Bob Engle

Egge Parts House 1-800-866-3443 HAS THEM LISTED IN THEIR PARTS CATALOG. Same valve for 25,26, 27 standard 6. BOB

You want to flush the radiator in a reverse flow direction. water in the bottom and out the top. I would borrow an infrared thermometer and check across all areas of the radiator when it is running. Many times the edge tubes are plugged and the center ones open. Be careful with radiator shops, they always want to sell new cores. I made my own rig for flushing radiators. I remove the radiatorand turn it upside down over a 5 gallon bucket. I hook a pump from a jacuzzi to the bottom outlet from the radiator and put the suction hose in the bucket. I fill the bucket with 190 degree water and radiator flush. I run the system for at least an hour. Some times I repeat the process. Then I flush with just plain hot water. I then take the radiator and pressure test with 5 PSI are with the radiator submerged and look for leaks. I have had great success with this method. Bob

With the problems you have had, I would suggest that you test fit the pin in the rod and clamp it, The check that the pin is square to the rod. If it is not, all loads will be on one side of the piston only and would try to cock the piston in the bore. All things you do not want and could place abnormal loads on teh locking bolt. Bob

Too bad you couldn't get the Marvel to work. Most people have success wuth them if they are meticulous in cleaning, float setting and checking for cracks in the jet tubes. Yes you want to lube the copper gasket. I tighten from center out. I only tighten the studs snug.Once the engine is running, I check for exhaust or vaccum leaks and tighten only enough to stop any leaks. Too tight causes cracked manifolds. By the way, Marvel carbs had such a good reputation that they were the carb of choice on airplanes in the 20' and early 30"s. Bob

Buy a Motors manual that covers the era of car that you own and read about the repairs you want to do. If you can do a disc brake job, the conventional brake system is no more mysterious. Pull the brake drums, take some digital photos post them on the forum and you will get good advice on the condition shown. You are free to call me at any time and I can talk you through the process. Send me a private message and I'll respond. It's far more rewarding to know and understand your car. In reality, the cars of these early eras are really quite simple. Most people in the early thirties had to know how to fix their cars because the nearest mechanic was 20 miles away and you had no phone. Ride a horse of fix the car. Join the fun. My local AACA regional chapter is a great resouce for me. I can find many members that are knowledable about any problem I may have on cars. By the way, the BCA members have access to technical advisors on every year of Buick known. Locally , I have found the restoration shops to be very helpful in solving problems with my cars and they do this at no cost. Let me know how I can help Bob

You should pul lthe rear wheels and remove the brake drums. You may be out of brake lining. As the shoes wear and the brakes are adjusted out to keep the brake pedal off the floor; the emergency brake linkage is slackened. Check the wheel cylinders by prying a boot back and look for rusty brake fluid. If found, you will need to rebuild or replace the wheel cylinders. While you are at it, CHANGE the rubber brake lines 2 front and one rear!!!. A broken hose means NO BRAKES!! Have fun with the car. I always assume that an old car I buy will need a complete brake job including the steel lines and master cylinder. I alway double check the battery cables. People put the cheap cables on with the clamps the wires to the fittings type and the cable is for 12 volts and undersized at that. The positive cable should be as big as your thumb. You can have starting problems and overheated wiring with the cheap replacements. On the muffler, you can probably tell if its original by looking at the clamps. Replacement clamps are usually of thinner metal and clamp than original. Most original clamps have the clamps vertical. Most replacements are put on at an angle. Bob

There have been tons of discussions about gas and oil additives. Modern gas and oil is so much better than anything that existed when these cars were new. Even leadfree gas has a track record of working well in prodution engines. Highly modified engines are a different story. Alcohol in gas can damage rubber parts in carbs and fuel pumps. As to oils without Zddp, only high compression engines will have a problem with cam wear. It would be good to use Zddp during the breakin period on newly rebuilt motors. Unless there is something unusual in the oiling system, such as on 32 Buicks with the oil heater/cooler system that works off of oil viscosity, or low pressure oiling systems with rod dippers which will perfom differrently with multiviscosity oils,I would just use a 10- 30 oil in most all other applications. I know of a 35 Buick with 80,000 miles on 10-30 and no additives. I personally would not add Marvel Mystery oil because is will change the viscosity on your oil. With old engines that have not been rebuilt and have not had detergent oils used them ( such as barn finds) Stay with the non detergent oils. I can remember when detergent oils came on the market in the early 50's. I dropped a lot of oil pans to remove the sludge that was accumulated from one oil change to detergent oils. Modern engines do well with oil changes at 3,000 to 5,000 mile intervals. We change our oils once a year or at 500 to 1,000 miles. Our engines should easily outlast our lifetimes. Bob Engle

It doesn't appear to be a 32 Buick body. 3 hinge door, vent on side of cowl, reveals on door, missing rocker panel below door, missing apron between body and running board, are some of the features that differ from a 32 Buick. The fenders look like they may be original 32 Buick. Interesting car! BobEngle

The hard washers used on aluminum cylinder heads work great. True up the bottom of the bolt heads before assembly. Bob

I collected 4 50 series 1932 engines befor getting one that was not cracked. The first 3 all had cracks running between the intake and exhaust valve seats. another interesting problem on 32 50 series engines is the damage at the head bolts. The head bolts have a small head size and provied very little surface contact area. The head bolts also are not very hard. The bottom of the head bolts mushroom and then make poor contact with the heads. The head bolt holes wear concave putting undue pressure on the castings. I have found a number of the bosses with pieces broken out on my collection of heads. I have also found cracks at the water passage holes from the block into the head. I recut the shoulders on the head bolts to have a square contact area. I counter bore the head bolt holes and put a hardened washer, the type used on aluminum engines and hot rod engines, in the counter bore. I believe most of the cracking problems come from engine heat problems. Make sure the water jacket is thoroughly cleaned especially around #8 cylinder. Excess and improper head and manifold torque is also a problem. Read the posts on cracked exhaust manifolds and properly install the gaskets. If the exhaust manifold can't expand and slide on the cylinder head through heating and cooling cycles, cracking of heads and manifolds will occur. Let me know if you want any further info. Bob

The way I handled this problem on my 32 Buick was to remove the differential, spring shackle bolts, shock links, and brake rods. Instal the engine, then instal the transmission, use long guide rods to line up the pilot shaft. Then instal the differential. These torque tubes are always a challenge. Bob

An electronic version would not have t o be limited in page count as hard copies are for cost reasons. Offering more content would be a great enticement to go to the electronic version. Bob Engle

I've had good luck with the Eastwood chassis blacks.. If youdon't have a spray gun, you can use their aeresol cans. They can be purchased in gloss of satin so no need to mix. They also sell a rust encapsulator that I use as a primer to seal all the riveted joints on the frame. Bob

I have some spare 32 50 series rods. Can't promise the babbit condition. I would have to dig them out of storage. Send me a private message if you are interested. Bob

You would be amazed at how radials will change the ride, no more wandering, takes the harshness out as high air pressures aren't needed. My 60 Invicta with air shocks and radials rides like a dream on back country roads and high speed interstate. Bob

If you go into the carburetor, you should look at the tubes that hold the jets. I have seen a number of these with cracks in the tubes. This is caused by embrittlement of the brass over the years. They can be soldered by a patient person. If these are cracked, fuel can leake out below the venturie and you get a poor fuel air misture. Choking the carb will increase the manifold vacuum and improve the condition a little bit. One other item, If you do have an intake manifold gasket leak, do NOT just tighten the manifold bolts. You will only succeed in cracking your exhaust manifold. Follow the proper procedure for installing a new gasket. If you remove the manifold, check that there is a guide ring in each runner to the cylinder head. If any of these are missing, it will increase the chance of an air leak. Bob

Rig a vacuum gauge into the wiper vacuum line and check what kind of vacuum you have at idle and running speeds. If vacuum is too low, intake manifold gasket leaks, tubes bad in the heat riser, or vacuum wiper line leaks are the most common causes. Burned valves can cause low vacuum also. A compression check will find this problem. If vacuum is good and ignition timing is correct, then it is most likely a fuel problem. You could have plugged jets in the carb causing the engine to run lean. a set of 60 to 80 drills can be used to open the jets. The opening in the jets can be increased in size with these drill also. Be very carefull with opening the jets. It's a pain to solder the jets shut and redrill them. Bob

On 1932 Buicks they always listed a standard paint scheme for each model, but any paint scheme could be gotten on any model as an option. The data plate will determine what was done at the factory. The only 32 Buick color scheme that was one color on body, moldings and fenders was Black. There were many options for contrasting colors on the fenders in 1932. In fact there were additions schemes list midyear in 32. I don't know about 1933 model options. I have the paint data sheet for each model and very faded paint chips that are worthless for a match. Bob

The 32 Buicks had serious problems with cracked heads. I bought 4 engines before finding a restorable head. The cracked heads can be welded by a competent cast iron welder. Look at the thread on cracked exhaust manifolds for info on welding cast iron. I'll be glad to help you if I can. You can contact me by sending a personal message and I will supply my email address and phone numbers. To Identify your car, there are 4 pieces of information that will help. There is the Buick data plate and the Fisher body tag on the cowl . The fisher tag will have the model number on it. The Buick data tag will have the paint and trim codes on it. The car serial number is on the frame on the right side just behind the front wheel. The engine serial number is on a milled surface of the engine block on the right side just under the cylinder head. The 50 series car had a 114 3/4" wheel base. By soft top are you speaking of a phaeton or roadster, or are you just referring to the the canvas opening in the top of the steel body. The 50 series phaetons are quite rare. There were only 69 model 55 Sport Phaeton ( 5 passenger without a trunk (boot) on the rear) built in the USA. The model 58C Convertible Phaeton ( 5 passenger with a trunk (boot) on the rear ) accounted for only 380 USA built cars. The data tags and serial numbers will allow people on this forum to answer the questions on the identity and build dates for this car. Please post some pictures. I've attached a photo of my model 58 Victoria coupe. Bob

Sorry The file didn't attach. I reduced the file size. Bob

This attachment is a 33 Buick Correct color. Bob

You can't rod out a honeycomb radiator!! A test for the radiator is to remove the bottom hose, plug the bottom opening and fill the radiator with water. remove the plug and time how long it takes for the radiator to drain. Over 2 seconds and you have a radiator problem. I cleaned my 32 Buick radiator by blocking the thermostat opening. Then I stood the radiator upside down over a 5 gallon plastic bucket. I put 3 gallons of 200 degree water and a can of radiator flush in the bucket. I used a hot tub pump to pump from the bucket into the bottom radiator hose connection. I let the system run for several hours in this back flush mode. After this treatment, the radiator emptied in less that 1 second. I found about 1/2 a cup of grit in the bottom of the bucket when I was done. Be very careful with radiator shops flushing these old radiators. They apply too much pressure and damage these honeycomb cores. These old systems were not designed for pressure. Are your shutters full open when engine is hot?? Is your engien timing correct? too advanced will run hot. A lean fuel mixture will also cause an engine to run hot. Bob Engle

If there are any seams along the inner edges of the rims, they may need to be sealed to hold air. There was no need for the originals to be concerned about leaking with tubes. Bob Engle

My method of flushiong engines is to remove the radiator and thermostat. Using a pump from a hot tub, I set up for a reverse flush. Put a hose on the suction side of the water pump and put it into a 5 gallon bucket. Run the suction side of the hot tub pump into the 5 gallon bucket and the pump discharge into the thermstat housing connection. Using 200 degree water and a chemical flush; run the pump for 15 minutes. The hot tub pumps give plenty of volume and low pressure. Run as many batches of water and flush chemicals until the water is clean. If the system is really cruddy, I sometimes alternate the flush direction on each cleaning cycle. This system works good on flushing radiators also. Bob

There are no seals. There is a bushing in the Torque ball that has a groove cut in it to pump any oil that tries to leak out at the U joint. If you have a lot of oil getting into the differential drive shaft tube, I suspect the bushing is worn in the torque ball. Oil needs to get through the transmission rear bearing to lubricate the u joint and the torque ball. there is a hole in the bottom of the rear bearing housing to allow excess oil to return to the transmission. This could be blocked? The Torque ball has no seals and is shimmed to fit the rear bearing housing and the torque ball retaining plate. If the leather boot has been damaged, it will allow dirt into the metal surfaces and the torque ball, rear bearing housing and retainer plate can be worn to cause excess leakage out the leather boot. This leaking oil would not get into the drive shaft tube. It will just leak all along the underside of the car. All 3 parts need repairs if the leakage is to be controlled. Some oil will always seep out onto the leather boot even with new parts and proper shimming per Specs and Adjustments manual. Bob Engle