SpecialEducation

Huh, I guess I typed all of this but never posted it... lol Well, I’d certainly keep whatever it has. Both versions are not hard to find. I’m the type to go overboard, which is why I’m about $6k into an Olds 350 and still going right now. It was very much against my nature to drop an unknown engine into my wife’s daily, but I was in a hurry and I already had a cheap spare with 111k that I’d never heard run. It went in with little more than a compression test and a new timing set. 80k later, it’s still a daily and purring like a kitten. Best $250 I ever spent. Point is: Don’t overcomplicate it. Tear down & investigate, but if you need an engine, pull a used one with a warranty or search Craigslist for a ratted out runner. Change some minor things if you want, but if you pull heads & start machining parts you’ll be in over $2k before you know it.

I don’t have the specs in front of me, but if the Roady is 35A and the Century is 30A, I would just leave the Century regulator limited at 30A and call it good.

No. Move the harness, sensors, injectors, etc. that are original to the car to the donor motor. Moving PCMs from year to year is asking for trouble. Ask me how I know. Things can look identical, but pinouts can change year to year.

NA or supercharged? Should be easy to find. At least ‘96 thru ‘98 were essentially identical in the big cars. Olds 88, Bonneville, GP, etc. My local LKQ will run an interchange for me to know what fits. I also use www.car-part.com to run interchange searches...

Good, you can bring it to OKC next year!

That's a really good question. I can't say that I completely understand how they are doing this without "whacking" on the case...

There are some obvious typos in the installation instructions from Bendtsen's (like where the 401/425 Nailhead to Chevy kit instructions start by saying, "The kit shown fits 233/248/263 Straight 8 motors..."), but they state: 264 and 322 nailhead engines retain the original front part of the torque converter that has the starter ring gear attached to it. Remove the bolts holding it to the crankshaft and install the provided crank adapter and supplied bolts. (’57 to ’63 only, sandwich the provided flywheel between the inner and outer crank spacers.) Make sure you position the flywheel weight correctly if you have a 401 or 425 engine. Then bolt them to your crankshaft with the long capscrews provided. https://transmissionadapters.com/pages/installation-instrutions

The earlier Es have the same bellhousing as the 700R4 a.k.a. 4L60, but the trick is what Centerville is selling is more than a simple adapter plate, it's a whole bellhousing swap. For the cost and hassle of the electronics, I'd go with the 200-4R if those were my only two choices. But those aren't your only choices. The adapters aren't quite as sexy as the bellhousing swap, but If you want to use the sans-E 4L60, this adapter is what you need (BU10007 Chevy transmission adapter for 64-66 401-425 engines):

https://www.jegs.com/i/Chevrolet-Performance/809/19332775/10002/-1

There are brain boxes available from places like Summit & Jegs. Pretty pricey, last I checked.

Well, if somebody took the air shocks out, that would explain why the motor runs all the time. lol The parts catalog says it’s available...

Looks like an air ride pump from here. https://www.gmpartsgiant.com/parts/gm-compressor-22153324.html?Make=Buick&Model=Lesabre&Year=1997&Submodel=&Filter=()&Location=level-control-system-automatic,,612940e1c3842947c9f9dd14490a131d

Well, since there weren't wagons on the Super/Roadmaster platform, if it's a clone it would have to have been born a Special.

It's projected that F*rd will need to layoff 24,000 people, and nobody says a word. GM announces that they are laying off half that amount, and everybody looses their minds... https://www.nbcnews.com/business/autos/trump-s-tariffs-have-already-cost-ford-1b-now-it-n917756 https://www.watchdog.org/michigan/ford-refutes-media-claim-that-trump-tariffs-caused-layoffs/article_0323e6a4-cd96-11e8-b2f7-b7367c6120d2.html

Yep, my grandpa bought a new bittersweet Special in 1956. It was a "spring" color so it doesn't appear on the earlier literature. Also note that it does not specify any limits to the tri-tone paint. You could get any goof-ball combo that you wanted. Not that a dealer would intentionally get something strange and hard to sell, but some customers occasionally would!

My wife loves Perry Mason. For years I have contemplated building her a Caddy convertible like one of Perry's cars, but the drop-top Cadillac market is WAY higher than similar condition Buicks & Olds of the era, so I've never been able to pull the trigger on that plan...

First, I'd be checking the frame geometry. If it's serviceable, I start looking for a parts car. I would strip the body of the parts car, repair any rust or other issues the body had, and put the new body on the known frame. Personally, I would rather have factory welds & sheetmetal structure and a mismatched body/vin tag than to retain the "original" body with such significant cutting & welding required.

Our wheels, freshly powder coated. The order form showing body color only available with small caps.

Yes, in ‘56 wheels could be black, body colored, or Seminole Red. Baby moons were standard, with full wheelcovers optional. The clips for the small covers are left off of the wheels for the large covers, but they were the same wheel. No spokes in ‘56. Some dealers still put them on for customers who wanted them, though.

Show us your data plate (cowl tag).

Yeah, I want some like my ‘82 had, so I’ll need the caps, the floating adapters, 3 funny lugnuts per wheel that let the adapters float, a keyed wrench, and the 4 bolts that hold the cap to the adapter that are keyed to match the wrench...

Yeah, they look like mine. Problem for me is that I can’t keep them on the car. Looking for a good deal on ‘80s spokes that are lockable...

As I recall, the Syncromesh (lowest compression) Special also gets a different cam. Buicks.net lists two different castings for ‘56 heads. Reportedly, one has smaller chambers than the other, but I haven’t had the pleasure of having both side by side to compare. http://www.buicks.net/shop/reference/nailhead_casting_numbers.html For what it’s worth, running the 4bbl on a lower compression configuration is probably a nice compromise on modern pump gas.

The block & pistons are the same, but other things are different. Compression was changed by the top end. Some say the heads are different, some say it's different thickness head gaskets. I've tried to find a parts manual to get the definitive info, but as yet I haven't. Yes, a Century or Super will have an identical engine to your Roadmaster. If you have to settle for a Special engine, finding a 4bbl intake is not difficult. Not cheap, but not difficult.

The headlight doors/bezels are always chrome on all other series. As far as I can tell, yes, the Roady was the only one with eye makeup. There's less chrome around the tail light assemblies of the Roadmaster & Super, too. While '56 wasn't the first year for factory air conditioning, it was the first year it wasn't in the trunk with roof mounted ducts looking like an afterthought. As far as a convertible goes, I'd say it's the first time that combo would make sense.