VickyBlue Posted December 4, 2014 Share Posted December 4, 2014 Drove the back roads today, took the freeway on the way back. Looked to my left, to my right, nothing in front of me, checked my 6 o'clock and stepped on it. GPS showed 92 mph. My exit came up quick... Made some coffee and after she cooled down a bit, I took one of the spark plugs out to see what was going on. Haven't checked anything other than re-adjusting the idle when it got colder, and checked the dwell angle. All of them look just like the picture. Then, while I was there, I removed the valve cover for the first time ever. There was no sludge. I had dropped the oil pan two years ago and cleaned it, so it did help. Then while I was there, I unbolted the intake, got to the valley cover, removed it and to my surprise, someone had been there before me. All I had to do was drill two spot welds and the bottom section came off. There was no filter inside... Just crud. Not much, but enough. Yep... Who ever got there, chose not to replace it. Hence the reason for the oily right underside. I don't have a blast cabinet, but I have a wire wheel... Cleaned everything, went to Home Depot and got the stuff both Mud and Willie used, packed it, spot weld it back together and tomorrow will prime and paint it. I ordered the cover seal and will put it back together Monday. Cam looks good to me, but you can comment. I was told by the widow when I bought the car, that he had the engine rebuilt but she couldn't find the paperwork on it. I used to call it "mystery meat" but now I think it all ads up. First the oil pan and now this. It burns no oil, compression is good and she's been good to me. Today I returned the favor... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buick man Posted December 4, 2014 Share Posted December 4, 2014 Cam looks smooth with a good surface pattern. Head wells look clean. However, remember to install new spark plug seal ring washers after cleaning and gapping them with a wire gauge and oiling the threads before properly torquing them when reinstalling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buick5563 Posted December 4, 2014 Share Posted December 4, 2014 Nice! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old-tank Posted December 4, 2014 Share Posted December 4, 2014 Drive it like you stole it and get back to us in about 300,000 miles for tips on an engine rebuild. You are going to have to find something else on the car to tinker with in the meantime.Willie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Falabella Posted December 4, 2014 Share Posted December 4, 2014 Don't forget to vacuum before reassembly, especially the intake ports. Looks good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VickyBlue Posted December 9, 2014 Author Share Posted December 9, 2014 All done. I was able to find a green color that kind of matched what was there, I know it is not correct, but it will do it. 6 coats of paint, made by Rustoleum. Dress the manifolds with Calyx. A word of caution: the studs that the spark plug covers bolt on, were loose... As a result, coolant was seeping out of all four of them... Guess where it made a little pool: freeze plugs. From there it went on down the manifold. You can't really see it, unless you remove the plug cover. I pulled all four of them, used thread sealant, cleaned the freeze plugs and went to work. After 3 days everything is dry. Merry Christmas Vicky:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnD1956 Posted December 9, 2014 Share Posted December 9, 2014 The spark plug studs go through to the water jacket? Jeeze, I gotta go back and take a look at mine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buick5563 Posted December 9, 2014 Share Posted December 9, 2014 Yes they do! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fr. Buick Posted December 10, 2014 Share Posted December 10, 2014 Scared the hell out of me the first time I discovered that fact... A generous dose of sealer, and in it goes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buick5563 Posted December 10, 2014 Share Posted December 10, 2014 Scared the hell out of me.... Ahh, now we know where your calling came from. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Model56s Posted December 10, 2014 Share Posted December 10, 2014 LOL '5563! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fr. Buick Posted December 13, 2014 Share Posted December 13, 2014 Doesn't everybody pray under the hood? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buick5563 Posted December 13, 2014 Share Posted December 13, 2014 Almost daily. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 53 Roady Posted December 14, 2014 Share Posted December 14, 2014 The old Buick green was such a cool color I used to paint my tools with it. And now where is it? They told me at NAPA that the Caddy gold I used on my Olds was deleted because it was too sniffable. The Buick green too?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buick man Posted December 15, 2014 Share Posted December 15, 2014 (edited) It took me off and on about a 3 month span to get the engine color matched perfectly for my survivor coupe. Started with the attempted matching by my paint jobbers to recreate the color using a single stage Dupont Urethane. They could not perfect the color but got it close after some tweaking and 3 cans of paint later. Then they gave me some toners and I went back to my shop and perfected the color match needs.This is what it takes to perfect your engine color needed. If your are a perfectionist. Of course I was only needing to paint some chipped painted areas here and there so matching was vitally important to me. However if my engine paint had not of been so completely preserved, then this matching process could not of been performed and just painting it with what is offered out there would of been an necessity. But in my case, I had to do this because the engine paints that are available out there are way too green in tone or way too chevy blue in tone. My theory for this is that the ones that are too green is the result on some guys attempting to match painted surfaces which have been exposed to years of leaded fuel causing the true Buick engine color to yellow forcing an appearance to a more greenish blue, because blue and yellow make green. The paints that are too chevy blue is the result of the darkening of the true mild blue tones due to heat in areas away from the leaded fuel areas. This may be why the intake manifolds always appear greenish in color as they have had extended exposure to leaded fuels and the resulting varnish that forms.The true nail head paint color at least from where my Buick came from is a resulting mild aqua cream blue with just a hint of whitish green under tones. Some say that different assembly plants used different toners to achieve the color thus accounting for the differing colors. This may be true to some marginal extent but I disagree that this would account for the wide range of tones and colors that folks currently sport on their nailhead engines. It is most likely the direct result of them using the paint that is readily available to them commercially in spray cans/quart cans. Edited December 15, 2014 by buick man (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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