a 'convertible guy' - never owned one. I wouldn't mind having this little runabout, though.
Why didn't they simply cast a 60° block, if thy're going to the trouble of sawing off the last 2 cylinders from a V-8? My 90° V-6 sounds somewhat unusual, at idle speeds. But, thanks to the off-set crank throws, it doesn't need a balance shaft:
All about Production tooling, they could make the 90deg V6 on the same production line and the Small Block Buick V8 engines they were based off of. Probably saved $1,000,000 or more on an assembly line. The same reason GM still makes a 90 deg 4.3 Liter V6 truck engine based off of the Gen 5 V8, and on the same production lines in Tonawanda NY & St Catherine's Ontario. Odd fire crank even fire crank You can see why the drag racers preferred the odd fire engines due to the stronger crank shafts due to the consistently thicker cross section, when the split the rod bearing throws to make a smoother running street engine, it reduced the material in the thinnest part of the crank shaft.
I didn't know that dragracers were running odd fire sixes. I thought they only raced large displacement eights
