Beemon

There is no blast of vapor revving, but I think it's just the crankcase vapor has a negative pressure inside it. It's not allowing the crankcase to vent properly at highway RPMS because of the radiator fan I think pushing air into the crankcase. Good news is that running with the PCV seems to have dislodged some gunk in the road draft tube because it started smoking today at idle. I don't know how long that will last, but for the interim I was thinking of going and pulling some valve covers and valley pan off a later 401/425 PCV engine. I already want to go out for the aluminum rockers, so may as well. That way I can clean the road draft filter at my leisure. A PCV system is preferred anyways, I think. Speaking of PCV system, this is what I learned today. They will not work with vacuum accessories, or at least the vacuum pump in the same line. The vacuum pump causes some type of turbulence, even when T-ed up hill from it, which causes the PCV to not work properly. When I blocked off the vacuum to the pump, it magically started working. I'm already planning on doing away with the vacuum accessories as it is, so this system can work for me at that time. For now, I'll continue to monitor oil consumption and the road draft tube vapors until I can dig in. And as always, here's some part numbers. PCV: #CRB 21229 Breather Cap (With Gromets): #BLK BK 7031691 You'll need 3/8s tubing like any other GM PCV system. Also not tested, but I think it would be in the best interest of the system to install a 1-way check valve up hill from the PCV. I'm not sure how the PCV carbs worked, but I doubt they had a 1-way valve.

NAPA Echlin is Standard Motor Products, FWIW.

The valve cover cap is baffled already and also has a filter medium below the gromet - it is solid, not a breather cap (except for the PCV), and specific for PCV installation. The T is before the vacuum pump, so it should go straight to the manifold and not to the pump itself. As soon as I get this sorted, I'll post some part numbers for those interested. About taking the road draft tube and burning the oil out of the filter... how do you know when it's clean? Will it burn off sludge that couldn't be hot tanked? Actually I don't even know if it was hot tanked or not, to be honest. On Willie's website, the only advisable fix for removing 60 year old sludge in there was to cut it apart and throw away the contaminated filter. That's something that's down the road for me, when I intend to do the lifter inspection around the same time I pull the timing cover and check the chain, lifters and cam (just in case something like a cam needs to be removed...). I can understand burning it out with maybe a couple years of sludge build up... will have to ask my grandfather if he ever cleaned it out, but it is definitely currently plugged. I found a few sources for PCV valves for low idle vacuum. They mostly come off of late 60s high performance big blocks, most notably the 1968 Corvette 427BB. I'm going to be picking up a few. Another is a fixed orifice PCV off a 2003 GM truck. Lastly, the Rochester 4GC doesn't have a PCV port. With the air cleaner, I can't put a PCV spacer. I thought about plumbing into the vacuum advance port with a brass T, but that's ported vacuum... When I switch over to the 57-61 timing cover with the modern fuel pump, the vacuum lines will go away and I'll plumb the PCV into that port on the manifold, rather than T-ing it into the pump line.

Yeah that's about right. I can't remember my compression numbers off the top of my head, but when we first broke the engine in, and a thousand miles after, compression was ok, albeit a bit lower than normal due to .030" pistons. The issue I'm having is I think the filter medium right before the road draft tube is just caked on there. Even with the wrong PCV valve in the valve cover, and the other valve cover plugged with a solid fill cap, there is no suction on the road draft tube from the intake manifold. I essentially ruled out that the reason I'm having such significant oil leakage is because of crankcase pressure build up at high RPM. BTW the mid 60's Buick nailhead PCV does not work. It is fully open, whereas the elbow one I grabbed off the shelf pulls partially closed. Looks like I need to find some type of spring that's above the one I pulled off the shelf. The nailhead one had A stamped on the plunger, whereas the shelf model didn't have a stamp. I wish there was more documentation on PCV systems and how they work, because it seems to be centered on engine vacuum. Guess I'll start looking at 327 or big block engines and see what they used on their HP motors.

So I thought I would try something new. For starters, driving around town I have no oil loss at all. Rarely ever see high RPMs unless I really lay into the pedal. Before, my rear main seal would weep at idle and now, after a patch job, it doesn't. Yesterday I went to a local Model A swap meet to look over the flea market, and on the way home I had a really bad lifter tick. Come to find I lost 3 quarts out the rear main. Oil had fumed past the gaskets at the breather caps and pushed past the distributor o-ring, among other places. No visible vapors out the road draft tube. I'm not equipped to tackle the road draft tube restoration at this time, and realizing this is a crankcase ventilation issue at high RPM, I hit the web and came up with this: My valve covers used to be so pretty until it started bleeding from the nuts and breather cap. The PCV is T-ed right before the vacuum pump so it's getting full intake manifold vacuum. The problem I've run into now, is because at my best the engine idles at 15 inches Hg and the PCV spring weight is too weak to keep closed at that amount. I can scarce up a late nailhead PCV system, but did later nailheads pull that type of vacuum too? Or less? Either way, it's acting like a vacuum leak at idle when it should behave more like ported vacuum, or open up slowly as engine builds load. This was the aftermath of the trip - 30 mins at 65MPH both ways: BTW yes I'm back to electric choke, and yes I know the dashpot is screwed out.

I've never had an issue with NAPA's Echlin brand. I've bought some cheaper stuff from the other national parts outlet stores but none of them have held up. Good to hear the MSD unit is running good. What did you use for springs and bushings? Sorry a bit off topic. The MSD distributor with the MSD Atomic EFI would be the best setup because you then get rid of the vacuum advance and lock out the mechanical advance, buy the phased rotor and have the EFI system run the timing.

Early 60s, but almost sounds like you knew my father. I think the best way to go for insurance purposes would be to pay to have the car appraised every couple of years so the insurance company has a solid amount backed by an accredited appraiser. I guess also knowing your policy would be wise, too. I go through State Farm and they've only ever asked what the declared value was - no mileage restraints or anything. I'm now curious if it covers anything at all in the case of an accident or if the car was stolen.

Oh, the car show I went to was local with maybe 60 cars. That seems overwhelming.

No I never did. I wanted to get one for a complete electrical conversion, but it's really hard to get behind it when you go through three Pertronix modules in a span of three months. I thought about buying the MSD distributor, but at that point you're dropping a lot of cash on something that might fail again. So I went back to stock setup. Points are a mechanical breaker system and will never fail. When they wear out, I can drive down to the auto parts store and buy a new point breaker and condenser for $15 and be done with it, vs waiting 2 weeks for a return confirmation and then another week for the replacement to arrive. MSD probably is the way to go, I just wish they anodized the billet aluminum in black. It's just with everything going the way of "Engineered in the USA, made in Mexico/China", the quality has really suffered. To clarify, I wanted electronic ignition to drive an EFI system and was going to use the PowerGen for powerplant. All parts of the system have to work or you're stuck. And unless you cut off your generator bracket and weld in an alternator bracket, generator is the only thing that safely works. Good luck!

It is kind of nice showing up to car shows with the only 50s Buick. The last show I went to, some guy named Jerry Ruth walked up to me and said he has a 425 in the garage he's been dying to put in something. Talked about Nailheads a bit, then some guy pulled up in a model A, waved his hand and he was gone. It was only later that I knew I was talking to a Pacific NW legend. So you never know who might wander over to look at your old Buick.

Did you get the version with the gen lamp terminal? It gives 6 volts while charging to ground the starter just like the original system.

Must be cold outside in that first picture

Those brake master cylinders are bulletproof. Just replace the piston and rubber cups and you're good.

Daniel, the fuel line between the pump and the frame was a flex line that moved with engine torque. Make sure it can flex so it doesn't break under vibration. Good luck with the pump! Glad she's running.

Need to figure out which car show these girls go to this year

If your AC system doesn't work out, I wouldn't mind helping out with taking those parts off your hands.

Elpad, love your color combo. Mine liked like that some 40 years ago.

John, check 3rd pic in post 214

That's probably the issue. You're pulling the fuel up hill and it's creating a vacuum. Unless the fuel can flow straight through the filter (downwards or horizontal), there's going to be a pressure differential. You're changing cross sectional area too quickly and your time to the no pump equilibrium state is 20 mins consecutively each time. Get rid of the filter and see if the problem exists. Gravity is the enemy here.

In my short time messing with old cars, I've found an L-shaped box wrench works best for starters and a 90-degree box wrench with a drive end works best for distributors. And a match book for setting dual points. Also kind of silly, but if you're ever doing multiple carbs: take two Pepsi bottles (or Coke if you're that guy) and fill them half way with water. Then cut two holes in the top of each cap and run one piece of surgical tubing from one bottle to the other (all the way to the bottom of both bottles) and the other two pieces of surgical tubing to manifold vacuum ports on each carburetor (in my case, the hot air choke port on a Rochester 4GC). Seal the caps with glue and watch the water levels in each bottle for different atmospheric pressure. You'll know you did it right when the water level is the same in both bottles, successfully equalizing your carbs.

Not yet anyways. Can always duplicate the mold for the rocker arm and make some one off valve covers.

When you rebuilt the carb, did it have a fine filter at the inlet? It sounds like either there is a pinhole in the fuel line and it's aerating the pump or there's a restriction to the fuel bowls and the carb can't fill up the bowls fast enough when driving, like the inlet filter is plugged or the floats were set too low and is prematurely cutting off the flow at the needle and seat. Is this 20 mins driving or 20 mins idling?

If the advantage was to oil the piston skirts and cylinder wall, then it would only benefit the rear half of the engine since the front of the oil pan is too shallow to sling oil from the sump. I can't really wrap my head around that. Maybe if it were a center sump? My understanding is the windage tray is the same mounting depth as the front of the oil pan and is notched for the oil pump.

John, there's a Buick 455 on the Seattle Craigslist right now for $500, we can make this happen.

You would need a 3D scanner to create the object mesh from scratch and then use a 3D printer. Likewise, you could always create your own, too, and use a 3D printer.