Janousek

Matt, Did you check into the diamondback radials that look old? I can't think what they call them off the top of their head. I think they are in the works now but they look good. Please let me know on the height of your new tires when you get them. I recently picked up a 42' Cadillac 67 series that is in need of new tires. Bias plys are out after your experience. I know other guys with similar problems. I run Cooper 215/85/16 on my 59' GMC 250 and they have a 30" height and a 6" tread width that look good. Only downfall is they load rated E but that is fine on my work truck. They would look pretty good if diamondback did a set of whitewalls on them for my 42'. The E range might not be bad for such heavy cars. Otherwise these heavy cars tend to make other radials look flat. These tires are made for dually trucks. That is why they are narrower than others.

In weather like this you probably will need the fuel pump on. Especially on the hills as you noticed. Our cars start acting up above 85 degrees and need the fuel pump on all the time. Brave man not getting more miles on before an adventure like that.

39' Packard was first for A/C and 41' Cadillac was first GM. They used the exact same system. The Compressor ran all the time. The manual says to remove the belt in the fall and replace in the spring. I serviced a 41' Caddy system and it worked pretty good. Couldn't get the pump to quite leaking. It was replaced with a newer Ford style and I changed the car to 12 volt. In my research I believe BigFoot will be found before a 6volt compressor pump is located. I'm a 6volt believer but we couldn't do it with this car. Two huge benefits of 12 volt are the a/c and bright headlights. I did the 6volt halogen, bumped the regulator max, headlight switch relay and non of those things made the headlights safe at night. The car now has 12 volts halogens and they are modern car bright. I don't get the hybrid systems, just make it easy and convert the whole car to 12 volts if your doing it. I ran runtz reducers on the fuel and temp gage. Cross referenced blower motors to modern through the Napa catalog. Generator done locally at the starter shop. Nothing was done to the starter. Would take a long time to burn it up. They are made to take massive amps with a 6volt battery. 12 volts are half the amps. Standard generator does a much better job of charging 12 volts than 6. You really have to be realistic with this car also. If your not dedicated into dropping six figures into it then you probably won't be happy in the end. I hope whoever ends up doing the car will tell you this up front otherwise they give a small number and end up at the moon. One way or the other it's going to cost a fortune and be worth half.

Been a SPI user for at least 8years. The best products and customer service in the business. Nothing wrong with skim coating glaze over those rust pits once the panel has been epoxy primed. It's my preferred method of controlling build thickness where I want it. I've stripped many a car that used polyester fill over the entire panel and the build thickness is scary and for no reason. You want to fill the pit not bury the panel. I normally stick with SPI epoxy for the entire process. Sometimes use their 2k but I like using the same product from bare metal through sealer.

Fremont Auto Parts Fremont, Ohio

You can flip the intake upside down and make an adapter for a single two barrel. Rochester WCFB carb from a 52' Buick works great. Otherwise the spacing is different than the newer 248/320 engines that Edmunds built manifolds for. Your only option is a custom made intake or purchase the Edmunds and modify the spacing. The cost of the Edmunds and then cutting it up doesn't make sense. A new one from scratch makes more sense.

Stock rods machined for inserts. If you can afford it why not get rid of the babbit. The long stroke of this engine can pound out the babbit if spun hard. Insert shells on a machined retainer are a great platform for a trouble free engine. Ross racing pistons made the pistons. They will have the profile in their computer. Next go around I'd get more skirt on the piston though. When cold and under load it can piston slap. Let it warm up before running it hard eliminates it. It's barely noticable but it is there. Kinda like my 6.0 Chevy truck. Anyone with a Chevy 5.3 or 6.0 will know what I mean. Those engines have zero piston skirt. I'm using a rochester downdraft. It was on the car and runs so good I haven't gotten around to play with the original. But.... I haven't found a car of this era that couldn't use a little compression. Especially updrafts as it helps pull fuel in quicker for starting. . 4.5 to 1 compression was for the crappy fuel they had back then.

I like the overdrive. I've driven packards with them and they are neat. Gear vendors have a nice (smaller sized) overdrive but you need 12 volts to run it. It is more money than a used borg warner though. Normally don't see a need 12 volt conversions but it can be done without anybody noticing. I also like to use 1st gear and those cars with 4.4 really don't have a usefull 1st gear. We always started out in 2nd in the 40' special. I really like both ideas and I've been ponding setting our 48' up with overdrive with a 3.90 if I can find one. Or have a 3.42 built and go from there. These engines have the torque to run lower gear ratios. Our Auburn has a 2speed columbia rear end that was supposed to be more usefull in the power ranges. When in low range it's pretty useless unless you like driving 30mph in high gear with the engine screaming.

You can inspect the babbit for flaking and plastigage the clearances. 320 rods with inserts are different. We had our 31' converted to inserts. Expensive. I bumped our compression from 4.5 on a 31' 344 to around 6.5 if I remember right. Done with pistons but some guys shave the head. At least inspect the lower end, check the timing gears, and install new rings. Otherwise your gonna end up doing things twice. Sometimes you get lucky but not very often.

Good cars. Aluminum crankcase with 2 steel jugs each with 3 bores and cast head. No water in the crankcase but the aluminum waterpumps were sacrifical. They can be converted to insert bearings and pistons can be made. Impressive engine for the time. Gravity fuel tank so you have to open/close fuel petcock and adding fuel is a pain. Dumb is a better word. Open the hood and add fuel over the hot engine. Fun to drive with a great easy steering feel.

Why don't you pull the motor and go through it? If you get it running and restore the car around it then it will bite you in the end.

A little more from the 48' specifications book. 248 engine in a 40 series 110hp @ 3600 rpm 206 tq @ 2000 rpm Now Dave is very conservative running his car at the 2200 rpm mark. Should last forever at those rpm's but if you read into the specs the engine is surely designed for more RPM's. If I ever get around to my 48' I'll know in a hurry because I'll drive it like I stole it. I've gotta get a tach on our 31' and pull the rear cover and see what ratio is in it. That thing at 60 is smooth and acts like it's loafing along.

On break this morning I checked with my book "1948 Specifications" 40series 4.45 50series 4.45 70series 4.1 Optional 40series 4.1 50series 4.1 70 series 3.64 That 3.64 ratio wouldn't be a bad one if you could find one.

No doubt 3.90 with the overdrive would work great. It's just most guys will do one or the other and not both. A friend of mine has a very original 37' century 4 door that he recently asked me about putting taller gears into it. He said it races on the highway but he's several hours from me so I can't drive it and see what is happening. From what I've been reading the 3.90 was the lowest one ever made. I was going to dig through the 37-38 stuff and see what they are doing. I'm surprised nobody has made runs of lower ratios for these cars. At least I haven't found any. I can have them made but this owner wouldn't wouldn't be interested in the cost to do it. According to your chart at 70mph he would turning 3219 rpm's which might be excessive. Anyone ever put a temporary tach on their cars and see where they feel good? I'm running out of weather in Michigan but I'll try on our 31' which is very close to a 320 engine.

I was thinking the 3.90 ratio isn't exactly low. Your chart confirms this to me. The 3.42 ratio that gm puts in most trucks looks like a good compromise. I get the roads weren't all "high speed" back then but the torque of the straight 8 isn't exactly utilized unless they figured like Jeff said about being able to shift as little as possible. If and when I get my 48' done I'll commision a set of 3.42 gears if I can't run 70 without beating it to death. I have a 59' gmc that had 5.14 gears in it. It would cruise at 30mph and race at 45mph. Neat truck but the drivetrain went away in a hurry on that thing. I drive the old stuff but I'm not going to be a bother for modern traffic if I can help it.

I used the pusher fan as that let me keep the original fan in place. The electric fan is hidden behind the condenser or grille in the case of a buick. Your right, nothing worse to me than opening a hood and seeing an electric fan or an alternator on these old cars. I'm really surprised your "cruising speed" is around 60 with an overdrive. I might be trying to compare it to the 40's specials? Grandfather's car wouldn't skip a beat at 60 and I have a 48' special fastback that I only drove once before It was torn apart but 60 was nothing. These are Buicks, not Ford or Chevy's of the period that truely wen't anywhere near the same car. From my experience the inexpensive cars were slow and as the price went up so did the speed and power. Your chart is helpful to just get an idea of rpms. I haven't gotten around to it but I was always going to run our 31' with a dwell/ohm/tach just to see what kind of rpm's it's turning.

For your warmer temps in vegas you could up your hot weather ability with a catch can and a pusher elec fan running from a toggle switch. Building a nice fan shroud will help also. All of these older cars didn't have cooling capacity or designs of new cars. Mimicking what they are doing today will help you. I set up a working 41' Cadillac limo with these updates to allow the A/C to keep the car cool during idle time. Still warmed up but would maintain 190-200 during idle. Like most cars of this era as soon as the car is driven then the temps drop. If done right the modifications can be easilly removed and no damage to the originality when converted back. We used to take my Wife's grandfathers 40' special down the highway running 70mph on severeal trips. 60-65 mph is probably better on the car but it didn't feel like the RPM's were abusing it. Our straight 8 Auburn running 65 is more than that engine likes. 2600 rpm's on the tach and it gives off a bad vibe. Our 31' Buick 90 series with high speed gears doesn't brake a sweat at 60 mph. It will do it from one tank fill up to the next all day. Even 65 mph isn't bad but start running it at 70 then temps start rising. Still smooth but the temps go up so I don't run it there. I believe getting rid of babbit bearings allow the increase of safe RPM's. Balance the engine with inserts and the rods aren't likely to pound out the bearing.

We have a 96 c like the car pictured. I'd scrub it inside and out. Get it running, and go from there. At the Hershey auction last weekend I watched a 96c Mclauglin/Buick that was restored stall out at 30 grand until people woke up and they milked it to 70k. You couldn't begin to do a proper resto on the car for 70 grand. If you can get it running and driving you might get near 30k. Collectors just aren't that interested in Buicks so only the top shelf stuff brings the money.

It's been over a year and the car is progressing nicely. I haven't had much time to work on it last year. I'm fitting the fenders to the running boards and body right now. The frame is ready for paint once I'm done fitting the panels. Rear axle is final painted, all floorboards have been duplicated, and the engine has been machined for insert bearings and ready for assembly. I'm very impressed with this car. The wipers in this car were hot rod type manual and I've been told wipers were an option for the car. I feel that I have most of the authentic questions figured out between the book, marmon club, and ACD musuem car. I do need new headlight lenses as the originals are purple now and I don't know where to find new ones. Does anybody know of companies reproducing lenses. I also need an oil fill assembly. I'm about to get an original duplicated but I'd like to find an original as it will be costly. Thanks for any help. Brad

Jules, I just converted my 31' 90 to inserts on the rods and the mains. The rods are different on the earlier cars so it is a lot of machining and it's very expensive. I'm happy I had it done as I didn't get a nice feeling when talking with babbitt places. I have heard several horror stories of incompetence from the pourers and wanted something better. We will see in the upcoming years if I made the right decision. I had some antifreeze damage to my bearings as the head leaked on the car. Last summer I helped my grandfather put newer insert rods in his 40' special and they worked like a charm. Brad

I just reset my timing from 20 degrees total timing to 30 degrees and it runs a little cooler. I can't see how a radiator could dump it's entire load in 2 seconds. Are you sure that the 2 seconds is correct. Another thing to try is restricting your waterflow with an obstruction in your upper hose. This will slow your waterpump down and allow the radiator to do a better job. Most cars that have thermostats run all the coolant through an opening the size of your thumb. Our cars don't have that restriction which might not allow the radiator to do it's job. Another thing to experiment with.

My 90 series had two cracked manifolds. One welded perfect with proper preheat/postheat with my tig welder with cast rod. The other one wouldn't weld. The cast was of such poor quality it would just fall apart as soon as the torch touched it. Old cast will either weld good if it's decent cast or it will just melt away and blob because of impurities. Stay far away from that place in Texas. I know several guys in the ACD that were completely ripped off. Deposits given and parts never recieved.

I just completely rebuilt my 31' 90 and it's running hot but getting better the looser it gets. I didn't have the rad recored as last year the car always ran cool. I bumped the compression up to 6.6:1 with special pistons so I'm making more heat than last year. My car doesn't dump water though. I run it down an inch or two from the top. The two cars I have with non pressurized systems dump water until they are an inch or two from the top. Fill them up and they will dump and find their own level. I'm running the factory 10 degree advance setting running at idle. This is what my manual says to run. If I take an infrared gun on my top hose and compare the difference from the bottom hose it runs about 10 degrees difference. I've been told you need around 20 degrees difference. My new truck runs 30 degree difference but they are much better systems. One problem I have with my car is the exhaust manifold runs 600-750 degrees at the outlet. I feel this is a giant heat sink that maintains way to much heat in the head. I'm going to build a set of headers and ceramic coat them this winter to reduce underhood temps. Since I drive the car I will sacrifice some originality for drivability. The exhaust manifold is a rather restrictive design with each port adds heat from back to the front being the hottest. All these cubic inches are being compressed into a small tube and the heat is terrible. I'd like to hear what others think of this.

Anyone interested at 6,000?

I was also pondering switching it to a pertronics setup. That worked really good on another car I had. I'm not sure they are available for my car though. Seems like they were. I've just gone through the engine with special pistons that bump the compression to 6.6:1 without any head cuts. I also eliminated the babbit and went to inserts. I'm looking for the best running engine possible. Thanks for the point info. I have a car manual and a reference book but I can't find any info for setting the valve train. I know that a hot engine has .008" clearance. Is there a procedure for setting the lash? Easilly I mean, like a small block or do I just turn the engine watching the valves for compression stroke. Thanks again.