SeventhSon Posted September 28, 2019 Share Posted September 28, 2019 Very cool! That car will get lots of attention for sure. 👍 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fleetwood Meadow Posted October 6, 2019 Author Share Posted October 6, 2019 😢 My wife and I went to the show to see Ricardo and couldn’t find it. We asked the guy that was bringing it there where it was and he said it was still at the shop... He couldn’t get it to start last night or this morning. He charged the battery and he tried to jump it. I’m terrified that he used a 12 volt charger or a 12 volt car to jump start it. Either way it didn’t start. He would turn the key and it would shut off all electricity to the car. He found one of the ground straps was loose but it didn’t start. If he had called me even once I would have informed him that I had one of the terminals a little less than tightened because when I was working on the car I would spin the terminal a little and pull it off of the battery. Then I would push it back on. I didn’t tighten it fully and didn’t remember it because the car would start each time. I guess the ride knocked it loose. So the car never made it to the show.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fleetwood Meadow Posted October 16, 2019 Author Share Posted October 16, 2019 Hooray new tires! Don’t they look so different? We took it for its first highway run in probably 45 years. It struggled a lot to get up to speed. The carburetor needs to be cleaned and adjusted. But once it was to speed it rode so smoothly. Slowing down to come off of the highway was a little shameful though. Smoke poured out of the tail pipes. The guy following us stayed right in the smoke the whole way. I guess he just enjoyed being near the car. Even though only one of the heaters work at the moment the car heated very quickly and stayed warm. It even defrosted the windshield. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fleetwood Meadow Posted October 26, 2019 Author Share Posted October 26, 2019 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fleetwood Meadow Posted February 23, 2020 Author Share Posted February 23, 2020 (edited) I have no fancy pics to show but I took the firewall heater out and put the new heater core in. It got too cold in the garage to hook up the heater hoses to it but I did take it out around the block. It banged and clanked the whole way so when it gets warm and I can get under it I will grease it up. I have been working more on my ‘51 Dodge Meadowbrook trying time get that up and running since I tend to use it about 3-4 days out of the week during the spring, summer, and fall. Edited February 23, 2020 by Fleetwood Meadow (see edit history) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John_Mereness Posted February 23, 2020 Share Posted February 23, 2020 Maybe try evapo-rust in radiator - lots of good posts on AACA website regarding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fleetwood Meadow Posted May 3, 2020 Author Share Posted May 3, 2020 Took the car out for the first ride of the year the other day and it was banging from the front wheels the entire time. Got home and took the hub off to find the wheel bearing destroyed. Lesson learned on not greasing the bearings properly. Luckily for me the parts Cadillac had what looked like a brand new one. So I greased it and put in it and it is quiet as can be. Went for a longer 30 minute ride yesterday and halfway through I got to ride passenger. It is such a cool car. I can see why all the luxurious people owned them. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GARY F Posted May 3, 2020 Share Posted May 3, 2020 Good to see your back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fleetwood Meadow Posted May 3, 2020 Author Share Posted May 3, 2020 Gary, this car is frustrating me like crazy so it’s hard to get motivation to work on it during the cold winters. Everything I have fixed on the car has been stuff I’ve fixed before. I got the fuel gauge to actually read properly now though so I’m pretty happy with that. I’m going to spend some time trying to get the body right. I also thing that with the fenders coming off of the parts car to possibly be used on this one I might Take the parts cars engine out and rebuild it. Then I will swap it with the engine in this one and that will be one less project. The engine isn’t number matching so I’m not overly worried about the replacement. They are both numbered 5360 so they probably are both factory replacements due to the faulty camshafts in the ‘52s. The paint on the parts car is code 2 blue (can’t remember if it is Empress or Emperor Blue.) I think when all is said and done that will be the paint color I make the car. I buffed a small piece of the fender I took off and it’s beat up but not bad for almost 70 year old paint. You can see the trees in the shine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fr. Buick Posted May 5, 2020 Share Posted May 5, 2020 Nice to see you and the Caddy back in action. I enjoy watching your project. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fleetwood Meadow Posted May 13, 2020 Author Share Posted May 13, 2020 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fleetwood Meadow Posted May 28, 2020 Author Share Posted May 28, 2020 I put in my first dose of Thermocure to try to calm down the overheating. The engine was 260 degrees and when I opened the block plug nothing came out so I had to put a coat hanger in to clear the hole. I didn’t have the second bottle to put the right amount in but at least the first bottle will get the process started. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fleetwood Meadow Posted May 29, 2020 Author Share Posted May 29, 2020 There was no passenger mirror so I decided to put one on. Took the driver’s mirror off of the parts car, broke the bolt in the metal. Had to drill and tap a new hole. Then I did lots of measurements to make sure I had my markings right into the green car door. Then it was drill time. They hid the bolt under the weatherstripping of the door so it was not overly easy to get it in there and tightened but it’s there. Looks great but downside is that due to the angle of the A frame I can not see the mirror from inside the car. But now the car looks more symmetrical. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesR Posted May 30, 2020 Share Posted May 30, 2020 Quote I put in my first dose of Thermocure to try to calm down the overheating. The engine was 260 degrees and when I opened.... Great Cadillac! I feel your frustration with the minor problems. After you're done with the Thermocure treatment, you may consider draining everything and replacing it with straight Evapo-Rust and running that in the coolant system for a while. I just did that in my Ford the other day. The caveat is that the Evapo-Rust folks don't market their standard product as a car coolant treatment, but some very knowledgeable people on the AACA forum have recommended it, so I tried it myself last year. Unlike a flush, you don't need to remove it after a period of time (except for freezing weather as it's NOT an anti-freeze.) Because of a fairly rusty water jacket in my Ford, I use Thermocure as an intial flush per the directions at the first of the old car season, then run the straight Evapo-Rust. It's designed to attack nothing but rust - not good metal or gaskets or pumps - but it does it slowly...which I suspect is why they came out with the Thermocure product, which might be more fast acting. Like the experts on this forum, I've had no issues with the gaskets leaking. My impression is that after a year of use, I've greatly reduced the amount of rust in my water jacket. I only left the Evapo-Rust in for several weeks last year, but this year I'll leave it in the whole season at a 90% E-R/ 10% water ratio. Come October, I'll replace it with antifreeze. (Sooner if you live in Canada or Alaska, of course.) Also, I don't know what you're using to gauge your water temp but if it's a factory original electrical gauge, I'd strongly recommend replacing it with a new aftermarket mechanical gauge, and to heck with originality in this one respect. You need to know what the temp actually is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fleetwood Meadow Posted August 1, 2020 Author Share Posted August 1, 2020 Well...... the engine is back out. I haven’t really been keeping up on this journal because there hasn’t been much of an interest in the story but a lot has been happening. I had been taking the car out every night for about an hour to get it functioning again. It was overheating so I had tried to flush it, I tried Thermocure in it. I tried dish soap in it. They didn’t work all that impressively. I retimed the engine to see if that was causing the overheating and it didn’t fix it. While trying to adjust the choke I snapped the rod that connects to that butterfly so I need to find another one of those. I adjusted the fuel mixture and finally started to hear it reacting to each screw turn. I had it out on the highway and it wasn’t bucking like an untamed bronco. And then it happened.... knock knock knock knock. You rev the engine and it got worse. I immediately got it home and shut it off. I pulled the valve covers and everything was fine. I took a scope and looked in the cylinders and everything looked fine. So I started a couple days later and it was gone for about a minute and then it came back. I knew I needed to rebuild the engine anyways so it’s not a huge inconvenience but I wasn’t planning for it to determine when the rebuild was going to get done. So I went through the tedium of removing all the bolts necessary to take the engine out. I thought, since i had already rebuilt some of the areas of the engine I won’t need to rebuild them. But then I thought, now that I have more knowledge on the subject than I did before I should rebuild it all. Taking a flashlight I saw that where the lifters are is filled with sludge. I have to do a little more research to understand where the oil flows but it didn’t look good. I continued to flush the water jacket, this time with a power washer. When I finally broke the drain bolt on the drivers side of the engine mud came out. Power washing it i was watching all sorts of unpleasant things coming out. That would definitely explain the overheating. One whole side of the engine was clogged. My engine stand and measuring tools came in yesterday and today. The engine is on the stand. I drained the oil and let it sit overnight to let the residual oil drain out of it before I crack it open. I know my bearings were the wrong side but I want to check the oil pump to make sure that the pressure relief valve isn’t stuck open. When the car was just started the oil pressure was 24, which is low. When hot and idling it was 5, which is way too low. I think that low oil pressure spun one of my bearings and that is the knocking I’m hearing. I just hope it didn’t do any damage to the crankshaft. Another thing that puzzled me was when I removed the engine the nut that holds the torus together had come undone and was sitting on the shaft. Maybe I don’t understand how the inside of the torus works but I would have thought that if it was open it wouldn’t move the car. I have to tighten that back on and make sure it doesn’t come loose again. You can see where it kept rubbing. Maybe that was the sound I was hearing too. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GARY F Posted August 1, 2020 Share Posted August 1, 2020 Keep up the good work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bleach Posted August 1, 2020 Share Posted August 1, 2020 I have been following your thread. I thought maybe something bad happened when I did see any updates. I once owned a 51 Series 62 hard top. I had it for about 20 years. I went through just about everything except the engine and transmission. Both had been rebuilt back in the mid 70's by a previous owner, It had always run well but a bit on the hot side when I got it in 1986. I had installed small drain valves on both sides pf the block to make easier to drain when I was flushed the block. I ran a weak acid solution to clean all the crud that had accumulated in the neglected cooling system. It took several flushes over several months. It still ran hot after that so that's when I had the original radiator recored. It finally ran at normal temperatures after that. The flushes ate up some of the freeze plugs. So I got some new ones. They were some of the easiest plugs to change. I still have some spares in case you need some. I'm not sure how hard they are to come by these days. My car didn't have any hydro-electric assists so that's one issue I'm glad I never had to deal with. I got everything else to work relying only on my shop manuals and other period books. There was no internet for me back then. Hemming's and a few local parts stores plus one junk yard were my sources for parts. Overall it was a fairly easy car to work on even with some rubber parts that were nearly impossible to find. I'm glad you're back at it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Bruce aka First Born Posted August 2, 2020 Share Posted August 2, 2020 Fleetwood, if you do not have a shop manual, one should be your next purchase. The first thing I bought after buying my Buick. Ben 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fleetwood Meadow Posted August 2, 2020 Author Share Posted August 2, 2020 I do have a shop manual. In fact I have 2 of them. One I keep in the garage and the other is in the car. I bought measuring tools to check the cylinders. I find the carbon pattern interesting though. The #1 cylinder was constantly fouled when I would pull it out however the cylinder is incredibly clean. Then the #5 cylinder looks like it’s got tens of thousands of miles on it. The same goes for the #8 cylinder. The first picture is the left bank and the second picture is the right bank. The other thing I don’t understand is on the intake manifold, the middle ports got so hot that it burned off the paint. The third picture shows that. Any ideas why any of these things happened? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laughing Coyote Posted August 2, 2020 Share Posted August 2, 2020 Makes me wonder if the water passages are blocked on the cylinders that are showing the higher carbon build up. If they aren't getting coolant to circulate around them then it may cause the cylinder to get hotter. The heat transfers to the intake manifold and eventually heat the carb. Just a thought, something to look into, especially if your having over heating problems. The other cylinders look like it was rebuilt not long ago. Hope you figure it out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bleach Posted August 2, 2020 Share Posted August 2, 2020 I remember my intake was discolored in the same spots. It was for carb heating as Laughing Coyote mentions. I noticed that I have an original 52 shop manual in my collection. I can check things for you if you need it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger Zimmermann Posted August 2, 2020 Share Posted August 2, 2020 That middle port at the intake manifold is indeed an exhaust port. When the engine is cold, the heat riser at the LH exhaust manifold is closed, directing the exhaust gases under the carb to improve the fuel vaporization. All exhaust gases are getting out from the RH exhaust line. After a while, the heat riser's valve opens, the exhaust gases from the LH bank are directed through the LH exhaust line. Due to the design, this port is getting hot and the regular paint is getting burn. Make sure that the heat riser valve is functioning correctly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bleach Posted August 2, 2020 Share Posted August 2, 2020 Yes the heat risers often get stuck when the car sits for a long time as was the case with mine. Mine wasn't hard to fix but your car sat for a long time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F&J Posted August 3, 2020 Share Posted August 3, 2020 On 8/1/2020 at 2:57 PM, Fleetwood Meadow said: . And then it happened.... knock knock knock knock. On 8/1/2020 at 2:57 PM, Fleetwood Meadow said: torus .... You can see where it kept rubbing. Maybe that was the sound I was hearing too. I'm nearly positive that was your knocking, due to it not hitting all the way around, so it would make a knocking noise, rather than a steady scraping noise. also check the pilot bushing in the end of the crankshaft for wear. I am fairly sure that bushing is the same as Chevy standard trans cars from first V8 in 1955 through at least 1980s. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fleetwood Meadow Posted August 3, 2020 Author Share Posted August 3, 2020 I took the engine apart today. The #2 cylinder had a scratch in the bearings. That is shown in the last picture. 4 of the rest looked just fine. The #5 cylinder had scratches in the bearings. #8 was bad, as seen in the first picture. #7 was destroyed. It had spun and been ripped apart. I still have to look to see if the connecting rod is destroyed. I think it will be because the poor crankshaft has been eaten. Wouldn’t the bearings, even if they are a little loose, have the most oil in it because it is right next to the oil pump? So now I have to figure out what I want to do and continue my measurements to see what I need to order for rings, pistons, and bearings. Unfortunately I’m on a budget so a $4-500 crankshaft is not up my alley. The car came with another one in the trunk but I don’t know much about it’s status. The other option is taking it out of the parts car. I haven’t taken that block apart to see what it looks like in there. The oil pan had a lot of sludge in it. And I could feel the chunks in the sludge, from the bearing. Everything else looks pretty great though. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laughing Coyote Posted August 3, 2020 Share Posted August 3, 2020 Oh my. That doesn't look good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeventhSon Posted August 4, 2020 Share Posted August 4, 2020 Wow, I'm surprised it wasn't making all kinds of screeching noises. Looks like that crankshaft journal has actually been worn down compared to the area next to it. Harsh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John_Mereness Posted August 4, 2020 Share Posted August 4, 2020 Sidenote: Do not mix your vales or valve lifters up - number them when you take them out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bleach Posted August 4, 2020 Share Posted August 4, 2020 I wonder what the cam looks like. It's not a good scenario. Even if the old engine has sludge, it may be salvageable. Drop the pan and examine the internals. You might be able to use some parts from your bad engine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John_Mereness Posted August 4, 2020 Share Posted August 4, 2020 Sludge is a killer - I was just on the phone telling of spending 17 hours de-slugging a 1932 Packard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bleach Posted August 6, 2020 Share Posted August 6, 2020 A Cadillac 331 might be easier to handle than a Packard 320 for a good cleaning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fleetwood Meadow Posted August 8, 2020 Author Share Posted August 8, 2020 Upon looking at the replacement crankshaft I noticed that where the #8 connecting rod sits there is no oil hole. Why would that section only have 1 hole when all of the others have holes? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GARY F Posted August 8, 2020 Share Posted August 8, 2020 I would guess it is there. I might be clogged with pieces of melted bearing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bleach Posted August 8, 2020 Share Posted August 8, 2020 I'm figuring the single hole is the start or the end of the oiling circuit for the crank. Maybe the shop manual might have an oil flow diagram? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fleetwood Meadow Posted August 9, 2020 Author Share Posted August 9, 2020 Looking at the area where the other oil hole should be doesn’t show an indication that there is a hole covered by anything. I feel like without a hole it will create friction and that will cause the bearing to bind and wear out. The crankshaft I have in the engine now shows holes where every bearing is. This one shows 7 holes for 8 bearings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bleach Posted August 9, 2020 Share Posted August 9, 2020 I guess I misunderstood your post about the holes. So there is no oil passage on #8 rod journal? Did you look at #8 on the damaged crank to see it it's the same? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fleetwood Meadow Posted August 9, 2020 Author Share Posted August 9, 2020 I did. There is a hole there. There are 8 holes on the damaged one. I saw online that there are some crankshafts that only have 7. I feel like that would cause that bearing to not get enough oil. I’ll check the casting numbers and make sure this one is acceptable to be used. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fleetwood Meadow Posted August 12, 2020 Author Share Posted August 12, 2020 Found a gouge that I didn’t feel comfortable with on that crankshaft so out came the parts car engine. I haven’t taken it apart yet but I know I will need to smooth the metal where the harmonic balancer goes. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fleetwood Meadow Posted August 14, 2020 Author Share Posted August 14, 2020 (edited) Using a dial bore gauge I got my measurements. I set it to be within factory standard specs and this is what I came up with. I can see out or round and I can see taper from the measurements. Is that all it was that caused my low compression and oil consumption? I’m assuming I need to bore these to .010 over now. Knowledge me up on this because this part is new to me. T - Top (about an inch down) M - Middle B - Bottom (about 1.5-2 inches from the bottom) H - Measuring rod was horizontal V - Measuring rod was Vertical Edited August 14, 2020 by Fleetwood Meadow (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger Zimmermann Posted August 14, 2020 Share Posted August 14, 2020 If I'm interpreting your measurements correctly, some cylinders are just out of specifications, other are still in. Maybe the rings are no more good, I cannot tell. Just for your info: if you intend to bore, the next available pistons are 0.030. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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