Daves1940Buick56S

Ohhhh yeahhhhhh....

Thanks Mike! I am going out of town for a few days at the end of the week but will go over the oil pump once we get back. Did you "stretch" the spring on the regulator as well? The secret for the pan pull is to have the counterweights for cyls 1 and 2 in mid position, so turn the crank until both pistons are in equal position vertically (mid-cylinder). If the Idjit before me did not do the rings, then there is very little ridge, just enough to catch a fingernail. My rabbi, Doug at Rockville Ring and Bearing, said that the pistons should slide over that no problem. I have to take a closer look at the cylinders, will use my good camera and post some pics. May not get back to it until I return next week. Cheers, Dave

A few pieces of news. Greg J has a manifold and I should have it in a couple of weeks. My machine shop will set it up once I get it. Second, I went back and did a very careful mike of the cylinders. They range from 3.092" to 3.096" on the parallel to the crank. Delta going deeper in the cylinder (about 1/2 way down) is maybe 0.001". I also checked perp to the crank and no more than 0.001" difference. So no oversize pistons needed, also rings will be standard if I need them. Last, I got the pan out!!! Nastiest. Job. Ever. Going in from above was a no-go, so we put it up and I tried from below. Lo and behold, my frame crossmember has 4 nicely placed holes lining up with the 4 bolts. Maybe this was an "improvement" done later since the frame drawings I have seen for 1940 do not show them. Anyhow, got the 4 out, then had to struggle a bit with the next 2 on each side but was able to get on them from below and behind. After lots of !@#%!^$^!@!@#$&^*@ I got them and, after getting the remainder off (finally went to the air ratchet) the pan literally dropped on me. I was able to maneuver it out and it had about an inch of sludge on the bottom. Also tons of garm and goo on the pan and the bolts. I really find it hard to believe that someone had the pan off anytime in the last few years. Anyhow, I came out covered head to foot in oil and grease but we got it! Also removed the oil pump and I will take a look. More to come, including pix. Cheers, Dave

Got one, thanks to all who replied and PM'd. Thanks, Dave

Grant: My fenders are still on, but it looks like your crossmember is the same. I spoke with Greg Johnson in MN earlier today, and he said it can be done but it's not easy. Not much clearance between the pan bottom and crossmember. Once you got the bolts out, could you maneuver the pan out without lifting the block off of the mounts? Cheers, Dave

I dunno, Mike. I took another look and I sure could not see any way of getting the front pan bolts off from below. Lo0oks like a gen and fuel pump pull and working them out with a box wrench. Or am I missing something? Pics attached. Maybe the 248 fits in there a little differently from your bad-boy 320? Cheers, Dave

Yes, although no fog lights or sidemounts. I will see if I can dig up the pix. Thanks, Dave

Thanks!

Mike: Where is your gallery? Could not find it thru your profile. Cheers, Dave

My Dad bought a used Auburn in 1939 or 1940. It was a 1934 and I know it was a phaeton. It was black w/red leather interior. He said it had the 2 speed selectable rear end. Unfortunately I neglected to ask about the engine before he died. Do we know enough to say if it was a 6 or an 8? I have a couple of pictures but there is not much detail, will try to dig them up and scan. He sold the car in late 1942 just before he went into the Army. I think he said he originally bought it for $300 and sold it for the same amount. Cheers, Dave Stovall

Update from today: word is that the head is good, all valves good, guides good, he just had to lap a bit. So it appears the valve job was done prior to me getting the car. The bad news is the manifold - he said to replace if possible, but he recommended a guy in Spencerville who welds on this old iron and he might be able to clean it up. Am taking to him tomorrow, meanwhile I put up a want ad on the buy/sell forum to see if there are any available manifolds. Mike - I will take another look tomorrow but I sure didn't see any places to put up a socket from the bottom - maybe my eyes are going along with the rest of me! And my oil pressure is adequate but not great - about 35 at cold, about 10 at hot idle. Did you grind on the pump body itself to reduce clearance from flange to gears? Cheers, Dave

Well it appears my manifold assy on ny 1940 Super may be toast, will get final verdict tomorrow. Anyone out there have one available? Need intake as well due to suspicious amateurish weld job.

Approx 22 E. Maiden St. South side of street. Here is a link to Google maps. Cheers, Dave

I'll put a question up front so it will be seen: Oil pan bolts - how do you get to the 6 bolts that are above the crossmember? Pull the gen and fuel pump and go to it from above with a box wrench? So, finally the weather finally improved enough to move into major work. The dash is essentially done and I will do a thread on it soon, but I wanted to get going asap. So I pulled the carb, drained the coolant, pulled the rocker arm off along with the pushrods as well as pulling the pushrod cover. The person or persons who did previous work on this car (I have taken to calling him/them the Idjit) used plenty of gray RTV glue so it was a bit of a struggle but not as bad as the valve cover last year. I had a bit of a prob with the exhaust pipe bolts but got them off (see here). The Idjit also had gooped on plenty of red RTV on the intake and exhaust manifold so I anticipated a struggle there as well but with the weight I was able to loosen and de-schlorp it and, with the help of a friend, remove it. As you can see from the photos, there are old repairs as well as an unrepaired crack (see 8th photo), although it does not appear to be leaking exhaust. Notice how someone cut off the heads of the studs holding on the valve body to the manifold. :mad: Niiiice! Also, the bypass valve is about 75% closed. The Idjit used some kind of adhesive on the head gasket so that was a chore but with 2 of us on a breaker bar we got the head loose. Man, I had forgotten how bloody heavy these things are! We got it out and I did a liquid test on the valves. All of the valves passed but most of the guides leaked. So we hauled it up to Rockville Ring and Bearing (last machine shop in Rockville) and he is looking at it now. He said he can plane the manifolds so I will take those up tomorrow. Any further decision of those will wait until he looks at them. So the block cylinders look OK, there definitely is evidence that the ridge was removed. That means my earlier question (see here) has been answered, that it appears that valve and ring work was done. Whether it was done right is still up for grabs. Cylinder bore looks to be 3.093 to 3.095 or so, will do a better check this week. Since I inflamed my back again I am taking it easy for the next few days but am close to getting the pan pulled and looking at a piston and ring assy, hopefully before the end of the week. Lots of pics, enjoy! Cheers, Dave

You all may have seen this before but I was in Washington PA a few weeks ago and spotted this. Dave Stovall

Just to close out this thread. I ended up getting them both off without resort to nuclear weapons. Basically I got on them with a wrench on the nuts while braced against the engine block and turning from above with a 9/16 6-sided socket and a long breaker bar. One of them was screaming all the way, you can see which one from the photo. Cheers, Dave

Ed: I love the analogy! I am trying to imagine that much HP in my car - I am thinking the running gear would all come apart in short order! In a similar vein, I was involved with Air Force recon systems for 30 years, mostly on the U-2 platform. The U-2R was actually carrier qualified, which is amazing considering its 102 ft wingspan. I have seen the films of the launches and recoveries. Someone asked me if the U-2 was catapulted off, and I said the if they had done that, the only thing going off the front end of the carrier would be the wheels and landing gear strut! (The U-2R, although a Family Truckster compared to the U-2C, was basically built to minimums in order to reduce weight to the max extent possible. Violent maneuvers can result in wing shedding syndrome.) Cheers, Dave

Mark: You can also try just removing the thermostat altogether and take it out on the road. If the temp goes above 180 deg you have issues. But I can say with about 90% assurance that it is radiator or rad and block combo. When I got my car I had the same issues and that's what everybody told me on here. But I can be a stubborn so-and-so and pulling the radiators on the pre-1941 cars is a pain and recoring is expensive. So if you are stubborn like me you will go down that river in Egypt and try chemical warfare and pulling a freeze plug or 2 and cleaning out the block, but the problem will likely remain until you bite the bullet and yank the radiator. So save yourself time and frustration and just go ahead and attack the radiator first. You will be glad you did! Cheers, Dave

Mike: Yeah, one way or another they are coming off. I have a good nut splitter on order, should be here Thurs. If that fails, either cut them off or cut the pipe. Cheers, Dave

Jon: Outstanding! Things always look better after you sleep on them some. I almost gave up on mine a while back but the encouragement on this forum kept me going. And look at it this way - you will have a very unique car and one heckuva conversation starter at car shows. Cheers, Dave

All: I am starting the engine teardown this week. I decided to first tackle the 2 bolts fastening the exhaust valve body to the flange and exhaust pipe. Of course, they are frozen. Lots of PB Blaster later, I was able to get the bolts themselves to turn, but the nuts are stuck fast to the bolts. I have a nut splitter but not enough clearance to the valve body to be useful. And there is little clearance to work and difficult to get any leverage. I could try some heat, but any other suggestions? Any way of getting more leverage? Or should I just cut the exhaust pipe below the valve body and work it once out of the car? Cheers, Dave

Outstanding!! That's worth a knees-up for sure! Cheers, Dave

The attached is a simplified electrical schematic of the fuel level indication system. The gauge part has 2 coils (AB and BC in the dwg) of approximately equal resistance. A potentiometer in the fuel tank, attached to a float, is in parallel with the BC coil, with the pot wiper connected to ground and one end of the pot resistance connected to the junction of the 2 coils in the gauge. Since you have the gauge out of the car checking it is pretty easy. You want to ensure that the 2 coils have continuity first. Get a good ohmeter and first check between the 2 terminals on the back of the gauge - this tests coil AB. IIRC it should be in the neighborhood of 100 ohms but I could be mistaken, mine is back in the car so cannot check now. Check coil BC by going from the tank sending unit wire connection (the one connected to a wire going to the rear of the car, on mine it's the left terminal looking at the back of the gauge case) to the gauge case. This reading should be in the same range as coil AB IIRC. Since the tank wire is disconnected check the resistance of that wire to ground. The max resistance of the tank sending unit pot is in the 20 ohm range so you should get between near 0 to 20 ohms depending on tank fuel level. If you bounce on the rear of the car while watching the meter is should vary some - this is due to float movement and will give you a sanity check on the tank unit. If the gauge checks out you can cobble up an emulator on the bench. Get a 6V battery or a 4 D cell tray at Radio Shack and some clip leads. Also get some low value resistors like in the 1 to 5 ohm range.Hook the neg term of the battery to the gauge case, hook the pos term to the 6V connection of the gauge (not the sending unit connection). With nothing connected to the other terminal, the needle should peg. Now clip the sending unit connection on the gauge to the gauge case and the needle should go to empty. Lastly, put about 5 to 8 ohms of resistance in between the sending unit connx and the case you should get a midrange reading of the needle. If you can find a low value pot (in the 1k or less range) then hook that up in place of the individual resistors and you can vary it and see what sending unit resistances are required for 1/4, 1/2, and 3/4 tank readings. Cheers, Dave

OK, stand by and I will write up something for you, will see if I can do it tonite. Cheers, Dave

Is the dash gauge out of the car or mounted in the dash currently? I have just been thru this recently. Cheers, Dave