Beemon

I've been dealing with a blow-by effect when accelerating from a stop. The other day I went to check the oil level in the air filter because I put 40W oil in there. Unfortunately the local NAPA or the warehouse are no longer stocking the 50W and 60W Valvoline racing oils, which means I have to pay the $8 for the oil plus another $5 for shipping and then 9.5% tax. To make a long story short, there was evidence of oil around the edges of the air horn and if the oil with dirt is getting past the air cleaner, then it's going into the engine... Given that this has to be checked and cleaned about every 5000 miles (at least that's what I've been told), and paper elements are good for about 20,000 miles, $14.25*4=$56.94. Of course it's all about how often you want to drive your car, and I like to drive mine a lot. Whether you think oil baths work better than paper or not, this is purely informative. The debate goes on. I'm not looking for flak here, I'm just sharing what works. The box claims 99.9% efficiency in cleaning, and it is a huge air filter so I don't think I need to worry about air flow constraints in this application. The filter is #6255 from NAPA. It's off an early 90's Ford pickup, so availability will be around for a while. The filter dimensions are 11.625" OD, 8.375" ID, 5" tall. There is a tiny bead that goes around the top of the filter. Because the top of the filter housing is ribbed, (not pictued) I took some weatherstrip adhesive and built up the bead so it would crush against the top of the housing (snorkel). Pictured is the vacuum gauge at idle with the new air cleaner, steady 17" Hg at 7* BTDC, idle at 550-600RPM.The small drive to school and back, to me, felt more responsive than it had been prior. I think a lot of it had to do with there not being oil sucked into the air horn, but regardless I'm happy with the conversion.

The best of luck to you with the power brake conversion notes. I've always wanted to justify doing it, but where that one is mounted requires cutting the body, and I can't bring myself to do that kind of mod.

Take it with you! My mother protested I leave my Buick home while at college. Even though it's a rusted mess, I told her not a chance! In regards to Chrome, what SpecialEd said. My chrome is pitted in many places, so I've just waxed it with chrome polish once a month to keep it shiny and smooth and protected.

I think a lot of the accelerator noise has to do with the spline connection at the rod to the carburetor. If it's not pulled all the way up before tightening, then it moves the twist rod up and down during pedal movement. I can't say for certain why mine is the way it is except for it was broken at the cut out section for the c-clip where it goes into the bracket mounted on the firewall. But if others are having similar issues, then maybe I can rule out my father's TIG job. For other squeaks, such as transmission linkage, hood and door hinges, etc., I've used the WD40 white lithium spray can to great success. My hood now flutters up and down with ease and my door strikers aren't making "metal to metal" clinks anymore. Note that this did help my accelerator pedal squeak, but not entirely as I did implement the vacuum tubing method later.

In all honesty, I have no idea. But, if the resistor is good, it will still show resistance across the multimeter. If it's broken, it will not read anything. That being said, I would not advise using a resistor that has it's ceramic packing damaged, hence the suggestion for a modern replacement. The ceramic is a heat sink and an insulator. Without sections of it, the resistance wire will become extremely hot. The same can be said about the ignition and blower resistor. All it takes is for that resistor wire to jiggle and touch ground and short.

You can check the resistance with a multimeter.

I wouldn't re-use them if they have rust on the inside of the line.

At least you have the luxury of, if for whatever reason your gauges don't work, you can substitute large round aftermarket ones in their place. Both my temp and oil pressure gauges stick because they bent when I removed them to have my speedometer repaired. I have to live with the temp gauge, but at least I can replace the oil gauge.

Save the proportioning block and soak in cleaner. Measure the lines and buy pre-flared segments from the auto parts store. The pre-bent kits from suppliers never fit without tweaking, and being stainless, they don't crush as well as normal lines. It's not pretty, and it's not "correct", but unless you invest in a $200 flare kit (or know someone who does), you're going to have more heartache trying to use the cheap over the counter flare tools.

Car looks to have been repainted, the interior is a black color code while the outside is Dover White over Electric Blue. The headlight bezels also aren't painted. Still looks better than mine.

The cylinder heads are the same for both sides. Since it's already damaged, you have nothing to lose pulling the old sensor out of the head. Personally, I would have tried to remove the plug on the passenger head at the front of the engine first, then try and remove the temp sender on the driver head at the back of the engine. They're both probably equally hard to remove due to 60 years of being seated.

I'm glad I'm not the only one! My gas pedal squeaks every time I take my foot off and the rod rests on the edge of the hole through the firewall. I corrected it by taking some vacuum tubing, cutting it to the circumference of the hole, slicing it down one side and fitting it over the edge of the hole. Now the rod rubs against the rubber, not the metal. Squeak gone! I've never had the second squeak, though.

Sorry I'm getting back to this late, That's the intake. I guess I didn't really notice how bowed it was until you said something, but I had perceived it to be normal since the other side is identical. I guess I should be doing valve covers soon? Despite their condition, the back of the block is dry. Oil seems to be fine. It seeps slowly, like 1/8 of a quart a day. I've been driving it every day in the morning to campus and the oil leak has almost vanished. I think a huge portion of it was due to the oil pressure line because the issue seemed to almost go away after replacing it with a more expensive piece. There still seems to be oil behind the oil pan. I picked up the oil pan gasket, rope seal and sneaky pete. The top of the engine is dry off the backside, so the oil accumulating behind the oil pain is most likely from the rear main.

The exhaust doesn't seem to be original, it's not all orange. Try wrapping it up around the starter. My dad went through three starters after an exhaust job back in the late 90s when he did his 1982 Chev pickup 502 build and he solved his starter problem with exhaust wrap. Ttotired also brings up a good point. Since you replaced the solenoid, I don't think it's a severe electrical issue because the solenoid controls the entire starter. Check the pig tails for voltage conditions. To start, I believe there can be no less than 12.5V at the solenoid. When was the last time the battery was replaced? Old-tank also posted to check the starter relay in post #14. If it doesn't send 12.5V through the relay after being hot when trying to crank the engine over, then it's the relay that's at fault. Furthermore, you can check the condition of the starter by jumping certain contacts. If you jump 12.5V to the armature, the starter should spin without engaging. If you jump 12.5V to the solenoid, it should throw out without engaging the armature.

If it's for a hotrod, forget the heat stove and get a left side single exhaust manifold and put it on the right side. But, I'm sure you already know.

Looks like the piston is pitted... that's the worst part, but luckily they're still available.

Did you have exhaust work done? How close is the starter to the exhaust pipe? Heat is the #1 enemy of electronics. I thought I had an issue with my generator because on a hot day I had poor charging, but now that it's cooled down, it charges fine. It could be you have too much ambient heat from the exhaust that it's putting fatigue on your starter. If it is weak, then all you need to do is pull it out and install new brushes and rub the armature with scotch Brite. Before you do anything costly, check the exhaust pipe in relation to the starter. If your starter was weak, it would have a difficult time starting the engine hot or cold, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

In your pictures, the part of the cover that seals on the gasket looks trapezoidal. What I mean is the lip on the outside is tapered, they aren't straight compared to your walls. Is that normal?

I was actually really curious about this because mine are like ( ) and not | |. Maybe I should jump the gun and go buy aluminum covers?? Kidding. Thanks for the tip!

You ever think about taking one of your Buicks and affixing junk yard parts to make it look like Christine? Might get a bit more chills if you put a purple film over the headlights. Might be easier than a hearse. Get the teeth with the sheet metal and everything going.

I take it yours is stuck, too?

I guess I have nothing to worry about! Definitely not doing that, that's for sure! I'm running the V-Power NGK 5858s and have had no complaints. I tried the Champions and the ACDelcos but they all fouled up. There was probably nothing wrong with them, just the oil fouling from the vacuum pump (though I hear the R43S ACDelcos are trash anyways). The shop manual said to use the 160 t-stat, so that's what I've had in there since day 1. I might go for the 180. The discussion over the HD clutch fan conversion has me pondering and being in the Pacific NW, I'm going to try it here in the next week or so. For now, the car is a "drive it when I feel like it" type deal. It unfortunately sits in the rain now because I was pushed out of my grandfather's car port by 'underprivileged' tenants. I've been checking oil daily, the leak seems to have passed. I'm guessing it was the oil pressure line at the block. At idle, there wasn't any seeping that I could see, but I'm sure at higher RPMs that thing must have been spraying the block because there isn't any more residue. I'm still watching the rear main closely as I still can't tell if it's leaking or not, but the dip stick has been consistent. Vapors are confirmed to be coming from the road draft tube. Condition unknown, but it's doing it's job. Oil seems to be wicking through the valve cover gaskets. When I rub my fingers across the back, they're wet, but they aren't spilling oil out. Is this normal? Thanks again everyone for the input. I've been on this forum contributing consistently for a year now and without you guys I would be no where! (well, maybe somewhere, but progression would be extremely slow lol).

You could attempt to rebuild it yourself, they're very simple to understand and don't require much effort to get working. The only two things you can't get readily over the counter is the armature and Bendix, but you can find the Bendix relatively easy. What's wrong with your starter right now?

It cost me about $5 per key. They took my original key and put it into their computer and let the computer make the measurements on thickness and depth of the teeth. Then they put the blank in and cut it. This key is a little longer than the original and has no problem clearing the ring of the ignition cylinder. The blank was a little thicker than the original, you can see where they shaved the side of the blank to the correct thickness.

McLendon Hardware store is where I got my new keys.