Wm Steed

Yesterday was a big day for me and my 38 Buick. The Buick is running, and quite well to say the least. Pressing the gas peddle to the floor three times set the choke on the front carb and the engine starts right up, staying on a fast idle until the throttle is depressed. The exhaust with the dual chambered muffler is very quite, sounds like a V8 🤤.. I should add that the car had a large glass pack muffler with a small 1.5 inch tail pipe, The exhaust was quite laud, like a truck. It will a few more days before the 38 is road ready, few little adjustments have to be made. I like the black wall tires in lieu of the wide whites the car had when I bought it. The original spare tie was still the trunk when I bought the car, it was gray with pin strips. i decided to paint whe wheels gray. I thought about red, then said no, lets keep things as close to factory original as possible. Looking at the rear of the car you can just barely note the dual exhaust tips. I used tips that slightly turn down, to down play the dual exhausts, which would lead the average person to think the car has a V8 in lieu of a straight eight. Wm.

In addition to the mechanical improvements we have done to the 38, we added a turn light system. The turn light switch was an over the counter 6v switch with hazard lights built into the switch. The only problem we had was turn signal lights for the front end. We were able to find conversion staggered pin receptacles for 1157 6v bulbs that would fit within the original parking light housings. Interestingly, when the right parking light was taken apart we found that the inside of the assembly was almost as clean as the day the car was made, with one exception, at some point in time the lens had been broken. The lens had been glued back together. The glue was of an inferior quality so the lens fell apart. A pair of new lens were purchased from Bob's Automobilia in Templeton CA. Wm.

Attached are some pix, the second one shows the stock exhaust head pipes on a '41 Buick with compound carbs. The first pix shows the head pipes as we built them, with the third showing the dual chambered muffler and twin head pipes We felt running both head pipes into one 2" pipe would tend to be restrictive, therefore, we ran two pipes down and under the car,into a special dual chamber/pipe muffler that cross's within the muffler, exiting into two head/tail pipes. wm.

In response to Don's question... The tube running down the right side of the engine on the cover plate is a vacuum line, 5/16" steel with a special non corrosive coating that originates in the intake manifold, around the front of the engine, to the original Buick road draft tube, crank case ventilator, which we blocked off for access for a PCV from a GM 250 CID inline engine. The vacuum line then continues down to a point adjacent to the trans where it connects to the HYDRAVAC brake booster. Installing a PCV system on vintage cars is a little trick I learned in the late 1960's When California passed a law "called NOX" which required that ALL Vehicles had to have a closed crankcase, PCV. The PCV system became mandatory in 1963 for all vehicles under 9,500 lbs sold in California. The NOX program was a nightmare. I got around it by installing a PCV system from a '64 Ford 292 CID V8 on my '56-57 T-birds and my '59 Ford F100 V8 292.

Yesterday was a big day for my 38 Buick, the owner of the shop, Troy, that has been working on the car and the mechanic that has done most of the work took the car for a shake down cruise around town. Troy and Chris were very impressed with how the car handled, the engine was very responsive, a slight amount of lag under full throttle which they were able to quickly adjusted away. Chris really liked the T-5 trans, said it was very smooth and quiet. The brake booster we added worked very well, light to the touch with good response. The car is back in the shop for a complete check over on all of the fasteners, etc. I really like the original 41-42 Buick air cleaner, looks great sitting on top of the Stormbergs, however, I don't like the oil bath feature. Following my suggestion the, air cleaner was modified to eliminate the oil bath and retro fit the unit to accommodate a modern disposable paper filter unit, a 6.5 x 3.5" WIX filter, One of the features of the T-5 trans is that since it is a modern trans it has provisions for a back up light. I really like modern touches to vintage cars, with that thought in mind I searched the internet for a. back up light. low and behold I came upon a NOS Guide B31, 1939-47... A stand alone light that would bolt to the bumper bar, and could be considered to be original equipment. A simple solution to a potential problem. Wm

Today is the big day to take the 38 for a road test, Have to do some last minute adjustments to the timing (Pertronix ignition ) and some fine tuning /adjustments to the carbs. Wm.

In my earlier contributions to the story about the modifications to my 38, I mentioned that we had done a lot of research on Buicks compound carb setup, therefore we used two front carbs in lieu of the special carb w/out a choke and accelerator pump. We used a custom made slave linkage system with the carbs synchronized together. Buicks system caused the rear cylinders to run lien resulting in poor performance and bad fuel economy. Looking at the pix of the carb linkage tends to make the system rather cluttered up do to all of the various stock linkage that the Stromberg carbs have. We also added a PCV system to the engine which added to the clutter, We are going to add a fresh air intake duct to the side of the engine compartment under the left head light pod which should clean things up. The use of a small cable to the throttle in lieu of a bell crank and rods also cleaned thins up. Wm

If things go well the 38 Buick will be running by the end of the week. The exhaust system is just about done, we did not use the same system as original to the '41-42 two head pipes going into one head pipe then exiting the engine compartment into one muffler and one pipe to the rear of the vehicle. We ran two pipes from the manifold extending from the side of the trans into a double chamber that are connected together within the muffler to equalize the two pipes exiting the muffler to the rear of the vehicle. The carbs are all hooked up, fuel lines ran and the linkage is in place controlled by a cable hooked to the throttle peddle. We hooked up one automatic choke hooked to the front carb and the original choke chimney. When the car is running it will be taken to the alignment shop to have a four wheel alignment done. After-market turn signals and A Guide B31 '39-'47 back up light is being installed. We modified the 38 park lights, converting them to double filament for park and turn.

We are making progress with the carbs, fuel lines are all hooked up. The mechanic (Chris) working on the carbs has done a lot of research on the '41-42 system that Buick used, in his opinion eliminating the accelerator pump would cause the rear cylinders to run lean, Chris also did not like the progressive linkage. The carbs are now connected directly together using hiem joint linkage just like the Stombergs on my 36 Ford flat-head. Wm.

A big thank you to everyone that has chimed in with info, etc., about my project, it looks like the repairs/modifications will be done by the end of the month, then we'll find out the good, the bad and the ugly, Since fuel economy is not a big issue with the car, it will never be a daily driver, nor will it be a trailer queen, actually it's more of a King because it's a Buick. About twenty years ago I stumbled upon a '38 Buick Spl coupe in Eastern Idaho, it was a very nice original car that had been out off service for many years, The owner was reluctant to sell the car, I was very interested, mainly because of the overall condition of the car and the fact that the engine had Buick Compound carbs, quite a shock when I first opened the hood. At the time I could not make a deal on the car, when I went back a couple months later the car was gone. I saw the car at a car show about five years later. I picked up an original '41 Buick shop manual yesterday, $12.00 on eBay... I prefer original manuals in lieu of reprints. The reprints I have seen seem to be missing a lot of info. Wm.

Thank you Ben; An interesting bit of information: I have had a considerable amount of experience with dual carbs,on inline and V8 engines. As I mentioned in my earlier contribution to this topic I have Stromberg 97's on my 36 Ford. I also have a '37 GMC T14 pickup with a 292 Chevy six, I have dual Webers on a Clifford 6=8 manifold, the webers added 25 HP to the engine. Buick might of shot it's self in the foot. introducing the Compound carbs during the start of WWll. Of course they might have been two years late just like they were with the Automatic trans, having the jump on everyon else in 1938 with the Shiftless trans (Hydromatic) then waiting to come out with an A.T. until '48 Chrysler was messing around with dual carps on it's Hurricane 250 CID engine in the early 1940's. It was used in trucks, Chrysler's and DeSoto's. I have a '48 Dodge with a Hurricane engine in it. When I was a teenager in the mid '40's a lot of the guys that had 'lowly' Plyms put the 250 engine in them. Chrysler sold the Dodge/Plym badged as a Chrysler in Canada and England.

A very big thank you to Neil/Don for their very informative info on the compound carb system we are installing on my '38 Special. It would appear that I should find a 1941 Buick Shop Manual now that my Buick is becoming a 'Jonny Cash one part at a time' car. From past experience I knew that the rear carb did not have a choke, did not know about the other anomalies. I have no idea why Buick eliminated the accelerator pump from the rear carb. I have a '36 Ford that has had a modified 59AB flathead V8 in it since 1954. The engine has a Offy Super wide spread intake with dual Stromberg 97's. Nothing is modified to the carbs, other than the front carb does not have a choke. My tuneup man is very familiar with the Buick Compound carb system, he has told me that they can be difficult to tune and get running right, I'll leave that to him. Wm.

After a lapse of several weeks due to the shop my '38 is in being relocated, progress has finally been made. I don't claim to be an expert on early Buick's, however, I suspect that the comment that Niel made about the carbs I have is in error. The factory box that the front carb came in clearly said 41-42 Front, the other factory box said '1940 40-50 Type AAV-167". The rear carb has all of the starting equipment (switches etc) attached to the carb. We will be removing the start switches because they will not be needed on my car. Some one had removed that feature from my car. The dual carb assembly has now been installed on my car, the fuel lines, etc., are being fabricated, the exhaust system will be next. The head pipes will be ran down the left side of the chassis to a dual chambered muffler, then two tail pipes will exit the muffler and be routed out the back. Other than the shocks the rear suspension is done. A one piece drive line has been fabricated, it will be installed this week... Wm.

Not much progress on my 38 Spl for during the past several weeks, work has came to a stand still as a result of the current shop the Buick is in has to be relocated to a new location by the 15th of March. Reputedly the Buick will be driven out of the old shop and driven to the new facility ten miles away before the 15th of March. I have attached a couple of pix of the '41-42 Buick compound carb's that will be installed on the car next week.. I have had the dual carb setup for many years, I was going to use it on a 40 Super that I have, decided not to do that. I found a pair of brand new Stromberg AAV-16 carbs for the manifold several months ago, my carb shop went through the cabs, varifing that the carbs were in fact '40-41 front and rear for a Buick and that they had never had fuel in them. We are going to modify the "bat wing air cleaner', changing it to a paper modern filter in lieu of a oil bath type. Wm

Actually there are many advantages to a pressurized cooling system over and above raising the boiling point of the coolant and the coolant not being expelled onto the ground: A pressurized system eliminates air entrainment in the coolant which causes expansion and cavititation (air pockets) of the coolant, neither of which adds to the efficiency of the coolant. Air in the system contributes to the formation of rust within the system. And lastly EG coolant is poisonous to humans, animals, etc., and the environment, therefore it should not be spilled on the ground. Wm.