Valve Job - Rebuild Questions - 1949 320 Roadmaster Sedanette

Got a question or two and need the sage advice of this board - I blew the head gasket on my 1949 Buick Roadmaster Sedanette by overheating it two years ago and there she sits. I am going to have the head pulled and rebuilt and reinstalled. What all do I need to replace or do to improve function/performance? I have the head gasket and that's about it for parts so far.

Probably has 80K on original motor and was probably abused by the original owner. He drove her like a jeep on his ranch. New valves and springs? Shave the cylinder? Fancy machine shop tricks? I don't have the time or inclination to do it myself these days and am thinking of taking it to my local machine shop - "Super Head" here in Houston. I am told the head's probably warped now. Cranked her up in the spring while low on water - steam blew out the side where the gasket failed but I shut it off immediately - all while idling in park. I suppose I should just rebuild the engine while I am at it?

I also have a vintage Edmunds dual carb set-up I plan on installing while I am at it. Any suggestions on carburation?

You need to have the head checked (magna-fluxed) for cracks that could have resulted from the overheating, in addition to resurfacing the head, checking it for flatness (true-ing), and check for any burned valves. At 80,000 miles, the engine should not need anything more than that, plus the new head gasket and possibly a timing chain.

This is a very desireable car, and in my opinion, you would hurt its resale value by putting any customized engine features on it, such as dual carbs., Edmonds speed equipment, etc. Before you do that, please consider selling the car to me as-is. I admit that I'm a purist and others may disagree. Of course, it's your car to do with as you want, I'm just pointing out that it will be worth a lot less to people like me if you make changes to that wonderful 320 straight eight.

Pete Phillips, BCA #7338

Leonard, Texas

1948 Roadmaster 76-S

1948 Super 56-S

1949 Super 51

1949 Super 59

1958 Special 49-D

1959 Electra

and others...

One possible unfortunate thing about doing just a valve job on an old high mileage engine like that is, it may become an oil burner.

Everything has gone down hill together at 80K miles, plus the overheating may have damaged the rings. Doing just a valve job may cause it (with the improved vacuum of new valves) let it suck oil past the tired rings.

A ring and valve job was a really typical "rebuild" years ago.

You 'might?' get by with just a head gasket, but it is best to rebuild it. That way you can trust it to drive anywhere. No matter what you do, replace the head bolts. When it overheated everything expanded and stretched the head bolts which did not shrink when it cooled, resulting in a leaking head gasket. One of the overheated engines I saw even had a damaged cam and cam bearings...probably from superheated oil breakdown. And before you pull it have a source located for all the engine components if needed.

Thanks for the great input - just what I expected, stuff I would not have considered. I think I will go with a full rebuild due to these comments. Most of my old cars over the years were pretty worn out at 85-95k miles. 100k without major component replacement was quite an achievement even in 1980.

Pete - As to originality, the dual carb set-up can always be removed! I am keeping my 76C stock - this one I can play with a bit. And no, I am not chopping it or lowering it. And no, you can't have it! Owned since 1983.

Let's see some pics of that car Dan!

She's not much to look at but she's all there. Maybe in boxes somewhere but she's all there. I bought her from the original owner in 1983. I wanted this car since I was about 10 in 1967. My love has waxed and waned over the years as love does but I hauled her to a little garage after chasing out the rats. Got the windows replaced and addressed the door panels and window channels. They were all shot and ragged. Fixed the torque-ball, replaced engine and trans mounts, installed newer radiator, fixed the brakes, filled the shocks etc, etc. Got her all roadable, inspected and licensed. Then I blew the gasket. My work schedule and other pastimes overcame me so there she has sat. In that time, to make things worse for the sedanette, I bought a new love:

Great cars. Mine's more or less a twin to your sedanette.

Love that convert! I was sorely tempted when it repeatedly showed up on eBay; spoke to the owner's son. You made an outstanding move there!

Best regards,

Steve in Mpls.

I did some repairs on my 1950 320 in the 41 Century. One of the things experience now tells me is you can't trust just to a boiling out of the cooling systems on straight eight engines. On the passenger side of the engine I took out the "frost" plugs so I could rod out the water jacket to remove the hardened deposits. Some not all came out. I could not even get liquid to flow from the drivers side. I had the head off for milling, so I bought some rubber plumbing adjustable plugs used to air test plumbing and raised the rear of the car to level the deck of the engine. I literally filled the water jackets with muratic acid, (not for the faint of heart, dangerous fumes and such), but, cleans the bejesus out of cast iron. Took two days for it to finally dissolve all the hardened sediment and mine is not an isolated incident. These engines are not level in the chassis, crud settles to the back and hardens and there is no way to know if that's the case until you start exploring by checking those water jackets. I have seen many a post where people chase overheating problems, only to find the rear of the water jackets filled with this stuff. Basically reduces the volume of coolant available to the cylinder walls for heat transfer. Result; engine will idle as long as I want to let it, even at summer temps and never heat up.LIKE BUICK ENGINEERED THEM. PS I made Arm and hammer baking sodas stock go up with the bulk amount of soda I had to use to neutralize the acid

Got a question or two and need the sage advice of this board - I blew the head gasket on my 1949 Buick Roadmaster Sedanette by overheating it two years ago and there she sits. I am going to have the head pulled and rebuilt and reinstalled. What all do I need to replace or do to improve function/performance? I have the head gasket and that's about it for parts so far.

Probably has 80K on original motor and was probably abused by the original owner. He drove her like a jeep on his ranch. New valves and springs? Shave the cylinder? Fancy machine shop tricks? I don't have the time or inclination to do it myself these days and am thinking of taking it to my local machine shop - "Super Head" here in Houston. I am told the head's probably warped now. Cranked her up in the spring while low on water - steam blew out the side where the gasket failed but I shut it off immediately - all while idling in park. I suppose I should just rebuild the engine while I am at it?

I also have a vintage Edmunds dual carb set-up I plan on installing while I am at it. Any suggestions on carburation?

Greg: Next time just use " A Must For Rust" It is a solution phosphoric acid concentration and no neutralizing is needed as it does not leave free chloride (Cl-) ions residue on the surfaces like hydrochloric acid does which creates new rust after it drys like what happens when you are using Muratic Acid.

Thanx for the tip on that product! I did try a product called "SAFETY CLEAN", which was originally a Castrol company product.it worked on my 39 which did not have the severe sediment of the 41. I'll have to check for the chemical composition, cuz if must for rust is " stronger" than safety clean and yet less hazardous than muratic, that would be "golden". Even being as carefull as I knew how to be accidents can happen and with muratic, accidents won't be pretty! Good thing I neutralized the heck out of the muatic in the engine before emptying with the soda as I certainly did not want the corrosive muratic to continue to " work" on the cast inside the cooling passages.

Greg: Next time just use " A Must For Rust" It is a solution phosphoric acid concentration and no neutralizing is needed as it does not leave free chloride (Cl-) ions residue on the surfaces like hydrochloric acid does which creates new rust after it drys like what happens when you are using Muratic Acid.

I assume you guys have seen the 58 in Sri Lanka on this forum. He used caustic and electrolysis to clean the block. Normal machine shop hot tanks use caustic and heat but without the electric helper. Are any of you able to compare these processes?

Pat

Here's a few of your Sedanette's twin (pics are old, she's got a better set of WWW now):