Buick Riviera 1963 401 nailhead

[Lykkehansen]

Hi

We have rebuild this engine with

New pistons and rings 

New valves, intake and outtake

New rebuilt original carb

New rebuilt original steering box

New cam bearings, size 0.20

 

Everything was fine but with the old used carb it began to have a knocking sound. And it ran a little warm once and we discovered gas in the Oil. New Oil in and it was good again. The knocking came again. New carb and then we went to get it perfectly timed. Found that one plug on number 8 didn't work. New in and we drove Home. The knocking got worse and we ended up seriously overheating.

 

Was picked up and back in the garage we disassembled the rod bearings. They are totally destroyed because they have been warm. So we are needing a new crank I believe but I wanna find out why it overheated and why the knocking sound came.

Did we overlook something when restoring it? Or did it slowly begin with the gas in the Oil?

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Anita

(Pretty tired Riv owner right now ??)

Edited May 28, 2017 by Lykkehansen (see edit history)

[ols car dog]

Check your fuel pump,it's the only way gas can in your engine.The gas in base has cut the viscosity of your oil.

I would remove the pump  to inspect it 

hope this helps

[Lykkehansen]

There are no fuel pump only the mechanical one.

[ols car dog]

The mechanical one is what I,m talking about.

[Lykkehansen]

☺

[Larry Schramm]

Fuel travels through the diaphragm and into the crankcase.

 

Did you put new bearings in the engine other than the cam bearings?

 

Did you put an oil pressure gauge on the engine to see what the oil pressure is?  Could be low oil pressure.

Edited May 29, 2017 by Larry Schramm (see edit history)

[JACK M]

Get enough gas in the oil and it can ignite and blow every gasket in the engine.

Might even burn your car down.

[Alfa]

Judging by those crank journals and shells, you did not replace the crank bearings as part of the rebuild. They now look as though there has been no oil circulation. Are all journals as bad as the one in the photos?

 

I would suspect that there has been no oil pressure at all. You really need to check the oil pump drive and the filter screen. Not to mention all the oil galleries. On the 401, there is a core plug in the end of an oil gallery in each cylinder head. It is facing backwards towards the windscreen. If that pops out, you will have no oil pressure, so very worth checking. Especially so if the heads have been worked on. Did you rebore the block to an oversize to fit the pistons? or were the bore just honed and kept standard?

 

In any case, that crankshaft now needs to come out. It looks as though it might be possible to recover it by regrinding. A machine shop will be able to measure it and advise you. Given the situation that you are in, I would plan to remove the engine and rebuild it thoroughly, paying particular attention to cleanliness of oil galleries and drillings.

 

There is plenty of knowledgeable advice on this forum to help.

 

The advice above about fuel pump diaphragms is good, although there is usually an external drain hole in case of diaphragm leakage. But that is not the cause of the problem in the photos. You have zero oil pressure!

 

Hope this helps

Adam..