Beemon

Got some reveal coming for the thread revival? Hope to see more of your Buicks! All those slice of life mods you've done recently would fit well in a showcase here! Or how about that driving video?

The engine really pulls now! I was doing 5 over on 101 and this Ford pickup pulling a camper trailer ended up playing leap frog with me. Finally I got tired of him and when I went pass him the third time going up hill, we matched speed and then I effortlessly pulled away after putting my foot into it. It really is like a whole new car considering the fact that it's an 8 cylinder now instead of a 6. I couldn't be happier, except maybe for a bottom end and valve train rebuild.

I finally made it! After my drive to and from ocean shores, I finally beat the challenge.

Check the hardware store.

The needle on my gauge sits below N all the time with the 160. I still have the 180 I pulled out and it's good. At idle I was getting some heat but it didn't sweat me out. A guy local is selling a new reman generator for $30, it may be my saving grace. However, with two for two, I think it may be time to save for a PowerGen.

It does have a fill plug. You're most likely going to need a large crescent or pipe wrench to get it loose. To drain, loosen the bottom differential housing bolt.

I dI'd some driving tonight. The difference in power is crazy. I thought i had a true nailhead when i had first engine rebuilt.. then i thought i had one with this engine.. all this I thought the Dynaflow was the slug.. turns out it was my engines! I did have another casualty this evening... the second generator gave up it's last leg. Which sucks, because it was a 35-40 amp generator someone had gotten into. Both generators need new armatures.. so the alternator came back out of hibernation. Tomorrow is the real test, I'll be driving to see my father on the coast. Wednesday I make the big drive across the state back to school. With my luck the fuel pump will go out! Nah, we'll make it.

Acorn nuts was what I wanted initial, but I couldn't find any in #4 size anti freeze is coming next. This was to just get it out of the car port. I'm going to have a shop vacuum flush the coolant.

I didn't have the throttle linkage adjusted properly since I had to shim the throttle tower away from the head for the new valve covers so I was a bit disappointed I didn't see WOT. I did have a pretty big scare, however. There was a steady stream coming from the driver side cylinder head. I pulled the valve cover and was frantically looking only to see that it was the temp gauge sender... what a sigh of relief! After getting up to temp and filling with garden hose water, I shut her off and re-torqued the head bolts again to 75 ft lbs following the bolt pattern. If I were to guess, they loosened up to about 65 ft lbs. I'm going to re torque after 500 miles.

The results are in! I could have done a wet compression test, but this tells me all I need to know. What's funny is that this worn motor has better compression than my rebuilt motor...

It could have been an air bubble that finally found your vented cap. If you played with the fittings, it could have had a micro leak until the flare fittings were heated and expanded under normal use. I had one fitting that I just could not get right and it stopped leaking on its own after cruising the neighborhood.

Yeah, I am going to be running the stock 4 blade fan. Despite knowing that the clutch doesn't seem to work, I don't think it would have worked with how clogged the radiator was anyways. I'll be running a 160 t stat, too.

Just woke up... I don't feel like doing the radiator physically but mentally I couldn't sleep all night. The pains of engine anxiety.

Seattle Radiator Works in Georgetown. They did an awesome job. They're one of the last big heat exchanger shops in the state. When I hadmy radiator in there, they were also restoring the radiator out of the very first fire truck from the Seattle Fire Department. They also used blueprints from the Museum of Flight to build from scratch a brass radiator for a 1920s aircraft. Almost done. All that's left really is the radiator. Compression check is also in order. I'm confident it's all on right. Even followed the head bolt pattern in the book, torquing to 75 ft lbs in intervals of 25. Per Willie's advice, I sprayed both sides of the gasket with copper coat. The valve covers got at the junkyard for $50 total....

It was $270 plus tax for a complete rebuild - core was okay, they were able to rod it. If the core was bad, I was most likely going to buy a new radiator.

Finally got the correct washer jar lid. I bought one back when I got all my body stuff but it was the standard lid, not the coordinator lid. My lid was bent up and ugly. I used #4 machine screws instead of the rivets to put it back together. It was pretty straight forward and everything can only go on one way. I think if I trim the screws on top, it would look better. Is it correct? No. Was it easy? Yes. Did I need any special tools? Nope. Will it work? We'll see. Oh, I also got the heads back today. Hoping to hear her roar tonight.

Today I went over to see my grandfather (and the Buick). After conversing and trying to stomach Days of our Lives, I back flushed the heater core with the garden hose. It burped a few times, then coolant, then brown coolant with junk in the fluid, then clear. I also whipped out my plastic scraper and took to the engine block, getting all the muck and junk off the sealing surfaces. I did use a steel blade to get what I assume is calcium or similar around the sand casting holes in the water jacket. Since I also have the valley pan separated, i took a big plastic pipe cleaner and pushed all the crud out of the pushrod holes. I pulled the block plugs and also flushed out the engine block, but it ran clear with little to no sediment... guess it was all in the radiator? Heads should be done today, but I'm expecting Monday. There was a hiccup with the rocker arm replacements so I'm going to clean my other set of rocker arms and then replace them when I get the others in the mail.

But, only if it's still available and affordable and in good condition. The well dries up eventually.

I linked up with the machine shop today. No pictures, but the rocker shaft was so worn in, there was about a .010 taper on one side and it was worn down by the rocker springs. I'm not sure what Buick made the rocker shafts out of, but it was definitely softer than the aluminum rods and spring steel... so, those are packed and being sent to California as a core for new, bushed rocker arms. Talk about a huge let down... I have two sets of late nailhead and 3 sets of early nailhead rockers and all the shafts are worn in real good. Replacement shafts should hopefully arrive by the weekend.. hopefully. Heads came back good after the magnaflux. No cracks! Valve guides are totally wasted, though - way out of spec. The machine shop said they'll stand behind their valve guide supplier. Those will be here Friday. The valve springs are ok but will require shims. There's no worry of spring binding as of now. I was informed everything is on track for a late Friday pickup, with the last bit being the valve guide install, deck and soft plugs, then paint. I don't even know how any of this could even be possible without donations from family members trying to keep the family car alive. I'm going to have to make up a sponsorship list, Haha. But seriously, once I get situated with a career job, I think I owe my mother a new set of kitchen appliances.

Got a call back from the radiator shop. Almost 90% plugged with mud and junk! Not sure where it all came from, I thought I flushed the block before adding cooling hoses... Hope my woman don't mind me borrowing the pantyhose. I'm going to hook the garden hose up to the heater core and back flush it, and see if it's got any junk in it.

12.05 I believe.

Force delivered is from your foot depressing the brake pedal.

The future is now old men

Matt, why not put them on the 54? This upgrade was well worth it on my 56.

I personally felt that the drum setup was better than the disc setup, having done both with the same master and realizing the system has a residual valve designed for drums (creates dragging condition for discs). The pistons were also not valved correctly for the stock hydraulic system and by nature of function, discs require more pedal pressure due to their clamping mechanic versus the self energizing drum (also discs use the principal of radial acceleration, which is inferior to the principal of tangential acceleration that drums utilize). In order to accomplish better braking with discs, there are three things to consider. 1. The size of tubing does matter. Without knowing what master cylinder and "proportioning valve" is in that kit, it will be hard to gauge what is actually going on. You would be best to look at the first run of disc brake cars with equal or similar volume calipers, wheel cylinders and master cylinder bore as well as front and rear line size differences, as well as the potential of residual valves. Most people buy the whole lot of "dual master cylinder with xxx proportioning valve" and don't think twice, with their "improved" braking capabilities being no more than a placebo effect. In the hydraulic system, usually the volume of the caliper and wheel cylinder dictates braking proportion, but also master cylinder valving and line diameter. Pressure is force over area, and a larger diameter tube is going to carry more pressure than a smaller diameter tube, so everything must be considered. 2. Pedal ratio is key, which this kit seems to address. The only issue is the washer jar, which in my opinion is a staple for the vintage under the hood look. I guess you could take a look at a 57 and copy how it's mounted by the radiator. 3. The original master cylinder is a really good design and pretty straight forward to rebuild. Do not buy this kit or go down this road thinking that it will be any safer than the stock system. Having experienced brake failure in a modern car, you have zero brakes to stop and must rely on the parking brake just like these proclaimed unsafe single stage master cylinders. That being said, this is the best and only kit for our 54-56 Buicks. It's pretty straight forward. Same with his AC kit. I personally like using my vents and having the washer jar on the firewall, so I can't really justify it myself. Would have also been nice if the pedal was the same size as the original so you could buy a repro pedal to complete a stock look... not sure what happened there. Edit: just read the description. Looks like your brake light switch goes above the 10 lbs residual valve in the original distribution block. That doesn't make any sense to me but those switches hardly worked to begin with so why not?