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Valve Clearance on 50 Pontiac Straight Eight


Guest Fat n Flat

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Guest Fat n Flat

I,m interested in everything anybody reading this post has to say about maintaining proper valve adjustment on the 1950 Silver Eagle. Also, I read a thread about a 49 Desoto straight eight that included a reply stating that the exhaust valve seats are hard faced during manufacture and lead substitutes are not necessary to cushion the seats. Is this a true fact and does it apply to the Pontiac engines also?

Edited by Fat n Flat (see edit history)
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Guest Fat n Flat

Pontiac 53, Silver Eagle is the nickname given to the Pontiac flat eight by the Pontiac Motor Division engineers. Also happens to be the model name of the 50 sitting in my garage. Says so on the fenders and on the dash.It may well feel like a land yaught to drive but surely aint no bus. What I read about the Desoto( may )in fact apply to the Pontiac engine block. Who knows, I sure don,t. Thats why I was asking if the exhaust valve seats on the silver eagle are hard faced. My question seems to have offended you in some way. If it has, I apologize. I have the solution to never offend you again, simply don,t read my posts, lol....................;)

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Your post is interesting, my Pontiac has been my daily driver for 55 years this June and I have been collecting Pontiac Literature for all thst time. I have over 600 pieces of GM published Pontiac advertisements plus 295 books exclusively about Pontiac, parts books, shop manuals, owners manuals, operators manuals etc., covering all the flat head Pontiacs. No where is "Silver Eagle" mentioned. It would be real interesting to many of us here on the forum if you would post a photo of the fender and dash in question.

As far as your question about hard faced seats. Unless you were planning on racing your car on the track or in rallys it would not matter whether your seats were hardened or not.

With a go-no-go feeler gauge and three wrenches it is a simple job to check and/or reset your valves every 30,000 miles or so. A shop manual will give you the particulars.

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Guest Fat n Flat

Thanks Tinindian, and sorry 1953 Pontiac, I thought all you Pontiac buffs would know about the Silver Streak When the engine design engineers were building the engine they nicknamed it the silver streak. Later, the body design engineers adopted the nickname and came up with the chrome paralell, belts that span the length of the hood and trunk lid, silver streaks so to speak. One model year, not sure which right now, would have to look it up, even had these "streaks" on the roof. And in 1948 Pontiac began placing the Silver Streak nameplate on the front fenders. My 1950 has fender nameplates and also silver streak is stamped into the instrument cluster chrome bezel in cursive script just like the nameplates on the fender. Another interesting fact, Pontiacs first modern overhead valve V-8 was introduced in 1955 ,287.2 c.i. 173 or optional 180 horses and was nicknamed the "Strato-Streak. So it,s evident that the design boys at Pontiac liked their streaks and flaunted them. This info can be found in, Encyclopedia of American Cars, compiled by the Auto Editors of Consumer Guide, copyright 2002, printed by Publications International,LTD. Surely, my 50 is probably what they called a base model, and bears no other model designation except the Silver Streak name.The fact that you Pontiac followers are questioning the valididity of this claim intrigues me into thinking that I may have stumbled onto a rare survivor. I,ll surely share some pictures with you fellas asap. Thank,s again, Tinindian for the usefull re

Edited by Fat n Flat
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We Pontiac afficionados know all about "Silver Streak". We were questioning your "silver eagle" comment. There is nothing about Silver Streak in either of your first two posts (or do I need new glasses).:rolleyes: By the way even though there were nameplates saying silver streak and the 1946 Pontiac was advertised as the "Finest Of The Famous Silver Streaks" there never was a model named "silver Streak". The "Streaks" started in 1935 and the models started with "Standard" and De Luxe" and moved on through the years with "Quality", "Torpedo", "Custom", Streamliner", "Streamliner-Chieftain", "Super Streamliner", Torpedo Metropolitan", Chieftain", "Chieftain De Luxe", Chieftain Custom Catalina"and "Star Chief" and various combinations of these names until the end of the streaks in 1956. The idea for the chrome trim strips were conceived by Frank Hershey, Harley Earl's protégé in Art and Color who had been inspired by a Napier that he had seen in "L'Auto Carrosserie". They had nothing to do with the engine ( the eight was a carry over from 1933 and the six was the new entry in 1935).

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well silver eagle is a name used for a bus that is used by many in the music business, and some pontiacs did have a emblem that said silver8streak on the front fender, fat n flat, in 1950, pontiac made the chieftain six, the chieftain eight, the streamliner six, and the streamliner eight. i doubt that you have stumbled onto a rare survivor, but any old pontiac is a treasure to have, and a pleasure to drive. please do share some pictures. charles coker, 1953 pontiac tech advisor.

Edited by pontiac1953 (see edit history)
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Guest Fat n Flat

Ok fellas, I understand now that I caused some confusion with my mistake of mixing up eagle and streak. Thanks for setting me straight on that. And I mean it nice, I apologize . I,ve been putting in some very long hours in very cold temps at my job in the gas field, 85 hours last week under alot of equipment problem and weather related stress. I know that rest is what I should be getting, instead, I guess I,ve made gathering tuneup parts and repair manuals for my "new" 50 Pontiac a priority so that when the weather breaks and free time prevails, I can be confident that this car will make round trips consistently. That is why I decided to join your AACA, because I know that if I have questions , one or all of you will have the answer. I am by no means an expert on Pontiacs or any other makes. But I am the kind that likes to learn as much as possible about my interests. Like the question about the valve adjustment procedure, I can and have adjusted valves on different makes and models of engines being gasoline or diesel many times, but have never even seen the parts that make up the straight eight valve train. As I said before, I have a shop manual ordered but I guess I couldn,t wait to find out what makes them stop ticking . They all sound fine under the hood and at the tailpipe except for number 1 cyl. ticks a little and it bothers me cuz I dont want the valves burning or coming apart on me. Anywho, I didn,t come on here to be a smartass or cause trouble, but did so only to gain insight and knowledge from a group of experienced enthusiasts. I said I will and fully intend to post some pics of the nameplates and script on the inst. cluster. I look forward to reading your input regarding these . If you want, view my profile and look at some pics of the old girl. She,s, Fat n Flat !! i.

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Good luck with your car. Setting the valves should be done with the engine running and at operating temperature. Lots of fun the first one or two then you get the hang of holding three (thin) open end wrenches in one hand an a proper go-no-go feeler gauge (or two regular ones). By the time you get to number 16 you could be an expert. Or perhaps you only need to adjust the one that is ticking (that would be my choice).

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boy fat n flat, you work alittle more a week than I do driving a 18 wheeler cross country. the Pontiac flathead motors have solid lifters, valve stem to lifter clearance is 0.013" cold, or 0.011" hot. but don't make the mistake that many Pontiac owners then back when these cars were new. they would make the Pontiac dealer service department adjust the valves so that they were real quiet, and later they would need an early valve job. the Pontiac straight eight when tuned properly, will run so smoothly and quietly that the lifter to valve stem clearance ticking will be the only noise that you will hear other than the noise of the fan belt, water pump and fan. I must repeat "don't make the adjustment so tight" that you don't hear the smooth steady ticking of all the 16 valves and lifters. Charles Coker, 1953 Pontiac tech advisor.

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