Daves1940Buick56S

Ben - no I dont think so. I went all round the timing cover to see if any leaks. None I could see and the cover is free of the pan. However I did see, as the very front pan fastener, a nut and bolt! I guess the block threads stripped. If I have to pull the pan it's going to be a witch.

Lawrence: yeah we took the hood off as a unit. Interesting point on the timing chain cover. I will check.

Dropped radiator off today. On the new freeze plug. This is the first one I have replaced not using the rubber expansion plug. No room for that here. Any special sealant to use or just pound it in plain?

Wow that manifold looks like the one I had and junked. Call Dave Tachney or PM Greg 2Carb40. And if you get a separate intake reassemble with the exhaust and have a machine shop with a long table grind it down even.

Torque spec is 25 lbs ft or ft lbs if you prefer. Like Bob said start at like 7 or 8 and go up in small increments.

25. Start from the center and alternate towards the outside. Are you using new gaskets? Also the washers are supposed to be Belleville. Put the cup side out, dish side in. Also if you have time pick up some copper hi temp antiseize and put on both sides of the gasket as the whole assy moves a bit as it heats up. Mark Shaw knows which stuff to get.

Check for fuel delivery. Fuel pump pressure and capacity tests.

My "present"

Pics...

Thanks Jim! Yeah it went smoothly today. Had to fight 2 bolts but otherwise came right out. Did not have to pull the alternator. I also got the remainder of the freeze plug out once I had room to work. And...I found a present! Some goofball had previously replaced that plug and just pounded the old one into the cyl head and left it there. Niiiice!!!! I was able to get that one out too. Pics coming....

Oh yeah on the cardboard. Saves your knuckles too. Everything went well today, radiator is out. Only had 2 stubborn bolts.

Well it's radiator pull time as outlined in my overheating thread. The water pump is already out. I have a lot of experience pulling the radiator on the '40 but this is the first time on the '38. I appears the hood assy is held on by 2 bolts: one up under the cowl that is accessed from behind the dash and one just above the radiator. There seems to be a cross brace above the radiator with 2 bolts on each end. Then the usual 3 bolts on each side of the radiator. Then tilt back towards the engine and out. I may have to pull the alternator to get it out of the way. Does this seem correct? Anything I am missing or tricks to know? Cheers, Dave

Update. Did 2 rounds with Thermocure. It worked pretty well, black after a few runs with the car. No overheating. Got some crud in the Gano but not a lot. I was just going to put antifreeze back in BUT...started getting quite a leak from the area of the water pump. Pulled the pump and found the small front freeze plug behind the pump leaking. I guess I removed the rust that was keeping it sealed. Sent the pump off anyway for a rebuild to Flying Dutchman who has given me good service on the '40 pump. Went to pull the freeze plug but the rust has it pretty much welded in there. It's coming out in pieces but it's hard to work on it with the radiator in there. So now I have to pull the radiator. This is like when you go to repair something on your kitchen cabinets and before long you are down to the studs. I have some questions on pulling the rad but will start a separate thread. Cheers, Dave

Yes, I will use Water Wetter when I put the antifreeze back in Nov. Checked the Thermocure mixture coolant (2 qts) after about 50 miles and it was black. Drained, flushed. Got some grit out. Gano had grit but not much. Refilled and 2 more qts Thermocure. Will let it go until abt 5 Nov then will flush and refill with antifreeze for the winter. Also removed splash pans. It was not trivial. Now I see why the mechanics of the day didnt put them back. The right side came out ok, but the left side required the stabilizer bar to be dropped and lots of manoeuvring to extract. Since people occasionally ask for pics of the pans, here they are. For a 38 66S coupe.

Is your fuel pump the dual type with the vac pump? If so dont look at engine vac on the line going to the vac wipers. In either case it's better to tap off the intake manifold vacuum port.

Gor-geous!

Just an update. Chemical flush of both radiator and block complete - Evaporust soak time was about 2 weeks each. Reverse flushed with water as well for > 1 hour. Also injected shop air into the block drain to try and loosen up crud. Did not pull a freeze plug (yet!). The 160 deg F thermostat was tested and passed. Did the old plug-the-bypass-valve trick (left a 3/16" hole). Installed a Gano filter and refilled with a weak Evaporust mixture (2 qts) and have been running it and driving. Ambient temp is in the 70s now but it seems to be running fine. After a long run the top tank was only 180 deg F. I have been driving with a loose radiator cap so pressure is ambient. I checked thoroughly with an IR temp gun. Results: radiator cores have uniform temp drop top to bottom. The left- and right-most cores are about 10 degrees hotter. The head checks uniform front to back. The block (measured at bottom of jacket) is uniform from the front to just before cyl 8, then drops about 15 degrees as you approach the very rear of the block. I assume this is due to debris at the rear of the block. I will temporarily lower the Evaporust soln level in a couple of weeks and check the filter. When I switch back to antifreeze in November I will redo the block temp test and see if any change. However, during all this I did find my exhaust leak - loose muffler clamp! I wish they were all that easy. Cheers, Dave

Rare bird alert! A 37 Century 66S! Big engine! If I didnt have my 38 66S I would jump on this. Cheers Dave

BTW I forgot to put out the Stant numbers for the radiator cap: Stant 10228 7 lb Stant 10208 4 lb

My distributor is a NOS one from the late 1940s that I picked up a few years ago. I replaced the 3 ball plate with the more modern one with the plastic runners. I have a spare Dyna-Flyte 880 that I will install sometime over the winter. Nothing to report, just letting the Evaporust soak in the radiator. It's in the low 70s here so have to give it time. Cheers, Dave

I don't know if this will help you, but every time I have experienced pulling while braking it has been the brakes. Ever since the last time I changed out the front shoes in 2016 on my '40 56S it pulled badly to the left. No amount of adjusting could seem to fix it. No oil on the linings. Finally in June of this year I replaced the shoes again. Adjusted carefully and all fixed! Obviously there was something amiss with the shoes I bought in '16. Cheers, Dave

Further update. Pulled hoses and thermostat. Bypass valve is still installed. Spring seems weak to me. Will remove after cleaning the block. Put bore camera into top tank. Pics attached. Not clean but not hopeless either. I will start with CLR, looks like plenty of scale. Probably no work tomorrow due to heavy rain from Ida. Cheers, Dave

Thanks to all for replying! I have 1 vote to pull the pans and that has convinced me. Too bad - they look great and keep the engine compartment real clean but the price is too great. No Evans for me, will stick with good old Prestone. Mark, I did check the timing. It's about 3 degrees advanced over spec of 6 deg. Jim, the car did have a pusher fan in the past. Trying to not go that route if possible. I did do scans with the IR temp gauge but will do it more thoroughly after cleaning. Wayne, nice car! Update: 1. Found the info on the radiator. It is a Harrison 3109319. My parts book from 1942 indicates this is the correct one for 1938 series 60. So now I know which Stant caps are correct. I have numbers for 4 lb and 7 lb and will publish tomorrow. 2. While preparing for the drain today I noticed that the heater valve is on. Since I have the heater hose output and input on the thermo housing connected together temporarily this means I was pumping 200 degree coolant from the block outlet right to the inlet. A small amount but it cannot have helped. Will correct. 3. Drained the radiator and block. Flushing tomorrow, pull hoses, then look at the core top, then start the chemical warfare! Cheers, Dave

I know this is a much discussed topic. And I know the ultimate fix is to remove the radiator, recore if necessary, and pull freeze plugs and clean the block out. But taking the hood off in my car is a pain, so I am hoping to maybe dodge or delay the bullet. My car is not grossly overheating. In fact in cooler months it does fine. But on warmer days, like above 85 degrees F it slowly creeps up, especially in around-town driving. And it gets so hot under the hood that the corn gas boils and I have vapor lock issues. I did find my fan belt to be loose, tightened and it certainly helped with the charging and some help on the cooling but not much. Here is the situation: 1. I still have my splash pans and they are installed 2. Radiator top tank gets to over 200 deg F. Temp at bottom around 170 deg F, maybe a bit higher. This is on 89 degree day. 3. My cap said 7 lb but it was not holding pressure at all. I replaced with a new Stant. Apparently my radiator is not original to the car as the neck depth is different so I had to go thru the Stant cap specs until I found one that fits. Cap now holds pressure but will start spitting out coolant once it starts creeping up to 200 deg. The radiator seems plenty big enough, top tank is well over 4 inches wide so it must be 3 row. The guy I bought the car from said it was a truck radiator but that could be RUMINT. (I did do a pressure test on radiator/block to see if it could hold 7 lb and no pressure loss even after 1 hr. I know original spec was atmospheric pressure only.) 4. Once the car gets hot the hood panels are almost too hot to touch. I just about burn myself getting them open. 5. I do have an Facet electric pump but it is installed at the back of the engine compartment. Original electric pump was 2.5 lbs so I replaced with 4.5 lb and that helps the vapor lock some - at least the boiling seen in the glass fuel filter at the carb calms down some when I cut it in. 6. I did do a basic flush and replaced hoses 3 yrs ago after I bought the car. I think I did the "2 sec drain test" on the radiator and it passed. This is my plan: 1. Drain coolant 2. Put my bore camera into the radiator and see if there is scale buildup. 3. Isolate radiator from block. If scale do a CLR and reverse flush followed by Evaporust soak (maybe several times) followed by flushing. If no scale seen skip the CLR step. 4. Pull thermostat and check. If it still has bypass valve, remove and replace with freeze plug with 1/4" hole like I did on my '40. 5. Use bore camera to see how bad block is if possible. 6. Do CLR/Evaporust like above. 7. Normalize, install Gano filter and road test Notice I don't have "pull freeze plug" on the steps above. I am going to try to avoid that but may not be able to depending on what I find. The engine/chassis is very clean, almost show clean so I am hoping the block isn't too bad. Question: Should I pull off the splash pans? The air flow seems pretty restricted with them in. I also have them for my '40 but have never installed them. Wish me luck, Dave

Jim: "The 4.44 rear ratio limits how fast you can rum." Totally agree with you, if I still had 4.44 in my '40 56S I would be "rumming" a lot ! 🤣 I was able to get a good 3.6 and it's *much* better at highways speeds. About 2400 to 2500 rpm at about 50 mph. Nice 'n' easy. Cheers, Dave