Hans1965

Absolutely stunning!

Hi there, looking for decent vent window frames, both doors, for my newly acquired 52 Super Hardtop. The chrome looks really bad on mine. Thanks a lot for reading. Best, Hans

Hi there, is that visor still available? Does it fit a 52 Catalina? Thanks for letting me know. Best, Hans

Thanks, I did not know this. To be honest, I am back to square one. I seem to have a 54 cam and 53 push rods and lifters, which should fit. So why are the push rods bent? I think I still pursue my plan to buy new rods and try to losen the valves, before I restart.

Yes, very much true! The 54 cam really looks very much like mine. Thank you!

Thats the underside of the lifters. The two 'scars' on the one that belongs to the most bent rod is visible but can be hardly felt by hand, only on the surface.

Thanks for the excellent picture of the camshaft! Just checked the number left of #3 bearing center on my car. Looks like 1345 B7 No 'GM'. Right of #3 is no groove area, just one ring. Please see the picture below. Seems to be an aftermarket cam, am I right?

Is it the normal procedure to replace the cam during an engine rebuilt? Does mine look like a new one?

Here is a push rod. The ends are not really round.

This is a close up of the cam:

The lifter is difficult to do:

It is more or less exactly like this. I just put it on paper (I guess I shall not pursue a grafic design career!) The 'hidden' part of the push rod is difficult to measure, tried a few times (between 0.371 and 0.385, average ca. 0.375), push rod is 8.38, overall 10 inches. Tried to measure the plateau inside the lifter, too, ca 0.256 inches.

Hi everybody, thanks a lot for your comments. I had a very long working day and no chance to drive to the garage, which is not close to my home. Will do tomorrow after work and check for the dimensions. Very interesting approach! Thank you! NTX - yes, avgwarhawk is right, with a bigger lever I was able to turn the engine by hand with no blocks, bad noise whatsoever. No idea at the moment why the starter is not working properly. Thanks everybody!

Hi NTX5467, thanks for your long comment. That's exactly my worry. That the valves got some damage too. My hope is that I just change the push rods and everything will be fine. But now with Al telling me that I already have shorter than 53 push rods, possibly from 56 and they are as till too long - what can I do???

Hi Al, I just did! Sorry that I have gotten it wrong. But your statement means it does not really make sense to order 56 parts. I would even need shorter push rods. No idea how to figure out how long.

When I wrote this I already had the feeling for a moment I might not do justice to rocket scientists.

Hi Al, thanks for the identification! Appreciate that! I have just learned that the 56 push rods are slightly shorter than the 53-55. My understanding is that the "53 push rod + 53 lifter" and the "56 push rod (shorter than 53) + 56 lifter (longer than 53)" works. So on my car I need to replace the too long push rods (cause of the clapping noise) against 56 push rods that fit to the 56 lifters I have in the car. (Or I do all in 53 style). Al, you are commenting that I have already shorter push rods than for '53 in the car which already could be for '56? Due to the fact that they are dent in my car it seems the already shorter ones are still too long. That is really confusing to me! My plan would be to change the too long rods, try to loosen the valves by oil and try first. If this is not eliminating the noise and make it run smoother I would take off the heads. I completely understand your comment and I assume sooner or later I have to explore the block and check what is built in. But I am just too much a rookie and to mess up this original engine would be a tragedy. Unfortunately I have no other Buick engine to start with and learn. So I better go step by step only for now. Probably it is not rocket science, but I have a lot of respect. 50th anniversary in 1953 means already 50 years of engineering and thought process and if I just start dismantle it I would not really know what I am doing.... Thanks for your help! Appreciate every comment.

Hi old-tank, do I have a later 322 of 1953? And if so what is the consequence? I will certainly buy the 56 rods. Thanks a lot!

So finally you had solved that problem. Congratulations! I would not wonder that at the end in my case it is a valve problem with a hardened seat as well. No idea if such were built in.

Amazing! But what kind of problem did your car develop with the too short rod/lifter combo? A tapping noise out of the valve cover area as well?

They all looked in their computers in US catalogues. But that might be the reason why the wrong rods are on my car. That in some parts catalogues rods for 53-56 are all the same and the rebuilder of the engine did not know.

Just called a few parts companies for the push rods. They insist they are all the same length 53-56 (20.95 cm, close to my 21 cm). One guy even got angry with me when I said it is not correct!!!! One more question, is the diameter of a 56 push rod the same as of 53? Still worry about Al's comment.

I mixed it up, sorry! But still not consistent to me! Old-tank: 53 push rods + 56 lifters currently installed -> buy new shorter 56 push rods, keep 56 lifters Al: not 53, possibly 56 (shorter) push rods installed + ? lifters -> buy (longer) 53 rods, keep the lifters

Am I right, you are now leading me into different directions? It looks like the combo of rod + lifter is too long, but: Old-tank: 53 push rods + 56 lifters currently installed -> keep the correct 53 push rod size, buy new (shorter) 53 lifters Al: not 53, possibly 56 (shorter) push rods installed + ? lifters -> buy (longer) 53 rods, keep the lifters? Cannot put these comments together in my 5 a.m. in the morning brain. That seems to be contradictory to me, but maybe something else is wrong on top of that. I wonder if the heads on my car are 53 or possibly later model heads.

Thanks a lot! Did I get it right, that the 53-55 push rods are slightly longer than the 56, but the lifter design might over compensate that and the combination of rod plus lifter in 56 is longer? Or too long like in my case. Just looked for the numbers on the heads : Left 1843840-2 Right 1843840-5 Not sure if that says something about the year. On the block left hand side between exhaust manifold V1712677.