jerryacheson

I like the Bugle. BCA and Bob Snowden do a great job.

I like the Pertronix. I installed one on my 71 351 Cleveland motor and never had to tune the car again. I also installed one in my 64 327 and never tuned the car again. The cars seem to start better and run better. The con is that there are 2 wires coming out of your distributor to the coil instead of one. An expert will see that immediately. Do you care about that change at a car show? For a driver quality car or modified car, I'd go with Pertronix. I wouldn't do it for a high quality show car that's not driven on the road. Jerry

I have a 64 diagram but I don't know how close it would be to 66. Try www.chevelles.com. Those guys will know where to get what you need.

I installed a new metal plate (the old one was almost rusted through). How do I test the heat riser? I haven't messed with it.

Timing is correct (at least what I can see is.) I've already learned the lesson about #1 on the passenger side. I set this thing up like a Chevy when I first put it together. Never did get it to fire. I'm pretty sure she's correct because I've checked the firing order at least a hundred times. This thing seems to run ok. She just fowls plugs and doesn't have the power I'd expect from this big nailhead. I think it's fair to assume that the distributor and plug wires are correct at this point. So; why the low compression and the fowled plugs. The compression jumps about 10% when wet over a dry check. I'm no expert but that would suggest to me that the problem is not in the rings. Does that reduce the choices to timing chain or valves? If valves, why are they so even? I'd think they'd fail at different times. Someone has suggested that the heads may have been decked and that the valves are not closing all the way. Possibility? How do I prove it? What other choices do we have? If this were your car/engine, what would your next step be? (Gasoline and matches are not an option.) Jerry

More info. Compression tester is a SUN and appears to be good quality. I've never had an issue with it before. I just turned the engine over to establish TDC for #1. The piston is up; the valves are closed and the mark on the harmonic balancer is pointing to zero. The rotor is pointing about a quarter inch past #1 plug wire toward #2. Timing is actually set at 12 degrees BTDC. Dwell is set to 32. Interestingly, when I look in at the pistons and several of them look like they have a mark where they have been burnt (probably because of timing issues). I saw this once in a Chevy 235 where it looked like a .022 shot went through the piston.

Just a little more info for your consideration. I performed compression checks at operating temperature dry and then with about 3 cc's of oil poured into each cylinder. The following is the result. The first number is the cylinder. The second is the dry compression and the third is the wet compression. 1 - 102 - 105 2 - 94 - 105 3 - 90 - 105 4 - 94 - 103 5 - 90 - 93 6 - 90 - 98 7 - 87 - 97 8 - 94 - 110 These numbers are certainly better than the ones that I reported earlier from a cold engine. What do you think is wrong with this thing. All plugs were fouled with black soot except number 8 which was pretty clean. Number 2 was also fairly clean but did have some soot. Jerry

Tim, According to the bible (32nd Auto-Truck Edition The Hollander) you're looking for part number 1363870 which interchanges for 64-5 LeSabre 8-300 and 64-5 Special 8-300. Sorry there isn't a bigger list. Jerry

I've only had this car a year and probably have less than 1000 miles on it. I haven't noticed any consumption. I changed oil before the 150 mile trip and added Restore. I haven't noticed that any oil was used. I've been running Marathon or Meijer (department store) brand gas at 92 octane. My first couple of tanks on this car were 87 octane. I haven't noticed a difference in performance. The guy I bought this car from last September told me the engine had recently been rebuilt. We didn't get into the details (shame on me). The engine didn't look fresh so I really suspected his claim (shame on me again). Any tests I can do to see if the timing set is out of wack? I don't suspect the Pertronix. I just removed it so I could be sure it wasn't causing the problem. Is it possible that the Pertronix system exagerated an existing problem? Oh by the way; when I put this together I put Champion plugs in her at .035 gap. Upon recommendation of a friend, I bumped the gap to .040 and saw not improvement. A post on the Nailhead site suggested that we couldn't run Champion plugs in a Buick (seems strange to me) so I converted to Bosche Platinums. I couldn't find someone that could provice a stock AC plug. Of course I didn't check everywhere. Someone else this weekend suggested that the Platinum plugs may be expecting more firepower. I guess I could put the 40,000 volt coil back in. What would that do to my points? I was also wondering about the cam and timing chain. Any way to eliminate these from consideration or prove they're the culprit? Jerry

This post has been running a little while on the Nailhead site and I thought I'd give you guys a shot at it. I took the stuff off the top of my 62 401 back in June to clean the engine compartment and engine and freshen things up for the BCA convention in Kokomo. I didn't make it but I do have the car back together now. I also installed a Pertronix III and Flame Thrower coil for HEI like performance. At first, the engine ran really bad. It smoked alot and did a lot of popping out the exhaust. I had the Carter AFB rebuilt and removed the Pertronix and replaced with points and stock coil. A professional mechanic friend of mine tweaked the engine to get a little better performance out of it. Well; it's not over yet. I took the car on a road trip this weekend to see if highway speeds would clean out the system. No dice. Since we last spoke I have driven the car over 150 miles. The car still misses and smokes much more than it ever has. I pulled the plugs and they are all fouled with black soot. The drivers side is worse than the passenger. On hard acceleration, the exhaust is black. The following is the result of a dry compression check. > > 1 = 86 > > 2 = 78 > > 3 = 70 > > 4 = 92 > > 5 = 65 > > 6 = 55 > > 7 = 90 > > 8 = 79 These appear to be pretty low since my service manual calls for a minimum of 160 if we assume this is a low compression engine (9.0 to 1). It's worse if this is a high compression engine. Not only is this low, there is a range wider than 15 lbs between them. It doesn't look like any adjacent cylinders are low so it's probably not the head gasket. Right? What are your thoughts on the problem? Jerry

Still haven't found it. I just sprayed carb cleaner all around the base of the carb, including the choke tube fitting and the line to the power brakes. I saw no difference in performance. I expected the idle speed to either increase or drop. I don't find a vacuum canister on this car. The fitting you mentioned seems to be there. The line to the power brake comes off of it and there's a small diameter tube with crimped end. I could check that for vacuum leak. Let me tell you about my symptoms. The car starts hard when cold (probably because of the choke not being connected.) Once running, it spits and sputters under any kind of acceleration. Performance is poor even after it's warm. I hear popping out the exhaust all the time. Any ideas? I have a Pertronix III on the car with 40,000 volt Flame Thrower coil. I have stock plugs and plug wires. The Pertronix documentation discusses issues with less than 12 volts going into it. However, I have 12.6 volts going to the coil (and into the Pertronix). Jerry

We need more info. What do you remember about your dad's Buick? Was it a convertible? How many doors? How many port holes? Do you have pictures? Can you post pictures of parts like the bumpers and doors so we can see what they look like? Can you get part numbers off of some of those items? Do you think all of these parts came off of the same car? What color are the engine parts?

If I've learned anything in this hobby, it's that you need to please yourself first. No matter what you do, someone will find fault in it and someone else will find pleasue in it. Judges are fickle. You can't anticipate what any one judge will like over another. I used to get upset when the POS next to me got a trophy and I didn't. Now I know there's more to this hobby than trophies. YOU know what you have and what it took you to get it there. Who cares about what someone else thinks. I think the keys to anything you do with that car are: 1. Absolutely first is the need to build the car so that it generates pleasure for you. If someone else likes it, that'll add to your pleasure. 2. If you don't think that you'll absolutely love that car when you're done, be careful not to spend much more than you can sell it for. There's not much that's more painful than building a $20k car that you just have to sell (because you hate it) for $12k. 3. Come up with a plan BEFORE you restore. Know what you want. Do you want a driver/cruiser? Do you want a 1000 point show car? What kind; restored, modified, custom, etc.? Plan the restoration to achieve your objective. Stay committed to your theme. If you're wanting a cruiser, don't waste the time and money looking for NOS, date-coded parts. If you want a 1000 point car, don't buy K-Mart chrome add-ons. 4. The key to anything you do is quality and detail. No matter what your objective, the key to winning trophies and getting the comments from your friends is in the quality of the work you do and the details. Don't leave over-sprayed engine wiring harness in a detailed engine compartment. Don't put a detailed motor in a greasy engine compartment. Don't paint the car and put your trim back on without polishing it. Don't mask the trim to paint your car. When I judge a car, much of what I look for is in the quality and details. I hope this helps you with your decisions. Bottom line is that you need to build the car to please YOU. You're the only person you can read and influence. Good luck and by all means; enjoy. Jerry

Don't know if this car even has them but they're on the top of the axle tubes. they're small (about 3/8" in diameter) and stick up. They snap into holes in the tubes. The idea is to let pressure work out through the vent while the oil will not splash out. (My experience is with Chevys, so.....)

It's certainly possible that there was damage from running with low fluid levels. Your mechanic should be able to check that out for you. Is it possible that the vent on the rear axle is plugged with dirt or grease and that pressure in the rearend is blowing oil out the seals?

I'm using the Ignitor II as well. It bolted in with no adjustments. This car was running ok, not perfect when I first got it together and then it went away. I made no adjustments. I re-set the timing to 6 degrees BTD this evening and adjusted the idle speed to 700. I adjusted the air/fuel mixture with no real difference. The car runs better but not very good. I'll keep working through the list of things you've suggested.

It seems really strange to me that the air/fuel valves can be turned all the way in or out without any significant difference in idle. I guess that's what made me think I had a vacuum issue. I'll try some of the things you've suggested and post back. Let me know if you think of anything else. Thanks.

Thanks RocketRaider, Lots of good things to look into. Some initial feedback. 1. I used the original wire to the coil. There doesn't seem to be a ballast resistor in this car. At least there isn't one on the firewall. I'll check the voltage to the coil. I believe the Pertronix is wired red to coil positive and black to coil negative. 2. I don't see manifold vacuum. The only vacuum I can find other than the one going to power booster is at the base of the carb. I assume that's manifold vacuum too. 3. Cap, wires, rotor and plugs are all new. Firing order is correct. I didn't expand the gap on the plugs although Pertronix suggested that I could. Any ideas how wide they should be with this setup? They're currently at .035. 4. A funny thing about the choke is that there's a threaded fitting just below and toward the front below the choke spring that seems to be pulling vacuum. I just plugged it off for now. I'm surprised that this would be pulling vacuum though. What are your thoughts? 5. Air filter is new.

I need your help on a frew fronts. I took everything off the top of my 401 and cleaned and painted it. It was running pretty well before hand but it wasn't perfect. Here's what I did: 1. I replaced the points with Pertronix. I also put a matching Flame Thrower high energy coil on it. 2. I put a new carburetor gasket on it. 3. I did not remove either the intake or exhaust manifolds. I did paint them both though. 4. I painted and reassembled the engine. 5. I had some trouble timing the car but it seems the distributor is in correctly now. I disconnected the vacuum advance (plugged) and set the timing to 10 degrees before TDC. 6. The car ran ok for a few days but it was difficult to start. (I didn't put the choke back together yet.) After it warmed up it was ok so I attributed that to the disconnected choke. (No need for a choke at 98 degrees temperature.) 7. Monday the car would start but was more difficult to keep running. When running it seemed to be running on only 7 cylinders. I'd put the car in gear and it would immediately shut down. It seemed to be electrical. 8. I noticed that a lead wire was broken on the capacitor on the regulator and there seemed to be a dead short between the battery wire on the regulator to the body. I removed the capacitor and nothing seemed to change. (I have a post elsewhere on this site asking how interchangeable these capacitors are. I should replace all 3 of them.) 9. Wednesday I decided that the car seemed to have a vacuum leak. I haven't found it. I put a vacuum guage on the vacuum line to the distributor and it measured 17" at idle. We're at about 1000 feet above sea level. The needle was pretty stable and seemed to perform correctly on acceleration. There doesn't seem to be a valve or compression issue. 10. I decided to try to adjust the carburetor. With the vacuum guage attached, I turned the fuel/air mixture valves in and out with little change in vacuum. Worst case was 15" and best case was 17". The engine kept running. (Doesn't sound right to me.) I re-connected the vacuum advance and the idle increased. It doesn't seem correct to me that I'd be getting vacuum to the advance at idle. Does that seem right to you? I drove the car to work today to see if it just needed to be ran. It was pretty sick all day. So; what's wrong? Where do I begin to diagnose this problem? Help! Jerry

I bought a cheap undercoating kit from JC Whitney, modified the head to have a finer spray, and ran it up through the box to paint it. It was a little messy but thorough. Maybe you could poor the paint into the box and roll the frame around until the paint flows over all surfaces. The POR paint flows pretty easy when it's fresh. Good luck.

I'm new to the Buick cars so I don't know much about how the bottom of these cars are coated. I have always had Chevys. The bottom of the era I like is usually painted with a red oxide primer. I just stripped the bottom of my 59 Impala and painted it with Corroless paint. It looks original and was much easier to put on that the POR-15. On the other hand, I painted a frame with POR-15 and left it leaned against the outside wall of my garage for about 2 years. Other than the chalky surface, it never even thought about rusting. I know that stuff is durable. Good luck. Just one more thing. Don't use it on the outer panels of your car. It is almost impossible to sand. It will NOT work as a basecoat under your paint. I touched up some rivot holes on my 71 Ranchero just to be sure the edges didn't rust while the car was in the body shop. The body man complained that he couldn't get the stuff to 'feather'.

Timing is set to 10 degrees before TDC. Disconnect vacuum line to advance. Connect vacuum guage to that vacuum. Adjust air/fuel mixture on both sides of carb make little difference in the 17" reading. Worst case is 15" and best case is 17". Needle is pretty stable. When I disconnect the guage and plug the advance back in, the engine increases in idle speed and it seems to get smoother. None of this seems right to me. What are your thoughts? Also, there's a threaded outlet just below the choke housing that seems to be drawing vacuum when not connected. I thought this was a heat tube going to the exhaust manifold. Tube is gone. Should this be blocked or replaced? I plugged it for the above tests.

The wire broke off of the capacitor mounted to my voltage regulator on my 62 Electra 401. It created a dead short into the body. Should I expect any damage to my ignition system (including Pertronix and Flame Thrower)? Are there any specs for these capacitors? I've called NAPA and they want to sell me one that looks like mine. Will that work? Do I need capacitors with later model radio?

2 more points to make: 1. If you spray it, be sure you're in a well ventilated area. This stuff gave me pneumonia when I sprayed my frame in an open garage with a paper mask. 2. Use a piece of Saran Wrap between the lid and can when you're finished. If you put the lid on the can and there's a bit of paint left in the lip, you'll NEVER get the lid off again. Ok; there's a third point - store in in the refrigerator. It'll last longer. I love this stuff. However, I didn't have any luck with the Chevy [color:\\"orange\\"] orange engine paint. Others have had success though.

Went back to basics. I pulled all plug wires and pulled the distributor. I followed every steop in the manual and she fired right up. Don't know what I was doing wrong but it doesn't matter. I've been on a few long cruises and she's doing fine. It's great to have the top down in the evening these days in Indianapolis.