my 66 skylark

Hi Everyone, Just purchased my first Buick. A 1966 skylark convertible. WHAT'S HAPPENING TO ME!!!! It's all I can think about, when I go to bed at night and when I wake up in the morning.. I'm in the process right now of restoring the panels and the interior and I can't wait for summer. I got for a steal at 2 grand. Let me know what you think... AL

Hi Al,

It's a nice model and you will get so much fun and pleasure with your new little baby next summer

You did, indeed, steal it. Nice purchase. Have fun!

Time to send the cops to your house for grand theft auto....

Congratulations!

WOW. As previously stated haha. That is gorgeous. Drive the hell out of it!!! What's she got in front of the firewall?

Nice score Al. 66's have such nice style. Hope it's good to you.

Hi everybody, Thanks for the nice comments.

Hi, By the way, the engine is a 310 Wildcat. Maybe not a racer but she cruises like a dream. I'm kind of new to the car resto thing. Maybe someone could give me some tips on what to do with the engine. Nothing crazy!! I can't afford to rip it out and slap in a 455. Just tips on keeping it going after 42 years.

It's a Buick. There's no reason it won't keep going. However, that being said, it may behoove you to look into the proper engine oil.

Lately there has beena lot of talk about ill effects of using todays engine oils in older cars. Todays oils have been stripped of zink additives to protect the electronic sensors in computer equiped vehicles. But this zinc helped protect the valve train pieces in the older engines.

There is at least one company producing engine oil with zinc but I can't recall the name. Other than that you may want to look for a zinc additive for when you change your oil. I use STP oil treatment as it shows zinc additives right on the label, but I don't know for a fact if that is even sufficient.

The other thing is to make sure you use a quality oil filter. Quality oil filters use a coil sprin to hold the filter cartridge off the bottom of the filter. Some cheaper filters use a piece spring steel to do this and I have read about people who claim these cheaper filters will fail under pressure. Even though that never happened to me, I have switched to a better quality filter for my classics.

Good luck.

JD---

Get over to WalMart, find the oil branded "Accel". Black bottle, ought to be straight 30 non detergent with a green label, and 10w-30 with a red label....which is modern detergent stuff. Both rated *SF* in fact, which is very out-dated. I remember the discussions saying even SL would be good enough. The stuff even specifically says "for 1988 and older vehicles". I've been using that in the '38 all year. They always have it, looks like it is selling so I think it shouldn't be going anywhere anytime soon.

I don't know Paul. I looked at all the brands in there a few weeks ago and not one bottle listed Zinc as an ingredient. Speaking of Zinc, here is what I found in the STP oil treatment: "Zinc Dialkyldithiophosphate"

I presumed this is the zinc the engine needs. Any chemists here who can confirm that?

Thanks

Wow. Seemed to me like it just needed to be rated "SL" or "Sx", x being any letter less than L, alphabetically. Interesting. I'll have to look at the bottle. Suppose maybe I'll start using that STP addititve. What a royal pain it is.

I do know that the compound you listed there is commonly referred to as "ZDDP" Zinc *D*ialkyl*D*ithio*P*hosphate. Thats what we need. So if it's got it than that's the ticket.

Hopefully I haven't done too much damage to this original non-rebuilt engine. I guess it's never too late to start, I'll be grabbin that stuff come next spring. Sure won't need it anytime soon. You believe this storm? The roads are terrible!!!

Hopefully someone else with better experience will chime in. And I was grateful I didn't have to deal with the roads today.

Thanks for the nice comments and the advice. I need all I can get. My next problem. I have asked everyone this question and can't seem to get an answer. I am restoring the interior of my car. New panels, interior, etc. I am replacing it with Legendary's color metallic parchment, produced for that year. My problem is I don't know what the color is to paint the interior door trim to match. I took a sample from legendary and tried to find it in a book at the paint store, paid $50 for a can of paint and it was nowhere close once I sprayed it on. Is there some magical way to find out this information. I'm going nuts and I don't want to keep spending $50 until I find the color. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Pull out the ashtray. On these there should be a metal tab that strikes a block in the backside of the dash and if you pull that down while opening the ashtray the entire door and tray will come out of the car. Then take that to the paint store and ask them to use their skills to match the paint.

You could also take off the glovebox door if you want to, and do the same thing.

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: JohnD1956</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Hopefully someone else with better experience will chime in. </div></div>

Yeah I just remember that being mentioned in a couple threads (the oil issue has come up several times on this forum). I gotta go dig em up hehe so laaaaaazyyyy.

Get on Ebay and buy the three service manuals: Chassis, Parts, and Body. They’ll make life easier.

Transmission:

Super Turbine 300's (ST300) were used in the Buick Special/Skylark/GS (A Body)/LeSabre (B body). Buick used this trans with the 225 V6, 300 and 401 (marketed as 400 in GS) V8s. It was in production from '64 to '68. The 425 in the big cars got the ST 400. The same transmission was used by Oldsmobile as the 'Jetaway' transmission on the F-85/Cutlass/442 (A-body) and the Jetstar/Delta 88 (B-body) behind the 330 Rocket engine.

The ST 300 is a two speed, Buick-Olds-Pontiac (BOP) only bolt-pattern with 1.64:1 1st and 1.00:1 2nd, while significantly different, it does share a number of internal ‘rotating’ parts with the PowerGlide. It has an electric powered solenoid that activates internal hydraulic control of a two pitch (stall speed) torque converter. High speed stall is engaged by two electrical switches, one on the throttle linkage (idle speed switch) that sets high speed stall with the throttle closed to unload engine at idle. The other switch is the transmission control switch to the left side of the carb that sets high speed stall during WOT operation to allow faster engine acceleration. The default operating state is low speed stall. Pontiac used the ST300 with a fixed stator torque converter in the same body series cars. It was marketed as the 'TempestTorque' transmission. I was used behind the 215 I6, and the 326 and 389 V8s in the A and B body cars. In some of the lighter applications (I6, mainly) the ST300 transmission was air cooled and had an open bell housing and cooling fins on the torque converter. The rest utilized transmission coolers integrated into the radiator.

Engine Upgrades:

Go to the forum list, top right hand side and click 'Search'. In the dialog window, search on '300' in the General and Performance Forums. There are about 50 threads that discuss the 300 engine.

The short stroke is: The 300 was produced from '64 to '67, is derived from the Buick 215 aluminum V8, and was stroked to 340 CI in '66. It shares NO significant parts with the 350, 400 or 455 engines. In '64 and '65 the 300 was offered in a two and four barrel form. The '64 has aluminum head and manifold (not easily interchangeable with '65/66/67) and '65 was all cast iron. In '66/67, it was available only as a 2 bbl base V8. The 340 was available with 2 and 4 barrel. Heads and intake manifolds from the 340 are not interchangeable with the 300. These engines were used in the Special/Skylark and LeSabre. Performance options are limited. No 2x4 intake manifolds. No available aftermarket intake manifolds. Cams form several vendors, headers and other performance goodies from Poston. There is a one year production 4bbl cast iron manifold that has a pretty good design, but these are pretty dear when they do show up on EvilBay or in the forums.

The timing cover , harmonic , flywheel , fuel pump , and bracketry are interchangable with the 350 & 231 also all buick V8 distributors will work less drive gear big blocks have smaller dia. gear 300,340,350,231 have same gear(larger one).

The good thing(s) about the 300 are it’s light weight (about 150 less than a Chebby 350) and it’s very good metal (high nickel content). If you’re inventive, there are a lot of thing to do from the ‘old school’ hot rod bag of tricks that will really pep up the motor. Being typically Buick ‘oversquare’ it produces a lot of low end torque for its size, but that also keeps max useful RPM at about 5000.

General Notes:

1. If you go to the 4bbl, try to find the correct Carter AFB. It has leaner jetting than the ‘identical’ Edlebrock Performer model and will return better mileage

2. Buick 350 HEI will bolt on with minor mods to clear the bolt heads

3. Offenhauser still had finned aluminum valve covers. (215/300/340)

4. Recommend refit of the choke heater to electric. You’ll find these parts on a web search. Gets rid of the choke stove and heater corrosion problems.

5. Your 2bbl is well supported, as these were also used on many GM 3x2 setups (notably, GTO) and is about as stone bullet proof as they come.

6. A popular transmission upgrade is the THM 200R4, which gives you a four speed overdrive. It is basically a bolt in. Check the Aug '00 issue of Hot Rod for a 200R4 bolt in modification project. Makes a nice cruiser with 18-20 mpg a reality.

7. If you do #6, likely you’ll want a 3.25-3.30 rear gearing. The stock differential is probably 2.56 and the engine will only be doing 1700-1800 at 60-65; too low for good carb performance. Rear axle is not well supported, as it was a four year BOP product. Limited slips are difficult to find, parts scarce and bearing can be expensive. Fortunately, it was designed with a 300K mile life in mind.

I’m sure there’s more… ask if you need something…

Cheers,

JMC

Did you hold a gun to the guy's head to get that car??? You scored very well. You can go to a place called Year One for interior panels and stock seat covers and other parts. John