details Buick 31

[Guest d019863]

Dear Members,

I am new to this forum.

I bought a 31 4 door sedan in fair conditions.

Engine no: 1248873-1

Body Fisher

Job no31059/ Body Nr 1527

It says it is a 31 Mod. 8-87?

Has anyone more information about the production date etc.

I would be also interested to get a drivers/ repair manual. Maybe soneone know where I can get more information.

Best Regards,

Ralph

[Guest imported_Thriller]

Ralph,

Welcome to the forum.

Model 87 would be correct - 5 passenger four door sedan with 124" wheelbase and 344 c.i. straight 8 with a compression ratio of 4.5:1 making 104 hp and 250 ft-lb of torque. The base price was $1565 with a shipping weight of 4255 lb. There were 14731 of this model produced.

Dave Corbin is our resident historian who can give an approximate date of manufacture. The engine number is a start, but if you have or can easily get the frame number, it would help verify the date - it would be on the right side of the frame behind the front fender opening. It should be between 2460544 and 2602731.

According to <span style="font-style: italic">The Standard Catalog of Buick</span>, the engine number should be between 2624638 and 2751921.

As for finding manuals, eBay is one place to look. You may also want to try Ken McGee Auto Books - he is located in Ontario, Canada and owns a 1929. I have dealt with him in the past and have had no issues. I had the opportunity to meet him this summer as well.

Good luck with your car. Hopefully others will be able to step in with the rest of the information you seek - I really only have the one book that covers the information for cars of years that I don't own.

[Mark Shaw]

Ralph,

Welcome! I have both manuals for your car and will be glad to scan specific pages for you until you can get your own manuals. Just let me know what you need.

I also recommend that you join the BCA to get contact info for other 31 Buick owners as well as all the great articles and resource info you will find in our fine monthly magazine "The Bugle".

As a member of the BCA you will also qualify to join the BCA PreWar Division and receive our newsletter via Email.

[Guest jules greenway]

hi Ralph

Welcome as a fellow 1931 owner. A good resource for literature is the Buick Heritage Alliance http://www.buickheritagealliance.org/ which has lots of reprints of stuff for specific years

regards

Jules

[Guest d019863]

Hi Mark,

thanks a lot for your offering.

I have ordered in the meantime the manual. I assume oversea shipping will take at least 2-3 weeks. However, I am keen to get the car running asap.

As I am really at the beginning of my journey, I am first of all interested in the drivers basics.

I have some questions for 2 of the switches at the dashboard.

1. the pull switch 'Spark' - I see that it is connected to the icognition distributor, but I am unsure if it needs to pulled out to start the engine

2. The 2 switches on the steering wheel. Obvious one takes care about the light. But what is the purpose of the additional one?

3. Are the any requirements regarding fuel? Is unleaded 91/95 ok?

If you have some basic information regarding drivers manual, I would really appreciate if you can send it to my mail address (Ralph.auf.dem.thie@sap.com)

Thanks and Best Regards,

Ralph

[Mark Shaw]

Ralph,

1. the pull switch 'Spark' - I see that it is connected to the icognition distributor, but I am unsure if it needs to pulled out to start the engine.

Pulling that knob will retard the spark for easier starting, but it is not necessary to do this on my car.

2. The 2 switches on the steering wheel. Obvious one takes care about the light. But what is the purpose of the additional one?

This is the throttle lever that works just like cruise control, except that it does not shut off when you use the brake.

3. Are the any requirements regarding fuel? Is unleaded 91/95 ok? Yes, these cars originally ran on rather poor grades of gasolines. They are low compression engines and will run OK on low octane fuels.

I will scan some data pages to get you started and send them directly to your email address.

[Guest d019863]

Members,,

I would like to restart the discussion on the details such as production dates, location

Information I have so far:

Serialno is: 2480141

Fisher Body Model 8-87

Best Regards,

Ralph

[Guest DaveCorbin]

Dear Ralph:

2,480,141 shows as a 1931 Model 87 in Buick factory records. It's in the first batch of frame numbers issued, which ran from 2,478,581 to 2,481,577.

This makes it the 1560th Model 87 of the 14,731 for USA use and 38 more exported, so it's an early 1931 car.

If the original engine is in the car, you should find a stamped in engine number probably in the range of 2,600,000 to 2,630,000.

I hope this helps.

Regards, Dave Corbin

[30sclassics]

Ralph,

The location of the engine number stamping is the right side of the engine, on a flat boss. The number 1248873 you mentioned above is the casting number, which was the same on all 80/90 series engines.