1976 Buick Electra.....

Good evening everyone.... I am extremely new to this site and so far i have found it most interesting with lots of helpful advice.... I am hoping someone will be able to give a little more.

I came to Canada from the UK 5 years ago with my wife " she Canadian " long story short her father sadly passed away and part of his estate settlement was his 1976 Buick Electra park Avenue 455ci with only 53000 miles which he had owned from new... being a keen classic car fan I gladly inherited the Buick and have used it during the summer months which has given me great joy..

however now it needs both left and right exhaust manifolds! I have searched the Internet, asked at local garages/shops and nothing! I can't seem to find anything which is more than likely my own fault....

does anybody have any idea where I would be able to obtain such items?? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks. Gareth.

People here may have them but also try v8buick.com, which is a more performance-oriented site, where people tend to have more surplus standard-equipment parts that they may have replaced.

There are lots of these cars around but for best choice look up southwest auto parts and try some of the yards in Arizona. They won't be cheap, but they will be solid. I had good luck with "DVAP" Desert valley Auto Parts, several years ago.

Hi..... thanks very much for the quick response guys... I have sent some emails off so let's hope I get some good luck.... many thanks.

You should also try French Lake Auto Parts in Minnesota. I know this past summer they had at least 4 last gen Rivieras with the engines in them. The exhaust manifolds may be interchangeable and those guys are serious about selling parts.

Hello Gareth and Welcome

What exactly has failed…? Did they both break or crack for some reason or …? Or, are they

just leaking at the mating surface of the cylinder head & making noise?

I've rebuilt a few 455 big blocks over that last few years and have never seen one cracked or broken

unless knocked about or abused by the previous owner. A well taken care of

53,000 mile car should not have any exhaust manifold problems, IMO.

The bolts retaining them are a different matter. Great care should be taken if

you attempt to extract the manifolds as they tend to want to break off in the cylinder head!

These high nickel blocks in Buicks and Cadillacs are really tough but the bolts do deteriorate

badly, especially the ones that are open ended.

I don't think I have any on the shelf , but, I'll check my stash of spare parts today anyway.

Once removed a set of ARP exhaust manifold bolts will eliminate the problem.

Let's assess and the boys here will provide support!

mike

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Hey Mike.......

Thanks for the welcome and for your reply

Ok so here is what I know and have been told by the guys at my local garage repair shop.

The car when at idle is nice and quiet, Only when you increase the engine revs do you hear a kind of ticking/putting sound.

I have also personally noticed something else!! From a stand still when you pull away at a normal pace the car starts to misbehave, It will lose power and sputter and on occasions the engine has stalled on me.

If you accelerate with a little more force it seems fine and does not sputter or make any attempt to stall and glides along effortlessly.

I took it to our local repair shop to have a winter service/check up done and the rear springs replaced, whilst it was there they called me and told me that I needed a new muffler.... which I had installed....

When I collected the car they informed me that whilst they had the exhaust dismantled they noticed that the

( heat riser ) was stuck in the closed position.... they had corrected this for me.

They said that the manifold had a crack in it, and it was possible the stuck heat riser was the cause!!

Now I really don't know much more... I called them today to double check it was the manifold that was cracked and I got a rather vague answer ( well we can't remember so you will have to bring it back in again )

So now I am not sure what to do!! I emailed DVAP last night and they got back to me with a price of $235 per manifold thats without shipping/tax/duty etc.

You now have me thinking! are they even cracked at all? and why am I having acceleration issues.....

Thanks very much

Gareth

Mike attacked this the right way. Lets get to the root of the problem before throwing money at parts.

Do you have a place where you can look for a bad spark plug wire. This requires a very dark environment, and ideling the engine while closely looking over the individual spark plug wires.

It's best to do this outside at night, and keeping in mind that you don't touch anything, especially the moving fan blade. As your eyes adjust to the dark look at the wires where they cross each other, possibly lay on metal ( at brackets or on the valve covers) and down by the boots over the plugs. Once you adjust to the darkness if there are any bad wires you will see the light blue sparks at their points of compromise. Dow by the plugs you may see light emanating from around the boot on the white ceramic of the plugs. If you do see any of that, then you will need to insulate the wires or preferably replace them.

Just don't touch them while the engine is running.

Yep, John is right on mentioning ignition wiring …. a quick kill if you see "lightning" down there.

Also,

Time to step back and assess the total package in the correct sequence.

Vacuum, ignition, carb.

I think we can set the potential manifold crack issue aside for just a bit &

Let's try to keep it out of the "shop" as much as possible so you can enjoy your car with greater confidence.

First…. immediately buy a 1976 Buick factory shop manual & start reading the sections pertinent to

what we will be guiding you on in the future…. Maybe $40-50 for a "non-greasy" one!

IMHO, this will eliminate a lot of the

mystery surrounding some of these systems to a newcomer…. even if you do not do the work personally;

you'll not be in the dark when discussing the issues and cures with a mechanic. It's a great tutorial on exactly how

your car works.

Now,

Since it's stumbling off idle and smooths out later ….. let's go to vacuum first.

You are hearing "puffs" or "hisses" under there so this is where I'd go first.

A 1976 Buick Electra has a LOT of vacuum hoses and ports. They affect

engine operation, A/C / Climate control, EGR, etc…...

Are you comfortable taking the air cleaner off and inspecting all vacuum hoses

for cracks, disconnections, or missing entirely? Sometimes even a little vacuum connection

can affect engine operation quite a bit!

Do you have a vacuum gauge? (cheap tool) or, a timing light ($50 ish)?

Are you comfortable observing the mechanical operation of the

vacuum advance on the distributor? Are you OK with hooking up a timing light

and checking initial timing at idle?

When engine vacuum is applied to the port on the vacuum advance mechanism on the side of the

distributor; movement should be observed that results in the timing being advanced to assure smooth acceleration.

This is an inexpensive part and can easily get "stuck" esp. in a car driven infrequently.

I recommend checking this stuff first because it sounds "likely" based on your description; plus, it's relatively quick/easy to do and

cheap to fix even if you take it to your mechanic to do.

The other guys will chime in with greater advice I'm sure; but, based on your input so far….this is how I might start.

Once any major vacuum causes are eliminated (or, point us elsewhere…) we can turn our attention to other

ignition components …. like the solid state module under the cap, cap itself, rotor, etc.

While you digest this….get a long lighter (like you'd use to ignite your fireplace or BBQ) &

while the car is running

hold it down around the mating surfaces of the manifold and cylinder heads as best you can

and see if you observe the flame flickering with the pulsing of the motor, due to a leak…. just a thought.

mike

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