The Buick V6, popularly referred to as the
3800, originally 198 cu in (3.2 L) and initially marketed as
Fireball at its introduction in 1962, was a large
V6 engine used by
General Motors. The block is made of cast iron and all use two-valve-per-cylinder iron heads, actuated by
pushrods. The engine, originally designed and manufactured in the United States, was also produced in later versions in Australia.
The 3800 was on the
Ward's 10 Best Engines of the 20th century list, made Ward's yearly 10 Best list multiple times, and is one of the most-produced engines in history. To date, over 25 million have been produced.
In 1967, GM sold the design to
Kaiser-Jeep. The
muscle car era had taken hold, and GM no longer felt the need to produce a V6, considered in North America an unusual engine configuration at the time. The
energy crisis a decade later prompted the company to buy the design back from
American Motors (AMC), who had by that point bought
Kaiser-Jeep, and the descendants of the early 231 continue to be the most-common GM V6 as it developed into a very durable and reliable design.
Though the pre-3800
rear-wheel drive (RWD) V6 uses the
Buick, Oldsmobile, Pontiac (BOP) bellhousing pattern, an oddity of both the
front-wheel drive (FWD) and RWD 3800 V6 is that although it is a 90° V6, it uses the
GM 60° V6 bell housing (Metric Pattern). For use in the FWD applications, the bellhousings on the FWD transmissions are altered slightly.
This engine has the cylinders numbered 1-3-5 on the left-hand bank (front bank for FWD applications) and 2-4-6 on the right-hand bank, the number 1 cylinder being the furthest from the flywheel end. The firing order is 1-6-5-4-3-2.
The engine was produced at the
Flint North plant in
Flint, Michigan, with engine blocks and cylinder heads cast at the Grey Iron plant (now the GM Saginaw Metal Casting Operations plant) in
Saginaw, Michigan.
It is a derivative of Buick's 215 cu in (3.5 L)
aluminium V8 family, which also went on to become the
Rover V8, another engine with a very long life (1960–2006)
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