1927/28 Buick Water Necks

[40-Torpedo]

This poor old thing just keeps kicking me in the teeth at every turn it seems. The latest problem is the upper water neck. I have 3 motors in total. One is the 1927 that came out of the car that is seized up and another is a "mystery" motor that has broken motor ears, downdraft intake modified from the updraft and is also seized up. The 1928 motor that I got was pulled from a runner. After mocking up the radiator to get the adjusted height for the front motor mount I discovered this oddity. The two motors I have on the shop floor have the "round" water neck and the 1928 motor has a "flat" style water neck. Not having the original water neck from the flat one I found that I can modify the lower water outlet by drilling out the mounting holes. My questions is why was this done? Do I have a "foreign" block and head as there are so many irregularities and differences between my original 1927 motor and the transplanted 1928 runner??? (so far - luckily I have been able to over come these irregular parts) 

[Hubert_25-25]

Buick was changing items every year.  Many parts and components are 1 year only.  The complete opposite of Ford.  I can't tell you how many different hand brakes they made with all very subtle differences.  Sometimes you get lucky and a part crosses a couple of years.  To let you know, you would have been better using a 1926 engine as a replacement than a 1928 for your 1927.  They kept a lot more of the parts identical and 1928 was a big model change year.     Hugh 

[dibarlaw]

5 hours ago, 40-Torpedo said:

This poor old thing just keeps kicking me in the teeth at every turn it seems. The latest problem is the upper water neck. I have 3 motors in total. One is the 1927 that came out of the car that is seized up and another is a "mystery" motor that has broken motor ears, downdraft intake modified from the updraft and is also seized up. The 1928 motor that I got was pulled from a runner. After mocking up the radiator to get the adjusted height for the front motor mount I discovered this oddity. The two motors I have on the shop floor have the "round" water neck and the 1928 motor has a "flat" style water neck. Not having the original water neck from the flat one I found that I can modify the lower water outlet by drilling out the mounting holes. My questions is why was this done? Do I have a "foreign" block and head as there are so many irregularities and differences between my original 1927 motor and the transplanted 1928 runner??? (so far - luckily I have been able to over come these irregular parts) 

The shape of the head outlet looks very much like the block inlet on the side of the engine.

[40-Torpedo]

On 12/14/2019 at 12:36 PM, Hubert_25-25 said:

Buick was changing items every year.  Many parts and components are 1 year only.  The complete opposite of Ford.  I can't tell you how many different hand brakes they made with all very subtle differences.  Sometimes you get lucky and a part crosses a couple of years.  To let you know, you would have been better using a 1926 engine as a replacement than a 1928 for your 1927.  They kept a lot more of the parts identical and 1928 was a big model change year.     Hugh 

Thanks for the information Hugh - The 1928 engine was simply the availability, location and price for a runner. I'm so very thankful that I also bought the front and rear axles, wheels and assemblies form the seller (he converted the drive-train to more modern running gear so he could drive his 1928 to shows and go faster than 50 mph) as these little inconsistencies - including the hand brake! Would have made the project nearly impossible.