1955 Buick Century

[RivNut]

Supposedly windage trays keep oil from splashing on the reciprocating parts, which on a high performance engine robs horsepower. Significance on a 55 nailhead - ??????

 

A nailhead is an externally balanced engine. To properly balance it, you need the harmonic balancer and the flex plate attached while it's being balanced.

[avgwarhawk]

It's my understanding the windage tray keeps oil off the crank thus isolating it in the pan for the pump to pick up.  If the oil was permitted to have the crank pulling at it with every stroke unabated eventually all of the oil would be wrapped around the crank starving the pump.  My 264 in my 54 has a windage tray. 

[avgwarhawk]

10 hours ago, RivNut said:

Supposedly windage trays keep oil from splashing on the reciprocating parts, which on a high performance engine robs horsepower. Significance on a 55 nailhead - ??????

 

True the tray keeps the oil from splashing but also from pulling the oil up and wrapping around the crank starving the oil pump in the process. 

[avgwarhawk]

I forgot to mention that the tray stops aeration created by the crank slinging oil around. 

Edited January 26, 2020 by avgwarhawk (see edit history)

[lancemb]

Is it possible this crank was interchanged from a different displacement or version of nailhead, and some of it was ground away to fit?  Are some internally balanced and some external?

 

This reminds me of a story.  Years ago my dad had an S-10 pickup he bought used that had a 2.8 v6.  The engine had been rebuilt, and ran great except that it shook like hell.  We drove it that way for a couple years, and called it "The Shaker".  

 

Eventually the time was found to tear into the engine.  We discovered there were both internally and externally balanced versions of this engine, and the crank had probably been changed as the crank and harmonic balancer had been mismatched.  After properly rebalancing it was smooth as silk!

[Kosage Chavis]

Accomplished a little something last weekend and removed both the camshaft and crankshaft sprockets, timing chain, camshaft and a few smaller items.  First things removed were both sprockets and chain together as shown.  First, simply slide the large dished washer off of the crankshaft.  Also remove the center bolt from the camshaft.Normally (from what I hear), you could slide both sprockets off a small distance at a time, while alternating between both.  This is all done with the chain still on.  In my case however, my camshaft sprocket was stuck.  So, I had to use a puller to slide off.As the puller slid the camshaft sprocket off a bit, I'd pry the crankshaft off the same amount until both sprockets are removed.  Showing the site of removal.Showing the timing chain, camshaft and crankshaft sprockets removed from the engine.

 

Next, I removed the camshaft as shown.Remove the 3 bolts that mounts this retaining flange. Showing area after flange removal.Once the flange is removed, grab and pull on the front end of the camshaft while guiding and holding the opposite end out from the engine block.  Showing the site of the removal.Showing the camshaft removed from the engine.

 

Next, I removed this guard (???) shown here.Remove 2 bolts.  Remove.  Showing site of removal.Showing guard (???) removed from the engine. 

 

Lastly, I removed plug/valves from both sides of the engine block.Simply unscrew.  Remove.  Showing site of removal.Showing plug/valves removed from the engine. 

 

Overall, all of the tasks in this post were easy.

[RivNut]

Next time you pull a camshaft or reinstall, find a long bolt, with the same threads that hold the fuel pump eccentric, and screw it into the end of the camshaft so you can have a handle.  The disk ahead of the crank gear is called an oil slinger.  Nice job so far.  Once you have it down to a bare block, consider using your die grinder to remove the cast flashing around the lifter galley.  Gets rid of stress points and is easier on your hands when you reinstall the camshaft.

[Kosage Chavis]

When using a ridge reamer on these engines, is there a preferred brand or do they all work well?

[old-tank]

4 hours ago, Kosage Chavis said:

When using a ridge reamer on these engines, is there a preferred brand or do they all work well?

Let the machine shop do it as part of boring the cylinders.  You already watched the video and see that it is a simple tool that depends on straight cylinders to line up correctly.  If there is severe taper or out of round cylinders it does not fit right and you can over cut and ruin the cylinder.  Then you need a sleeve ($$$).

If you buy one get the most expensive professional tool --- new, not used.

[Kosage Chavis]

5 hours ago, old-tank said:

You already watched the video and see that it is a simple tool that depends on straight cylinders to line up correctly.  If there is severe taper or out of round cylinders it does not fit right and you can over cut and ruin the cylinder.  Then you need a sleeve ($$$).

Thank you Mr Willie.  You have persuaded me not to bother with this.  So, how do I get the pistons out without damaging the piston and/or cylinder if there is a lip present?  Can I tap the piston out without worry of damage, in spite of the lip?

[avgwarhawk]

11 minutes ago, Kosage Chavis said:

Thank you Mr Willie.  You have persuaded me not to bother with this.  So, how do I get the pistons out without damaging the piston and/or cylinder if there is a lip present?  Can I tap the piston out without worry of damage, in spite of the lip?

 

 

I had a small lip on mine.  I used a honing tool on a drill to take it down and then remove the piston. Just honed the edge/lip area only.   

[old-tank]

1 hour ago, avgwarhawk said:

1 hour ago, Kosage Chavis said:

Thank you Mr Willie.  You have persuaded me not to bother with this.  So, how do I get the pistons out without damaging the piston and/or cylinder if there is a lip present?  Can I tap the piston out without worry of damage, in spite of the lip?

 

 

I had a small lip on mine.  I used a honing tool on a drill to take it down and then remove the piston. Just honed the edge/lip area only.   

Sounds like a good plan if you want to re-use the pistons, otherwise don't worry about damage to pistons.

At this point I would take the block with pistons and crank to the machine shop for disassembly and inspection/measuring of bores and crank, maybe magnaflux the block.  Even if you are not going to rebuild at this time you know what parts to assemble when you do (over size pistons, bearings).

[EmTee]

That engine looks so nice that I'd be surprised if there was a significant ridge.  Can you catch your fingernail on the ridge?  If not, the pistons should come out without any drama.

[Kosage Chavis]

10 hours ago, EmTee said:

That engine looks so nice that I'd be surprised if there was a significant ridge.  Can you catch your fingernail on the ridge?  If not, the pistons should come out without any drama.

You were right.  I got the pistons out without much resistance!  I will post later.

[RivNut]

Another thing to consider is, after grinding away all of the casting flash, is to paint the inside of the lifter valley and any other surfaces where oil drains back (or any place that is a known place for sludge buildup) with Glyptal.  Glypal makes the surfaces slick to aid drain back, and it seals cast iron.

[Kosage Chavis]

Work continued with piston removal.I thought that I would need to put a ridge reamer on the block in order to remove the pistons, but my good friends here urged me not to.  So, I proceeded without doing so.  I made sure that the side of the engine that I was working on, that the top of the pistons were pointing to the floor.  I then began removing both nuts to each connecting rod shown here.This next photo is just to note that for each set of connecting rods that are paired together, there is a little tab on the clamp.  I am pointing to it right here.These small tabs should face each other in each pair when reinstalled.  Once nuts are removed, slide the clamps off if you can.  In my case, none of mine did.  So, I took a long and slender piece of wood and placed the bottom end on the back side of the piston.  I took a hammer and tapped the other end of the wood until the connecting rod separated from the clamp.   This didn't work well enough on a couple of stubborn connecting rods.  So, for those I took a small hammer and lightly tapped one connecting rod clamp bolt till it pushed through and that freed up the clamp.  Just be sure not to damage the threads.  Once the piston was free, I tapped on that wood again to push the piston out.  I used one hand to tap the wood while using the other hand to catch and guide the piston from its bore.  Getting the piston rings past the lip was not difficult at all.  I probably will not be reusing these pistons on my this rebuild, but just in case, I made sure to label which piston each were and the direction it faced.  Showing the site of removal.Showing pistons removed from the engine.Overall, this was a moderate task.

 

I will be sure to show the condition of the rod bearings later.

[avgwarhawk]

I don't see any scuff marks on the pistons.   If the piston are original OEM I would reuse them as I hear a lot of different things about new pistons available on the market.   Let others chime in on that.  

[RivNut]

If the cylinders are round and spec out okay, re-ring and reuse the original pistons after running a hone up and down the bores.  On one nailhead that I had rebuilt, the machine shop reconditioned the rods. Rods can bend and twist. Might be worth checking.

[Kosage Chavis]

Next, I removed the flexplate as shown.Just remove all 6 bolts as shown.Note that there is a dowell that makes sure the flexplate in installed in the correct manner.  When bolts are removed, slide the flexplate off of the crankshaft end.  Now, showing the site of removal.Showing the flexplate removed from the engine.Overall, this was an easy task.

Edited February 11, 2020 by Kosage Chavis (see edit history)

[Sean Batiz]

Coming along quite nicely! At least you didn’t have to encounter the explosive problem that I had to deal with in my first Nailhead dismantling; #8 piston had completely disintegrated into MANY unrecognizable aluminum shrapnel fragments, throughout the crankcase and even broke off some sizable chunks of both sides of the lowest end of that cylinder wall! Still not sure if my original block is salvageable via a sleeving job or not. Only time and money will eventually determine this fate. Worst case scenario, I’ll be having the 2nd Nailhead that I have, rebuilt instead, someday....

[RivNut]

A friend of mine in Illinois has what is believed to be the first 63 Riviera with  the 425 engine.  Until he discovered that fact, he was going to do an engine swap.  He had put a rod through a cylinder wall.  That 425 has driven him all over the place with a wet sleeve in place.  Go for it!

[Kosage Chavis]

Next was the removal of the crankshaft as shown.First, I only removed three main bearing caps (#2, #3 and #4) as shown by removing the 2 bolts at each of them as shown.Each cap is numbered consecutively  (#1 being at the front of engine) and has an arrow that points to the front of the engine. 

 

I am not going to give advice on how to remove the caps because I struggled with this without the cap popping off uncontrollably.  Maybe one of you could school me here...  @EmTee, @avgwarhawk, @old-tank, @MrEarl, @NC-car-guy, @RivNut. 

 

I left the #1 cap and most rear cap (not numbered) in place, only unscrewing those bolts about half way.  I did this because the rear cap was too big and difficult to remove like the other smaller caps.  I then turned the engine over so that the weight of the crank rested totally on the 2 remaining caps.  The idea was to use the weight of the crank to push the much bigger rear cap off of the engine (without letting the crank fall).  I then took a rubber mallet and tapped down on the rear end of the crank, dislodging the rear cap in the process.  I then flipped the engine back over and I was able to pull off the rear cap without much of a problem.  The #1 cap was also removed.  After all caps are removed, grab both ends of the crank and carefully lift it up and out of the engine block.  Be sure to also remove the other halves of the main bearings.  Showing the site of removal.Showing the crankshaft removed from engine.Overall, moderate task (only because removing the main bearing caps was a bit of a challenge).

Edited February 19, 2020 by Kosage Chavis (see edit history)

[old-tank]

2 hours ago, Kosage Chavis said:

I left the #1 cap and most rear cap (not numbered) in place, only unscrewing those bolts about half way.  I did this because the rear cap was too big and difficult to remove like the other smaller caps.  I then turned the engine over so that the weight of the crank rested totally on the 2 remaining caps.  The idea was to use the weight of the crank to push the much bigger rear cap off of the engine (without letting the crank fall).  I then took a rubber mallet and tapped down on the rear end of the crank, dislodging the rear cap in the process.  I then flipped the engine back over and I was able to pull off the rear cap without much of a problem

Ingenious.  Now why didn't I think of that.

I use long bolts in the rear cap (for the pan bolts) to get it off.

[avgwarhawk]

The caps are off thus making your technique a good way to get it done!  

[Kosage Chavis]

Showing the existing conditions of the rod bearings and its associated rod bearing journals.

 

#1 piston#2 piston#3 piston#4 piston #5 piston#6 piston#7 piston#8 pistonFrom what I can tell, I see nothing serious.  Most of it looks to be normal wear.  Maybe a more experienced set of eyes can provide their opinions.

 

 

Main bearings and associated main bearing journals are next.

[old-tank]

Minimal wear...plastigauge would tell you to reuse those parts.

[Sean Batiz]

Kosage, Back to the picture above of your flex plate for a second: the starter ring gear teeth look as if BRAND NEW! I was just going through the latest info on your progress and couldn’t help but noticing that. There’s a high possibility that after whatever major head work was performed on that Nailhead some several moons ago, little to no major time or miles were put on it before it was parked for a few decades! I really can’t even tell which side of that gear, the starters bendix gear engaged (of course it would engage the side facing the engine, just sayin’). New set of seals, bearings, rings, detailed cleaning prep work on the parts and.... she’ll be a dang fine Nailhead for MANY YEARS!

[Kosage Chavis]

4 hours ago, Sean Batiz said:

There’s a high possibility that after whatever major head work was performed on that Nailhead some several moons ago, little to no major time or miles were put on it before it was parked for a few decades! 

If memory serves me correct the previous owner, owned this car for about 11 years.  He purchased the car in 2001...I think.  Then, it was sold to me in Nov of 2012.  Between 2001 and 2012, the heads were rebuilt.  And the previous owner barely drove the car.  He told me that he lost interest in it.  So, the car sat around for about a decade (for the most part).  I am thinking about removing the engine from the parts car to see which one is in better shape.  Maybe there is less wear.  We will have to see.

Edited February 22, 2020 by Kosage Chavis (see edit history)

[Kosage Chavis]

Showing the condition of the main cap bearings.

 

Main cap bearing #1

Main cap bearing #2

Main cap bearing #3

Main cap bearing #4

Rear main cap bearing 

 

 

[Kosage Chavis]

The engine is on hold at the moment until money isn't so tight.  So, in the meantime, I turned my attention to the power antennas.  Altogether, I have 4 motors that needed bench testing.Out of the 4, I have 3 motors that work well.  In an effort to learn how these power antennas work, I decided to take one apart.  Of course, I chose the one that doesn't work.  Maybe there would be some chance that I could fix it.  Here's the nonfunctional motor broken down.And here's what seems to be the issue.Looks like it's completely burned out.  What do you think?  Looks too far gone to me.

[lancemb]

Yeah, I'd say if you have 3 good motors and not enough other good parts to make 3 antennas complete anyway, I would not waste time on this one.  It can be rebuilt, but would have to be fully rewound.  The effort is not worth it IMO.  Curious to see the rest of the remaining antennas when apart!

[Sean Batiz]

Oddly, out of what almost certainly seems like an endless assortment of literature that GM or Buick printed/published during the mid 50’s for just about every conceivable item or accessory, I’ve never once come across a single piece of official instructional literature that’s specifically for the breakdown servicing of one of these power antenna units, yet.... all we seem to have to go by, with our various attempts at rebuilding these, is our own wits and the collaboration of other likeminded wits to assist us in moments of “drawing a blank”. This said, you having available at your grasp, multiple units for comparative purposes, is definitely a major plus! At first, this “simple” project is just that, simple. By the end of that bench work challenge, it can easily change from simple to, SCRAP METAL that’s been tossed against the wall in frustration! Lol! Patience is definitely a virtue, in this case. I believe you’ll get’er figured out for sure.

[Fr. Buick]

Yikes, looks roasted to me.  Anybody had a motor rewound lately that wants to divulge a price?  

[Kosage Chavis]

22 hours ago, lancemb said:

Yeah, I'd say if you have 3 good motors and not enough other good parts to make 3 antennas complete anyway, I would not waste time on this one.  It can be rebuilt, but would have to be fully rewound.  The effort is not worth it IMO.  Curious to see the rest of the remaining antennas when apart!

I am with you on that.  I will post photos of the others when I get around to it.

[Sean Batiz]

Pointing out what some of us might consider obvious but, possibly not to all readers of this thread, it’d behoove oneself to definitely keep every little part from each of these original units separate from each other, just in case there are any slight, subtle changes to various parts designs. Not  everything was made fully interchangeable back in the day; just as with modern car system parts. In too many cases of late model cars, it’s almost required to have to use a vehicles VIN number to obtain the exact right parts. Only after having completely cleaned up and fully inspected each part/piece/hardware, should it be attempted to cross interchange individual parts to construct one single unit, containing the best of all the parts.

[Kosage Chavis]

I put 2 things on the agenda last weekend.  First, was to check the condition of the other 3 power antenna motors.  The other thing was to fully retract the fully extended power antenna assembly that I got a few weeks ago.  It was stuck in the extended position when I got it.  This made it difficult to store and vulnerable to damage.  I also now feel comfortable with taking these units apart after dismantling an already damaged unit.  Here's one of the units here.To take apart, remove the top screw that holds this brace for the nylon cord storage tubing.Then remove the 2 screws that retains this coupling for the same nylon cord storage tubing.Remove tubing.  There are 3 basic assemblies to this power antenna that are left.  You have the top assembly which basically consists of the top cover, associated mast tubing and mast.  You have the center assembly which consists of the circular gears and pivot arm (which allows adjustment for tension on the nylon cord) and then the bottom assembly that contains the entire motor that directly turns the worm gear.  To remove the top assembly from the rest of the unit, remove the tension screw shown here.This will expose the tension spring as shown.Remove the spring.  Next, remove the 2 remaining screws at the top as shown.Once removed, carefully pull the top assembly off from the rest of the unit as shown.As you can see, the nylon cord was jammed inside.  Simply pull out whatever nylon cord from the feed hole and compression wheels.  The top assembly is now free from the unit.  Now we can remove the middle assembly from the bottom.  First, remove 3 screws along with a grounding wire at the underside of unit as shown.Once removed, do NOT attempt to separate the middle assembly from the bottom yet.  Flip the unit upside down first.  The reason for this is because there is a single, small ball bearing that is only being retained by the top of the worm gear shaft.  If you seperate the middle assembly from the bottom while holding right side up, as soon as the worm gear rolls out, the ball bearing will fall out before you can realize what it was and where it came from.  At that point, you will also realize that it is probably lost.  So again, flip the unit upside down and then very slowly, separate the middle assembly from the bottom as shown.Once the middle assembly is free from the bottom, flip the middle assembly right side up and allow the bearing to fall out onto a safe surface where it won't bounce or roll away from your sight.  Now you can inspect the motor.  The top plate that covers the armature and holds the brushes is held in place with small tabs as shown.Just pop this plate off at the side closest to the feed hole.  Just pull up on the plate enough to shine a light inside.  As you can see, motor #2 looks pretty good.Motor #3If you feel the need to remove the motor from the casing, you'll need to remove a grounding screw at the top of this assembly at the other side of the plate.  Then, remove this single bolt at the very bottom of this bottom assembly as shown.Then, grab some small needle nose plyers.  Lift the top plate just enough to see inside the casing.  You should see a flat, thin sleeve that is held in place by 2 slots.  This sleeve keeps the wires that run up along the side of it from making contact with the motor.  This sleeve has to be pulled out with the motor.  Take the plyers and with the top plate pulled away just enough, grab that sleeve and carefully pull it out.  More than likely, this sleeve will be somewhat stuck.  Massage it out a bit and as soon as the sleeve slides out, so too will the motor.  I only took one other motor out as shown.  Motor #4.Here's what the inside of the casing looks like.So, the now that the other 3 motors have been checked (and look really good), it was time to retract my main power antenna.  Here it is, stuck in the fully extended position.The motor worked well, but for some reason would not engage the mast.  I took it apart and discovered that the pair of circular gears were offset from the worm gear.  So, the worm gear was not engaging much of anything.  It must have sat like this for years because both circular gears were seized up.  The good news was that the nylon cord was still intact and I just pulled on it and was able to fully retract the the mast.  Here is a photo showing this.Also, a photo showing the cross sectional shape of the nylon cord.I had plenty of nylon cord on the main antenna.  So I decided to go the extra step and swap out the middle assembly for a functional one from the damaged unit.  The nylon cord was dry rotted and somewhat brittle, but maybe I could get it to work.  So I fed the nylon cord through the compression wheels and feed hole and put the assembly together.  I put a little tension on the spring and hooked it up to a car battery.  I must say, I got a lot of satisfaction bringing back this old power antenna alive and seeing it operate the way it was meant to!  After watching the mast smoothly move up and down a few times, the fun was over.  The nylon cord gave out.  No big deal.  It needed replacement anyway.  I did everything I needed to do and some.  Overall, these tasks were easy.

[old-tank]

Good job.  But you need a work bench before the wife needs a frozen chicken out of the freezer...and don't move the project to the kitchen table.

[Kosage Chavis]

5 minutes ago, old-tank said:

Good job.  But you need a work bench before the wife needs a frozen chicken out of the freezer...and don't move the project to the kitchen table.

LOL!  You a trip Mr Willie!  After I was done with renovating the garage, my working space shrunk while it seemed the rest of the garage became an extension of the house.  The silver lining in all of this is now my wife and I are now seriously talking about a detatched garage.  It would be a dedicated work space which means going full force on the Buick!

[Sean Batiz]

One more thing to note on these: the wide sides of the cross-section of the slightly diamond shape of this nylon cord, rides between the WIDE faces of the two pinch/compression wheels, NOT the groove in those wheels! ‘BUT’, if you decide in exchanging your original mast cord with a good weed-wacker nylon cord with a diamond shape  (if you are able to get the solid mast rods’ threaded tip removed, CCW, AND are able to gently pry open the tiny crimped FRAGILE aluminum swivel terminal from the old cord), you may end up having to intentionally run the  new cord through the ‘grooves’ of the pinch wheels, due to the larger cross-section dimensions of replacement cord. At least, this is what I ended up having to do. You’ll also have to carefully widdle down the tip end of the new cord to as much of a perfectly rounded shape as possible before inserting it into that aluminum swivel terminal. I avoided re-crimping this swivel and opted to instead, coat the new cord tip and terminal’s female with a small bit of “JB Kwic” epoxy; let that fully cure and carefully file or sand down the excess before reassembly. This aluminum swivel terminal MUST ride inside of the smallest hollow tube of the telescoping segment of mast COMPLETELY FREE of resistance, in order for nothing to jam or bind during travel. This can be bench checked before assembly of other sections. GOOD LUCK! 🍀👍🏻 

Edited March 8, 2020 by Sean Batiz
Typo (see edit history)

[Fr. Buick]

Use a bic lighter to slightly melt the cord enough to remove the old cord and install your replacement.   No messing with the crimps, just let a little heat do the work.