Sgt Art

One way to help you align the intake manifold (because that sucker is heavy - I went to aluminum for that reason) is take two bolts that are a little longer then the ones that hold it in place. Saw of the heads of the bolts and slot them for a screw driver. Using just finger pressure, screw them in a few turns into the cylinder heads. These studs will now act as pilots for the intake manifold and assist you in getting it lined up right. After you're satisfied all is correct, snug a couple bolts in place and back the studs out with a screw driver. If using a cookie sheet or valley pan gasket on the intake to head, Permatex makes a product that is painted on both sides of the gasket for the intake ports only. The end ports are for coolant circulation and as Glenn noted, use the silicon there. I normally allow all to set up a couple hours before adding coolant and before firing it up, I spin the engine over a few seconds with all spark plugs out to blow out any coolant that might have leaked into the cylinder(s). Go slow, take your time...oh, one more thing, run a tap into all threaded areas to make sure the threads and holes are clean.

I did a similiar swap awhile back. I was running stock pistons that were probably about 8.5:1 CR they allowed me to use pump gas. I got a Crane cam from Jegs (it's the only one they had for a BB Olds) and it gave a little more low end torque and decent idle. I used and Edelbrock performer intake and carb. The carb was a 650 cfm square bore. I was hesitant at first, but decided to go with it. It does require a $5.00 adapter as the manifold is set up for a spread bore type carb, no biggie all worked fine. If nothing else, the aluminum manifold knocks a heap of weight off the engine. The heads are where the HP is made and the later Olds heads aren't very good. See if you can find an earlier set I think the ones I ended up with were "C" castings. I had hardened inserts added and had a machinist go through them completely. I played with the ignition timing until I found where it ran best. Somewhere in 12 to 15 degrees BTC if I recall. This formula yielded a pretty streetable engine with good acceleration and could run on 87 octane gas. I had a TH350 behind it. This was okay for daily use and cheap to repair, however if you really do a lot of hard running, a Th400 is a better choice. All this was in a 1985, Buick LeSabre two door that unfortunately met it's demise at an intersection when a young lady decided to blow off a stop sign. I really liked that old car.

Good point, he didn't say what engine he had in it. If it's a 307, I'd probably go find a nice 350 to replace it. He still needs to drain and clean the gas tank if it's got two year old gas in it.

Dan is right about the fuel system. Gasoline has something like a 6 month shelf life, after that it can give you trouble. Cleaning the fuel system out from tank to carb is a good place to start. All that old stinky gas has or will gum up your carburator and clog the filter. While your having the carb and tank built/cleaned, I'd shoot some Mystery Oil into each cylinder with the spark plugs out. Let it penetrate a bit and then spin the engine over using the starter motor WITHOUT the plugs installed to blow anything that may have worked it's way into the intake system or cylinders. Water from the block or elsewhere can ruin an engine PDQ if you try to compress it in a cylinder. Once the engine is spinning nicely, run a compression test just to see if there are any burn valves, blown gaskets or rings. This can let you know where you stand compression-wise which is one of the elements Dan listed. You can hold a spark plug wire with a non-conductive device near the block and crank the engine just as you did when you ran the compression test and you should see a nice spark jump to it- BTW, it's a good idea to disable the ignition system when you run that test, there should be a wire(s) connected to the distributor where it says "BATT" this is the power to make spark plug current. Just disconnect when testing the compression and reconnect when testing for spark. If you've got compression, spark (delivered right at the nick of time) and gas, you're engine should run. Now, if you hear all sorts of knocking, tapping etc, it's possible you've got bad bearings, stuck lifters or lifters that won't pump up due to being gummed up with cruddy oil. Then you may have to go for a rebuild. However, you really won't know that until you get her running first. The Haynes Manual gives some help, but I find them limited.

In reading this, I gather your car will start up (engine fires and runs) cold but won't when hot. This sounds like a carb problem (choke) not functioning correctly. Start your car up cold, with the air filter off. When cold, the choke butterfly should be closed after one step on the gas pedal. Watch the choke butterfly as the engine warms up. You may have to "blip" the carb linkage, but the butterfly should open up almost all the way once the engine reaches operating temp. If it doesn't, they you need to turn the choke setting a little bit towards the LEAN position (you'll see arrows pointing towards RICH or LEAN on the black cover of the choke). I'm guessing your choke is the hot air type that circulates some hot exhaust gas through tubes into the bimetal coil on the passenger side of the carb. I converted to a Pertronix system on my 72 Lincoln and like it. I'm going to assume when you changed out the points to Pertronix you changed to the correct ignition coil too? Right? Make sure you have the correct value coil (in Ohms) I bought both units together as a matched set. Also, you must have 12 Volts going to the positive side of the coil. YOu cannot use the ballast or resistor wire that points uses. Find a keyed 12 volt source if you haven't done that already. I don't think the issue is timing. If you were too advanced, your starter would drag when cold as well. Usually, when a starter drags only when the engine is hot, it's due to the solinoid becoming over heated from the exhaust. SOmetimes, a weak battery will cause that too. But, as I understand it, you're starter is not dragging when the engine is cold or hot, it's doing it's job in spinning the engine over at a decent speed. That's why I think it's in the carb. Let us know how it goes, someone will figure our your problem.

I guess it would come down to how much the car costs. If you could get it cheap enough, then you could take a chance. Many communities are beginning to enforce ordnances regarding old cars sitting on your property, they're really starting to put pressure on people in my neck of the woods. Perhaps the guy would be real flexible just to get the car off his property. If you just want the engine for a rebuild, I don't see where you have too much to lose if the price is right. If the car is a junker sho-nuff, I'd off no more than $200 and tell the seller you're concerns about bearings and the submarine related problems. If after you pull the engine, it's lower end is indeed shot, you can either go for a crank kit, or salvage what parts you can and go find another one. Just a thought.

I talked with a friend of mine who builds engines and runs a machine shop. He's done several for me and a lot of work for the dealerships in the area. He uses Felpro and Victor-Rienz(sp?). Both are premium gaskets and easy to find. It is true the newer head gaskets are thicker. However, I don't believe the loss of compression is noticeable unless maybe you are fighting for tenths of a second on the drag strip and maybe not even then. I noticed when I built my 455 the last time, there are a variety of head gaskets for it made by FelPro alone. They ranged in price as well. Some were pretty damn expensive. I'd be leery of the no-name kits. There's no telling where they came from, Tiawan or Bosnia who knows. I don't recommend skimping on that, it's not worth the pain of doing the job again.

You should have a solinoid to compensate when the A/C comes on and lowers your idle. This solinoid simply pushes the throttle open a little bit. Once you stop the engine, the power goes off and the throttle returns to it's set position so your engine doesn't diesel (run on). If that solinoid isn't working, a lot don't, see about replacing it. Before you do, see if the wire attached to it is getting power when you turn the A/C on, there might be a fuse out. If it gets power and the plunger that pushes up against the throttle doesn't move (manually open the throttle a tad as your foot might do when you press on the gas) then the solinoid is bad. If you don't want to do that try advancing your timing a bit, most 72 engines run retarded, and see if that helps. As already mentioned, you may have to bump the idle up 50 - 100 rpm, no biggie if the car doesn't embarass the sh*t out of you by dieseling everytime you cut it off*. You can go back to lower idle in the Winter and maybe save a tenth of a gallon of gas per mile. * one way to prevent that is turn the key off with the car still in gear (drive) and then put the selector in park.

There should still be gas in the carb bowl. I'd check the choke setting when the engine is cold. Do this by pressing the gas peddle once, this should set the choke. See if the butterfly is closing all the way. I've run into this same problem and that was the problem.

It's got a lot of coked on oil. I would say a complete rebuild would be in order. If it were mine, I'd strip it completely down and take it to a machinist/engine shop. Let them hot tank it, mic the cylinders to see how taper there is (you may need an overbore), R&R the cam bearings and go through the heads. The shop could mic your crank and polish it if necessary. Hopefully, the journals aren't scored or damaged. It might be worthwhile to have them recon the big end of the rods too.

Yep. I'd say if things are that gunked, some of the oil galleys maybe clogged too. Sounds like a project.

You don't have to drop the trans to replace the torque converter, it slips right off the imput shaft of the trans after you remove the engine. It wouldn't hurt to replace it while doing the engine swap. If it turns out that it won't stand up to the more powerful engine, then you'll be having to remove the trans later. If you really want to do the job right, why not send the trans to a shop that does nothing but, and let them go through it after you explain to them what you plan on doing. It's a bigger initial outlay, but it's better than blowing a good trans and then either replacing or rebuilding it.

My 72 Lincoln had the same white powdery color and I believe it is from the lead additive I've been using. Although, my engine isn't high compression (8.5:1) I doesn't have hardened valve seats, so I've been using the additive for that purpose. I, too, was surprised to see all that white as I'm used to seeing tan/brown residue - which is supposed to be normal. Someone told me that trying to read plugs is a waste of time, but most service manuals refer to that as a means diagnosing some problems.

It dealt with building Buick engines. Thanks.

The TH400 used a different type slip yoke than the others. Here's a site for Olds transmissions. I think Olds normally coupled 455 with TH400 trans. I had a 455 Olds engine coupled to a TH350. It will work ok, but won't stand up to much hot rodding. http://www.442.com/oldsfaq/oftrn.htm#TRAN%20Auto%20Transmission%20Identification Others have done the same. BOP (Buick, Olds, Pontiac) share a common transmission bolt pattern so one should fit the other. If you do use a TH350, I would get a separate trans cooler. They are cheap and easy to install, the trans shop I use swears by them.

I was reading on another site some posts regarding changin old transmission fluid. Two posters seemed to agree that it was not a good idea to change trans fluid after it reached a certain age (60,000 + miles) if it wasn't burnt. They're reason was you lose friction. It really sounded like urban legend to me (I remember an old timer telling me the same about motor oil). What do y'all think?

Well, your car is over 21 so it has every right to smoke if it wants - try to prevent it from chewing though. Seriously, it may well be worn valve guides or seals. It's not that hard of a job to do. I used compressed air to hold the valves up the last time I changed seals, but I'm told you can use a soft piece of rope pushed through the spark plug hole until the rope holds the valve up. Get a spring compressor tool, they make cheap ones and do the job. It's kind of slow going, but well worth it.

Great post, It took me back to auto electronics I! Pretty much what we were taught in tech school. I clearly remember experimenting with the Sun O'scope and watching the raster pattern. I was fun to find out which cylinders weren't performing properly by eliminating them one at time and watching the results (RPM drop) on the scope. You could really tune a car with that. I used a Pertronix system on my 72 Lincoln MkIV as it's an easy drop in replacement. Just pull out the points and condensor and screw it in. Hook up the wires to the coil (use their blaster coil) and find 12 volts. Tip, they make two versions, the cheaper one is what I used. It is not advisable to leave the key in the "ON" position without the engine running. I'm told this might damage the coil or processor. The Pertronix II system has supposedly overcome that problem, but costs a little bit more. I think the whole deal was about $100. Retain the old distributor so the thing looks stock. Takes about 45 mintues to change and check timing.

I'd get a bigger radiator. I was using a Modine replacement with three cores and it seemed to get the job done. Your increasing your engine size 105 cubic inches or 30 percent. There a bunch of replacement radiator companies on line now, I replaced my truck radiator with one. They're being made in Mexico, but so far I haven't had any problems with it. You can actually by a new one for about what it costs to have one recored or rodded out. Also, check or just replace your heater core. These little bas*ards will spring small leaks that will drive you crazy with overheating and loss of coolant.

"Olds tranny works great - any concerns it won't take the load of a 455" You didn't state which transmission you have in the Olds. Is it a TH350? If so, yes it will work but if you drive hard, really get on it, it probably won't stand up to the torque of the 455. I had an Olds 455 bolted up to a TH350 that had been gone through by a transmission specialty shop. They added a shift kit which gave firmer shifts. Also, it wouldn't hurt to go to a separate trans cooler it's pretty cheap and easy to install.

Are your HP figures at the wheel or flywheel when you dyno'd it? In the 60's ,most engines were rated at the flywheel with no accessories. Did you compression ratio drop any? The 360 HP engines were two four bbls. Here's a site with the specs: http://www.greatoldcars.com/Engine%20Statistics/1930-1939_buick_engine.htm

Did you check with your local NAPA store? Sometimes they have a machine shop as part of their operation. Also, go to the nearest race track and ask the guys where they get their work done. One suggestion, sometimes you can buy a reman engine long block for less than the cost of a rebuild when you add up all the parts and machine shop fees. I don't know if you've had any formal training and this being your first attempt, a $1300 crate engine might be the way to go. Just a thought.

I have it posted on Ebay, here's the site: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayIS...item=2432600090