Bob Engle

What is the correct engine rpm expected from the starter on the 401 engine? I am having power steering problems and the power steering pump fluid filling procedure states to not start the car, but run the starter to bleed the system. The problem with this procedure appears to be the pump rpm is too low for to work the flow control valve for proper bleeding. The pump rebuilder keeps telling me to remove the pressure line fitting an jiggle the flow control piston. This has not worked for me to get flow through the system. All I've managed to do is get steering fluid all over the engine by following the procedure. Bob Engle

I've pulled some vent window glass taking two pieces of wood and C clamping them to the glass to give a good purchase for pulling. In tough situations, I've clamped the wood to extend past the ends and then used a piece of wood as a pry bar between the wood and frame edge. Bob Engle

Terry: Could you supply the engineering drawings? I don't plan to pull my valves at the present time, but you never know what will be needed in the future. I see reference to Light Six. Is there a heavy six?? Is the engine in my 1917 D45 considered a Light Six? Thanks for the photos and post. Bob Engle

There are many different types of wire that will give different spring rates. Not many standard stock springs will match. I suspect you will need to find an original, or get a one wound to your specs. If you have a lathe, and you want to play around, you can try to make your own. I have done this many years ago when a production machine was down and needed to get back in operation fast. I can explain the process if you want to attempt to make your own. Don't worry about the number of coils. get the correct rate. Bob Engle

Restoration Supply has a brake spring for internal band brakes. It fit my 1917 D45. 3.3" overall length, 2.07 coil length, .470 OD, PN FAS060. I don't know if they will fit your needs. Bob Engle

outside of the intake/carb issue, the rest of the engine does look correct. A serial # from the right side of the engine just below the cylinder head would help ID the year. It should be on the boss just above the oil cap on the side plate. The oil cooler looks suspect for originality. Bob Engle

Check with Universal Vintage tire company, Hershey PA. They have universal black walls for about $300 and they have Lester white walls on sale for $260. Great company to work with. Bob Engle

If woven linings are used on the brakes they are quite adequate for highway driving. If you want disk brake performance, then changes will be need to be done. The drive trains are very reliable and comparable with most cars into the late 40's. As said above, if you know what you want, go for it! If in doubt, drive it as an original until you know what your expectations are. It's your car make it what you want. Bob Engle

There is a large core plug in the underside of the intake manifold. If you have corrosion in the top exhaust areas, there is a good chance the underside core plug is rusted through also. Bob Engle

Clearances have varied from .003" to .006" The shims had been from as thick a .106" to .100". All except one are now.101" thick. Bob

Don: That's the best explanation so far. I taped two planer blades to my granite plate and put the shim between the two and filed them down to 1.001" I have ordered some shim stock at .0005", .0010". .0015" and .0002", I will make two steel pieces and clamp the shim stock between them for trimming. Then it's back to plastigage, torque, remove cap and add shims to get .0002" clearance. Once the rods are all set, I'll remove the main caps one at a time and see what I have there. If I am correct, to remove the front main cap, I must remove the cast piece that is also the lower water pump/starter-generator gear pan. If this is correct, I'll get to inspect the gears for their condition. Bob Engle

I double checked again. They are definitely on piece brass. not a stack of laminate shims. It's hard to believe that model A shim would fit the shape of this Buick. I'll check with some local shops to see if they have some similar shims. I hate the thought of having to make a batch of shims to the current profile. Bob Engle

I got back to work on my rod bearings today. I checked all the shims for the rod caps. I am used to working with engines that had a stack of shims form .0005" to .0100" thickness installed when the bearings were new. As the engine wore, shims could be removed to keep the desired clearance. This engine has a single thick stamped brass shim on each side of the cap. They vary in thickness from .0999" to .1060" thick. They are stamped pieces as one side has rounded edges and the other has sharp edges, They are not of uniform thickness as they vary about.001" across their length. I am considering surface grinding them all to a common thickness and then adding shims to get the desired gap. The crank journals are a nominal 1 3/4" Dia. so according to the above posts a target of .002" should be ideal. A couple other things I found were the hex castle nuts were torqued to about 35ft- #. Specs for a #2 fine fine Thread 3/8" rod cap bolt should be about 17 ft-#. The rod caps had mushroomed at the bolt holes, so I reamed the holes to remove the collapsed metal. I will install new hex castle nuts and torque to 17 ft-#. I would appreciate any thoughts on this plan. Bob Engle

I reassembled the pump without a gasket. A note for others working on this old stuff, two of the six screws holding the bottom plate onto the pump had broken lock washers. I replaced all with new lock washers. I would suggest that any lock washers on the internals of these old engines should get new lock washers to prevent some metal pieces ending up where we don't want them. Bob Engle

Thanks for the info. These systems are much simpler. no bypass valves. The drive for the oil pump is coil spring with the ends bent 90 degrees centered over the coils. these ends fit in slots in the drive and driven shafts. No misalignment problems. The system is built for volume, not pressure, The pump must provide enough oil to keep the troughs for the connecting rod dippers filled for splash to all other lower end components. Bob

I'm working on the oil pump today and some questions arose. There was a paper gasket .006" thick between the cover plate and the main body. I removed the gasket and used a sharpening stone to clean the surfaces of the plate and body. There is no measureable wear on the plate, only swirl marks from the gears. I put green plastigage across the tops of the gears and installed the cover without a gasket. upon removing the cover I checked the clearance gear to plate at .0025" to over .003" clearance. Question 1, Is the gasket correct? Question 2, Is a .003" clearance acceptable? It is obvious to me that this engine has been worked on before, so I am not sure as to what is proper and correct or is it shade tree work.. Bob Engle

I haven't checked the mains yet. I am still trying to decide what to do with the rod bearings. All wrist pins are tight and centered in the piston. I get tempted to pull the pistons just to see what they look like, but I don't know if I want to fool with trying to get them back in the bores from the bottom. Bob

It is a dipper connecting rod fed oil from troughs in the pan which is gravity fed from the oil pump. the rest of the bottom end is splash oiled. To the best of my knowledge, all cast babbit bearings have their clearances set with shims on the camps. This controls the clearance in the major load direction. Bob Engle

Thanks for your responses. I'll have to take the 1/10" thick shims and mark each for surface grinding to get the clearances tighter. Nothing extreme, but .001 to .0025 removal. Bob Engle

I have a knock in the engine on the D45. I was concerned about a bad rod bearing or loose wrist pin. I picked up a pan gasket at Hershey from OLSONS Gaskets ( great people to work with). I dropped the pan and checked #1 cylinder wrist pin for tightness and dropped the rod cap and tested with plastigage. Clearance is just under .004". surfaces look good on the journal and bearing. Should I surface grind the cap spacers (.101 Thickness) to reduce the clearance? What is the acceptable clearance range? What is a good torque spec for the rod bolts? Also, I removed the oil pump and check the gears. They show almost no wear and there is only about .001 wear on the bottom plate. What are the clearance limits on the gears to the bottom plate? Thanks for any assistance. Bob Engle

There are people that repair them. New ones are extremely scarce. Do some searches on the site to find some sources. There were threads on this in the past. Bob Engle

You sure have a lot of oil in the rocker assembly!! I am a little puzzled as to why there is so much oil flowing onto the push rod ends on many of the push rods? The oil to the hollow rocker arm shaft is restricted by the 1/8" line to the filter and the 1/8" line to the rocker arm shaft. essentially there should be no oil pressure in the rocker arm shaft. At the front of the rocker arm shaft is a 1/4" tube that feeds any excess oil from the rocker arm shaft down to the timing gears at the generator and should prevent any pressure in the shaft. There are open vents on the top of rocker arms and the brass attachment for the front drain tube. I would remove the front drain tube and see that it is open and not restricted. I would also wonder if someone drilled out the rocker arm oil holes to a larger size allowing all that oil flow to the rocker arms. Buick engine design did not require a lot of oil in the upper rocker arm area. There were no seals on the valve stems and a shallow area on the top of the cylinder head. Excess oil will leak out the rocker arm cover and oil around the valves can get through the valve guides. Bob Engle

The fitting at the head is 1/8"NPT 27TPI. The fitting at the rocker shaft stanchion is an odd fitting. It has straight threads with 24 TPI. OD of threads is.437". All the fittings I have from 4 engines have the stepped soldered lines like yours. Small line is 3/16" OD. larger line is 1/4" OD. Bob Engle

I would not worry about the tube size in the top to the rocker arm shaft. The key is the restricted flow from the engine to the filter. I'll check the fitting size later today. Bob Engle

The angled tube at the left is a drain to allow any gear lube that gets that far to drain rather than get onto the bake linings. At the spring cap, if it is gear lube and not dripping grease from the spring mount, it would have to be from a hole in the axle tube. I am not familiar with the 20's car, but the early teens cars had the lower cap open with a key bolted to the tube to provide lateral alignment of the spring to the differential tube. I suspect there is a key under the lower spring cap. It's possible that this key is loose and allowing differential lube to leak into the cap. Have you added tube recently? Have you had the car in an extreme tilt with the right side high? either of these two situations would allow lube to travel out the tube and leak out. I would drop the bottom cap off the spring mount and see what's going on inside. I would check your differential lube level also. Clean the dirt out of the angled drain tubes on both sides. You want any lube that gets that far to leak out. Bob Engle