Just bought another 75 Ventura. Bought it for parts, but the wife already claimed it for hers. Nick named it Venette mines Vennie so it works. Drove it from Stockton to my mountains only has the 260 2bbl with the 2.56 gears. No plans to hot rod it I do want to give it a little more power so any suggestions would be great.
Since your '75 Ventura already has an Oldsmobile 260 in it, why not see if you can find an Olds 350 or 403? It would be as simple to swap as they come, since the engines can share all the same accessory mounting & brackets. There isn't really a lot you can do with a 260. Going with a larger Olds engine you will have the additional torque to make street driving effortless in stock form. With a 403 it won't even care about the 2.56 gearing out back. I used to have a heavy '77 Oldsmobile 98 Regency with a 403 & 2.41 gears. The factory trans was a TH350 & the rear was an unusual 8.75" 10-bolt (not the typical 8.5").
350s are common, the 403s less so (offered on 1977 - 1979 models). An older 400, 425 or 455 would also fit but might cost you to find one (or maybe not...)
Back in '75 I believe that the engines in the Ventura line were from numerous GM divisions. You had the Chevy 250 six, Oldsmobile 260 V8, and a Buick 350. The Buick engine was the final reason that Pontiac decided to drop the GTO from the Ventura line, or so I seem to recall. There's nothing wrong with the Buick 350, it's just that it was sacrilegious to the GTO name (some take issue with the GTO shifting to the Ventura line for '74 but I'm not going to go there...)
__________________
67 Chevelle Malibu Sport Coupe, Oshawa-built 250 PG never disturbed.
In garage, 296 cid inline six & TH350...
Cam, Toronto.
I don't judge a man by how far he's fallen, but by how far back he bounces - Patton
It will cruise all day at 55 mph (HMM let me try my canadian math X divided by Y times 3.14 that would be around 200,000 kph or there abouts) Has just under 100,000 on the car. Most of what was wrong is fixed the guy put more into it than i bought it for. I don't plan on any big improvements on it thats what my first one is for. Just seems a little slow to jump on the highway i think my s10 has more pep. Really need to take a pic of them together its a bit creepy like the money i could be saving with geico.