Just remembering back, didn't some Olds Pontiac's come new with Chevrolet engines? I may be wrong, my memory is failing a little. Andy

 

Yes, in the seventies for sure. I owned a '76 Omega that was equipped with a Chevrolet straight six. The engine was black, but underneath you could see where the black had worn off and it was Chevy Orange.

 

My 1970 F85 came from the factory with a chevy straight six also. JKaz

 

After Olds dropped the 6 in 1950, they didn't offer another one until 1964 when the F85 could have a Buick V6. They started using the Chevrolet 250" straight six in 1966, again F85 carlines only. Continued with that till 1977 when the Buick V6 again became Olds' 6-cylinder option.

Then all hell broke loose in 1977 when they started putting SBC in Delta 88s. They had oversold Olds 350/403 to Buick and Pontiac and didn't have enough engine plant capacity to supply themselves. So, they honored their sales commitments to Buick/Pontiac, and bought 350s from Chevrolet (which were already emissions-certified in B-body) to keep the Delta lines running.

It always struck me as strange how the Olds owners raised hell because of the Chevrolet powerplants, but you never heard Buick or Pontiac owners complain about the Olds-built engines in their cars. I'm no real fan of the SB Chevy, but it wasn't as bad an engine as it was made out to be- well, wait a minute- those 305's with soft cams and shifted core castings were junk.

 

Wasn't the 198 cu in version of the Buick V6 available in the 61-63 F85s?

I doubt most owners know if their cars are RWD vs FWD, let alone what engine type is in it. The reason for the outcry about the Chevy engines was solely driven by lawyers looking for class action settlement profits.

 

They were all Olds 215 V8s.

Norm