1955 Buick Century

[Kosage Chavis]

14 hours ago, Sean Batiz said:

but, why I was suspecting these critters went in via the road-draft tube as well, had to do with my car having been one of the many older models of cars in the mid 70’s that went through California’s smog check program which called for it’s road-draft tube to be  literally chopped off about an inch out of its port for a rubber elbow to be attached (rotted away and hole exposed) that was routed to the top of the oil bath air silencer/cleaner housing that also received a roughly chopped hole in it for this rubber hose/elbow arrangement  to fit (this tube extended through the housings top and was fixed to another hole cut into the filter element itself to the clean side of the element; a fruitless attempt at creating a closed crankcase breather system).

Got any pictures of this setup?  I am curious about it.

[Sean Batiz]

On a side note to do with the valley pan itself and, the bulky air silencer for these Nailhead’s, you’ll want to be sure to drill out the baffle plate spot-welds of pan to THOROUGHLY get it cleaned up and be able to replace the steel-wool like filter gauze that’s undoubtedly in bad shape after 64 years. As for the air silencer, there’s a tedious method of bending away at the rolled bead of either end of its housing, to accomplish getting into its inner cavity for again, THOROUGH cleaning! You won’t want to have your freshly rebuilt engine, suck up a cloud of rust! It’d be inevitable for the oil bath filter to NOT catch it all.

[Sean Batiz]

I just noticed your message! No, I don’t remember ever taking any pictures of how  that smog check arrangement was. I removed whatever was still left of it, that hadn’t rotted away and, had the tube welded back together and holes closed back off.

[Kosage Chavis]

I posed this question on the "post war" forum,  but I assume no one saw it.  I wanted to know if there were any extra steps to separating the transmission from engine besides what is already spelled out in the shop manual?  I appreciate any answers.

[NC-car-guy]

Remove dust cover... Remove 3 nuts that hold the torque coverter to the flywheel (the sit just a little proud from the rest of the torque converter nuts), loosen kickdown linkage and dipstick, remove bellhousing bolts...

[Kosage Chavis]

4 hours ago, NC-car-guy said:

Remove dust cover... Remove 3 nuts that hold the torque coverter to the flywheel (the sit just a little proud from the rest of the torque converter nuts), loosen kickdown linkage and dipstick, remove bellhousing bolts...

So, no marking off anything to make sure it is bolted in the same manner in terms of the torque converter to flywheel bolting?

[old-tank]

38 minutes ago, Kosage Chavis said:

So, no marking off anything to make sure it is bolted in the same manner in terms of the torque converter to flywheel bolting?

There is only one correct way if you line up the reliefs for the converter drain plugs.

[KAD36]

Be sure to read @KAD36's stories from the original rebuild as well as the 'Take-2' follow-up below.  My takeaway is that even if proper procedures and techniques are followed, parts availability can be challenging and selecting the wrong parts, or even reusing what appear to be serviceable used parts can have significant consequences regarding the ultimate success of the rebuild. 

 

Been away for a bit.....

 

My situation, with the rod nut shearing at each facet after 5000+miles, was a corner point failure.  These aren't racing engines turning high rpms.  It was an expensive lesson and experience and while the probability of occurrence is remote (as evidenced by no known similar field failures), about 100 bucks preventative investment in parts and custom machining per provided sketches avoids 25x realized cost in parts and labor.  Pretty good cost to risk ratio.

 

To give credit where it is due, the reason that engine ran like a Swiss watch was because so many people's experienced voices were baked into it and all helped think it through first to understand the "tolerance stack" issues before just throwing parts at it. 

 

"Test run" each subassembly in its installed configuration to the greatest extent possible. 

Edited December 18, 2019 by KAD36 (see edit history)

[Kosage Chavis]

36 minutes ago, KAD36 said:

To give credit where it is due, the reason that engine ran like a Swiss watch was because so many people's experienced voices were baked into it and all helped think it through first to understand the "tolerance stack" issues before just throwing parts at it. 

 

"Test run" each subassembly in its installed configuration to the greatest extent possible. 

I really appreciate the guidance and will definitely take heed to your advice.  My parents didn't raise a fool and I understand that it will take the town to make this a success.  I have read over your "take 2" and will probably be reading 10 more times.

[Kosage Chavis]

It's a roller now.Now, I can separate the engine and transmission...next chance that I have.

[Kosage Chavis]

Did a couple things today.  First, I saw that missed this removal shown here...the driver's side engine to mount bracket.Remove 3 bolts shown here. Remove.Showing removal site.Showing driver's side engine to mount bracket removed from engine.Overall, easy task.

 

Now that I am done will the dynaflow carriage, I can set the dynaflow on it while the engine sets on a 4 x 4 and a pair of jackstands.  The idea is to separate by just rolling the dynaflow away after all unbolting steps are performed.  Of course, I will add 1 more jackstand to the rear engine when separating to support the rear.  The dynaflow will remain on the newly made carriage and the engine will be mounted to a rolling engine stand.

[old-tank]

1 hour ago, Kosage Chavis said:

I will add 1 more jackstand to the rear engine when separating to support the rear.

Use an engine hoist.

[dei]

You built a fine strong roller for the dynaflow there.

 

When you unbolt the three bolts on the flex plate take a marker and mark the location of the flex plate where it came apart so as to bolt it back in the same location.

 

Then take out the housing to engine bolts after putting something under each side of the oil pan edge to keep the block steady when the last two bolts come out or like old-tank said, use an engine hoist to keep it level.

 

 

 

[Kosage Chavis]

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.  Out of the whole break,  I only had a few hours to work on the engine.  I spent that time separating the engine and transmission.  First thing I did was to follow Mr Willie's advise and support the engine with an engine hoist rather than using jack stands.Once secured, I removed the bell housing cover as shown.Remove 6 bolts (2 bolts into engine block and 4 bolts into bell housing).  Remove.  Showing site after removal.Showing the bell housing cover removed from the engine.

Next, I rotated the flywheel with a flathead screwdriver rested against 1 bell housing cover bolt reinstalled as shown to reach the other nuts.I did this to preserve any mounting surfaces.  There are over 20 nuts mounted at the outer diameter.  When you look closely, you can differentiate the 3 flywheel to torque converter nuts from the rest because these 3 nuts are resting directly on the flywheel, while all of the others are actually poking through a hole in the flywheel as shown.  Remove.Next, remove 6 bell housing to engine block bolts as shown. I then hoisted the engine end up just a bit to get enough separation from engine and transmission to fit a wedge between them.  There are 2 dowels that keep the engine and transmission aligned with each other.  1 is right on the side where the starter motor mounts to as shown.The other dowel is opposite to the 1st one as shown.I took a wedge and very carefully pried the engine off of the transmission at the dowel locations.  When both dowels slide off, you now have complete separation.I also was sure to note how the flywheel was bolted to the torque converter.  These 3 holes in the flywheel shown here...line up with the 4 features  (2 bolts, a plug and a welded tab) shown here on the torque converter.Showing the transmission on its homemade carriage.And showing the engine on its engine stand.Overall, this task was easy.

[avgwarhawk]

Nice work! 

[Sean Batiz]

I’m jealous! If only I’d performed this same task inside of a relatively clean garage, rather than the outdoors of my back field, the various matting surfaces wouldn’t have accumulated the surface rust it all very much did! Only being sarcastic about jealousy; just sayin’ it’s a heck of a lot better having enough space inside of a garage/building for such tasks vs. outdoors. The general climate in So Cal is such that it makes forgetting to protect metal from the elements, a real problem! Nice and dry for 97% of the year.

[Kosage Chavis]

Got this in the mail today.  One power antenna that is fully intact (minus the tubular housing) and a parts power antenna that is fully intact (minus the mast).  Compliments of Mr Glenn.   Had no clue the power antennas for these cars were so long.  I am unsure if the nylon cord is still intact.  Does anyone know how to retract the mast if the motor isn't functional?  Thank you.

Edited January 7, 2020 by Kosage Chavis (see edit history)

[lancemb]

4 hours ago, Kosage Chavis said:

Got this in the mail today.  One power antenna that is fully intact (minus the tubular housing) and a parts power antenna that is fully intact (minus the mast).  Compliments of Mr Glenn.   Had no clue the power antennas for these cars were so long.  I am unsure if the nylon cord is still intact.  Does anyone know how to retract the mast if the motor isn't functional?  Thank you.

Is that your second pair or the ones you bought some months ago?  To retract if motor is stuck, you're better off taking it apart so you don't damage the nylon cable.

[Kosage Chavis]

15 hours ago, lancemb said:

Is that your second pair or the ones you bought some months ago?  To retract if motor is stuck, you're better off taking it apart so you don't damage the nylon cable.

This is the second pair.  The first set I bought, even though it looked like everything was there to make a complete assembly, was still all in pieces.  I saw an intact assembly in good shape and had to jump on it.

[Sean Batiz]

Yep 👍🏻! You definitely should carefully take it apart to prevent any damage to its nylon cord, given its not already in several segments. Remove the aluminum curled tube from the casing first and slide it from the nylon cord and set it aside. Separate the upper casing that the mast’s connected to. Slide that away from the motors’ middle section casing and the double pinch roller setup will be exposed. You’ll notice that the left one, if looking at the end where both rollers are facing you, has an adjustable swing pivot fastener with a nylon locking nut with flat washer. Loosen this up. It’ll release the tension of the nylon cord and allow you to slide the cord from the casing/motor body. Hopefully, its cord is in one continuous piece! If not, you may have to take the approach that I took of carefully expanding the swivel crimp connector that’s fixed to the end of the smallest, solid rod of the mast &, replacing the cord. I used a stretch of Craftsman weed-wacker nylon cord that had a cross-section diamond shape; it spirals along its length, which causes a bit of a rotation of the cord as it goes up and down but, doesn’t seem to bother the functionality of it. I had to carefully widdle down the tip from having a diamond shape to a round stem that was small enough to insert into the swivel crimp connector on the solid rod. Applied some J-B Quick epoxy to this tip, without attempting to recrimp it (it’s aluminum and VERY FRAGILE!). If you’re able to pinch the solid rod (two small blocks of wood and bench vise), you can remove the mast’s tip (threaded on). This will allow you to separate the solid rod for ease of getting a new cord attached, if necessary. I took mine completely apart (requires de soldering the field winding leads from the brush holder terminals) to get access to the lower bearing/bushing for servicing this (mine was seized up down there!). Works beautifully now, even when bench tested with the original switch inline! Now, just gotta RESTORE THE REST OF THE BUICK! 🙄. This oughta make a perfect winter bench project for you! Enjoy....

[Sean Batiz]

I worked with one 55 Olds PA with a decent mast; slightly bent along each segment that needed rolled out, carefully. Had its cord broken in several points. And one 55 Buick Roady PA with its cord and mast severed off just above where it would’ve protruded above the mount of fender. The Olds PA uses a much larger curled, oval shaped aluminum holding tube; whereas the Buick PA uses the compact, circular aluminum tube.

[Kosage Chavis]

@Sean Batiz, I appreciate the step by step process for breaking down the antenna.  I can't store the main antenna until I retract the mast and I CANNOT have this mast (that's in very good shape) getting damaged.  So, at some point really soon, I will need to take care of that.  Of course, I will post plenty of pictures and experience when I do.

Edited January 9, 2020 by Kosage Chavis (see edit history)

[Sean Batiz]

Store it with your fishing rods for now! Oughta fit, no?

[Sean Batiz]

Kosage, I forgot to mention that (from what I experienced) before you detach the upper casing section of antenna body, you should first loosen up the pinch roller spring tension screw that’s on the side of that upper casing. If you’re one of those lucky fellas that actually has one of these with its original nylon cord intact, you’ll want to notate the current position of that tensions set screw and count off the CCW turns required for its removal, so it can later be reset at roughly the same tension. Upon reassembling the unit, the nylon locking nut that secures the pivoting roller oughta be tightened down until seated and backed off just enough to allow that rollers’ axle casting to swivel in & out. It’s level of bite to the masts’ nylon cord, will then be determined by the externally adjustable spring tensioning screw. Just tight enough to eliminate slipping, is where I left mine at. Slippage: motors’ bench tested in either direction and runs fine but, no, minimal or, intermittent  movement of mast. After initially marking the position of  the tension screw, and loosen it off by say 2 or 3 revs CCW, you should be able to at that point, gently work the telescoping antenna segments back down (the nylon cord will be free to slide into the aluminum tube, if still pliable) if you’d rather, to at least have it in a safer storable length for now.

[Kosage Chavis]

@Sean Batiz, very good advice and thank you.  I plan on fooling with the power antennas soon...after I take care of the engine.

[Sean Batiz]

I’m curious to see the condition of your Nailhead’s oil pan sump! Sludge? Clean? Wud’ja find in there? Hidden gold coins?

[Kosage Chavis]

Did some more work on the engine last weekend.  Removed the hydraulic lifters as shown. Just use your finger to push each lifter out of its bore from the bottom as shown.Showing site of removal.

I am not sure if I will be reusing these lifters, but just in case I do, I was sure to keep track of each lifter in regards to how each particular one was arranged.  All lifters were entirely coated with grease and then placed into its own zip lock bag.  Each baggie was marked with the side of the engine it came from (DS or PS) and what order (1 thru 8; 1 being the front).I then quickly made a divider.Grabbed a small box to fit the divider in.And placed the lifters in the box in the same manner they were while in the engine.I also marked the box to indicate the proper arrangement as a back up.That took care of the lifters.

 

Next, I emptied the oil from the engine.

 

I then started the oil pan removal.Just remove all bolts at the flange as shown by my helpful Daughter.And of course my Son helped keep all bolts in one spot.Once all bolts are removed, I took a rubber mallet and tapped on the sides of the oil pan until the seal was broken.  Lift up and off.  Remove.  Showing the removal site (as requested@Sean Batiz)Showing oil pan removed from engine.Overall, all the tasks in this post were easy.

 

Note: there was virtually no sludge at the bottom of the oil pan.  I had previously replaced the gasket when the car was still running.  The old gasket failed and it leaked a lot of oil.  While I had the oil pan removed, I cleaned it out.  At that time, there was a good amount of hardened sludge in the oil pan.

Edited January 15, 2020 by Kosage Chavis (see edit history)

[avgwarhawk]

Cute pit crew!

The lifters and cam are broken in together. Not sure how far you plan to go with the rebuild. I can say I replaced the lifters on a 56 can that was already broken in with no issues.  I guess the mic of the cylinders will dictate the best route on this rebuild. Thanks for sharing. 

[Kosage Chavis]

On 1/14/2020 at 7:54 PM, avgwarhawk said:

Cute pit crew!

The lifters and cam are broken in together. Not sure how far you plan to go with the rebuild. I can say I replaced the lifters on a 56 can that was already broken in with no issues.  I guess the mic of the cylinders will dictate the best route on this rebuild. Thanks for sharing. 

I definitely will be going all "all out" on this engine.  Thank you.

[Kosage Chavis]

Messing around with engine today.  Can anyone explain this?  Looks like someone grinded away part of the counterweights on the crank.  Was this something that was done on the assembly line to balance the engine or maybe clear a foul?  It's only on some parts of the crank, not all.  Here's a part of the crank that looks normal.Also, probably not an issue, but on this one part of the crank, one drilled hole runs right into another, leaving a thin piece of metal.  Is this a potential issue?  Thank you.

[Sean Batiz]

I’m surprised that you haven’t received any feedback from your questions yet. I’d like to throw some knowledge/experience opinions your way but, myself, I honestly don’t have a good answer for these questions. That said, if that were my crankshaft, I’d probably assume those grounded off areas were definitely due to some sort of final balancing steps, as you were suspecting. As for the metal flash material between the two balancing holes, I “might” consider carefully cleaning that bridge out to a clean edge or, just leave it alone. You figure that that Nailhead was presumably a good/decent runner for the many miles/years of operation it delivered and, the fact that you were able to get it back to running decent/fair before breaking it down, concludes that its crank issues you’ve spotted out, ought not have been a detrimental problem (🤞🏼). It’ll be a fine running engine for many years/miles to come, especially after you’ve finished its meticulous rebuild, whether or not you do anything to that crank, other than the standard polishing of its journals. Take it down to a reputable shop that can spin it to check how balanced it actually is. It just might be perfect exactly as is👌!

[Sean Batiz]

Aside from that gibberish rant (too much coffee today!), you might wanna consider purchasing BRAND NEW rod/cap bolts & nuts hardware for it! Just a thought....

[Kosage Chavis]

I am still hoping someone can answer the questions I posed in the previous post.  

 

More work done with the engine.  Removed the valley divider as shown.Remove 2 bolts as shown.Remove.  Showing site of removal.Showing valley divider removed from the engine.

 

Next, I removed both head gaskets. Just slide off of the dowels.  Showing site of removal.Showing head gaskets removed from the engine.

 

Next, I removed the timing chain cover as shown.In my case, I only had 5 bolts to remove.  It looked to me that there should be more.  After removing all bolts, the cover will more than likely be stuck to the gasket.  Keep in mind that the cover is aligned by 2 dowels.  Place a wooden or plastic wedge right here.Tap the wedge till the cover separates from the block.  Slide off of the dowels and remove.  Showing site of removal.Showing timing chain cover removed from the engine.Next, I removed the windage tray as shown.Just remove the 4 bolts at each corner of the windage tray.  Remove.  Showing site of removal.Showing the windage tray removed from the engine.

 

Lastly, I removed the oil pump as shown.Remove 2 bolts shown here (the shaft seen in this picture will simply slide out with the whole pump assembly).  Remove.Showing removal site.Showing the oil pump removed from engine.

 

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

Edited January 25, 2020 by Kosage Chavis
Terminology (see edit history)

[NC-car-guy]

I just looked at the 3 I have in the shop.  all have some variation of crappy-looking holes drilled with thin or no metal between but I don't see any of the edges looking like these...  

Edited January 22, 2020 by NC-car-guy (see edit history)

[GARY F]

That motor looks good enough to run and go.

[EmTee]

Wow - windage tray in a 322! 

[Bloo]

Those 2 holes are most likely part of the factory balancing. I would try to clear any loose thin stuff that could break off, but you probably want to take as little metal as possible. The other grinding confuses me. It looks like those get pretty close to the piston skirts, so maybe it has been bored before and maybe the skirts were a little bit longer on the new pistons? I'm kind of grasping at straws. Maybe it's just part of the factory balancing, or maybe it's been balanced.

 

If you are going to go all out on the rebuild, you might as well get it balanced. When balancing a v-8, the crank is done last. This is because the balance guy will have to put "bobweights" on the crank to balance it, and the weight is based on what the pistons and rods weigh.

 

Any boring, piston replacement, rod work must be done first. Then, the pistons and rods are balanced. That can be done at home if you want to learn about it and set up a scale and some kind of jig to weigh the ends of the rods separately.  You just make everything match in weight. Or you can send it out. The crank you have to send out anyway, and it is spun with the bobweights to balance

 

You don't do it until you have made a decision on boring, bored if necessary, and have the pistons and rods you are going to use in your possession, and either balance them yourself or send them along with the crank. This is because the guy spin balancing the crank will need to know exactly what they weigh after balancing.

 

Edited January 24, 2020 by Bloo (see edit history)

[Kosage Chavis]

2 hours ago, EmTee said:

Wow - windage tray in a 322! 

Is this uncommon for these engines?

2 hours ago, Bloo said:

The other grinding confuses me. It looks like those get pretty close to the piston skirts, so maybe it has been bored before and maybe the skirts were a little bit longer on the new pistons? I'm kind of grasping at straws. Maybe it's just part of the factory balancing, or maybe it's been balanced.

 

If you are going to go all out on the rebuild, you might as well get it balanced. When balancing a v-8, the crank is done last.

All of this is helpful advice.  Thank you.

[EmTee]

10 hours ago, Kosage Chavis said:

Is this uncommon for these engines?

 

I honestly don't know - I was just surprised to see one in a standard passenger car V8.  Windage trays are usually associated with high performance engines.  Typical bean-counter cost-cutting measures would normally eliminate items like this.  Good for Buick! 

[old-tank]

16 hours ago, Kosage Chavis said:

19 hours ago, EmTee said:

Wow - windage tray in a 322! 

Is this uncommon for these engines?

Some 55's had the tray, some did not.  I cannot tell any difference in performance.