JohnD1956 Posted July 10, 2022 Share Posted July 10, 2022 3 hours ago, EmTee said: The owner of "the biggest little car museum in the world", a die-cast car museum across the street from the Northeast Classic Car Museum was kind enough to snap a picture of @Machine Gun and me beside our cars before we left for the ride home. I think I'll have to stop in there next time I'm in Norwich... I've never been in that museum. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmTee Posted July 11, 2022 Author Share Posted July 11, 2022 6 hours ago, JohnD1956 said: I've never been in that museum. That makes two of us! I guess we'll have to do something about that next time we're in Norwich... 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmTee Posted July 11, 2022 Author Share Posted July 11, 2022 I checked fluids yesterday following the trip to Norwich. Radiator coolant level was right where it has been and hasn't changed. I added a pint of oil to the crankcase to bring it back to approximately the middle of the range between 'low' and 'full'. There is oil leaking from somewhere at the back of the engine. It seems to be running down the back and then follows the bellhousing and outside the inspection cover. I checked the valve cover bolts and did tighten the rear one about 1/4 turn; the others were already snug. I'm wondering whether oil is finding its way out the vent at the back of the valve cover. I don't recall there being any breather element there, just a baffle? Didn't Buick eliminate that vent on later models (maybe for that reason)? I also suspect there's oil leaking from the top of the engine through one or more bolts that thread into the area under the sparkplug cover. The gaskets around the lifter covers are wet, but I have checked the lifter cover bolts and they're tight. Upon closer inspection it looks like oil is coming from under the bottom of the sparkplug cover and then running around the lifter covers to the oil pan rail. I think @DonMicheletti mentioned there are bolts (rocker shaft?) that can allow oil to escape into the sparkplug area if the threads aren't sealed. I also checked the transmission oil level. It's down a bit below the fill-hole (~1/4"), but I still get oil on my pinkie when I stick it into the hole. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Bruce aka First Born Posted July 11, 2022 Share Posted July 11, 2022 The rocker arm bolt holes above the spark plug are through. I have never had one leak enough to run down the engine, though. Usually just a small puddle beneath the plug. The bolt/stud above the water gauge bulb needs to be shorter than the rest to prevent squeezing the bulb. Ben 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonMicheletti Posted July 11, 2022 Share Posted July 11, 2022 The first time Neil Morse visited me with his '41, when he puled up I could smell hot oil. I mentioned it seemed he has an oil leak - he confirmed that his engine did leak. It didnt take long to find the source of the leak - from the spark plug cover. I was familiar with the problem. We cleaned the bolts, holes and sealed them. No more leaking. His was poarticularly bad. On that back stud. It is extremely important the threads be sealed (it even may be a pipe thread). If that leaks, water could get into the oil. I had a nightmare with that issue with an engine I had that was rebuilt by someone else and they used a regular bolt in that back hole with no sealant. After running a while, the crankcase was filled with water. 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmTee Posted July 11, 2022 Author Share Posted July 11, 2022 I will attempt to seal those bolts the next time I have the valve cover off. It's not a terrible leak, but the area around the lifter covers and the oil pan rail seems to always be wet. It eventually runs down the outside of the inspection cover and a few the bolt heads are also holding onto part of a 'drip'. The back half of the engine seems wetter than the front, but maybe that's just gravity... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonMicheletti Posted July 11, 2022 Share Posted July 11, 2022 Cleaning and sealing the holes is a pretty easy job. Cleaning the bolts is obvious. We cleaned the holes using a round wire brush in a battery powered electric drill and using gasoline as a solvent. It worked well. Leaking there is a fairly common problem 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neil morse Posted July 12, 2022 Share Posted July 12, 2022 18 hours ago, EmTee said: I will attempt to seal those bolts the next time I have the valve cover off. It's not a terrible leak, but the area around the lifter covers and the oil pan rail seems to always be wet. It eventually runs down the outside of the inspection cover and a few the bolt heads are also holding onto part of a 'drip'. The back half of the engine seems wetter than the front, but maybe that's just gravity... Forgive the obvious question, but have you taken off the spark plug cover and looked? As Ben says, there's quite a bit of room in the recesses under the plugs for oil to accumulate, so it seems unusual that you have oil actually overflowing from those spaces. Also, are you smelling burning oil? As Don mentions, that's what tipped him off to the fact that my car had that problem. If you're not seeing oil pooling in those recesses under the plugs and you're not smelling burning oil, then your leak is coming from somewhere else. Here's a part from my thread where I cover the job of sealing the bolts -- very simple job. (Please ignore horrendous appearance of the valve train on my car, which has been cleaned up since these photos were taken five years ago.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmTee Posted July 12, 2022 Author Share Posted July 12, 2022 5 hours ago, neil morse said: Forgive the obvious question, but have you taken off the spark plug cover and looked? Yes, I have seen oil in the sparkplug area before. Now, having said that, I will say that the valve cover was also leaking at that time, so perhaps some or all of that oil was from the valve cover. Now that the area around the valve cover gasket is dry I will remove the sparkplug cover and clean-up any oil I find collected there. Then I can determine whether the oil leak into the sparkplug area is still active or not. If those bolts are leaking, it isn't too bad as I don't smell burned oil. But -- if yours was leaking into the sparkplug area, what was hot enough to burn the oil? I would expect a valve cover leak on the driver's side hitting the exhaust manifold to burn the oil... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neil morse Posted July 12, 2022 Share Posted July 12, 2022 The oil is burned by the hot plugs. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmTee Posted July 15, 2022 Author Share Posted July 15, 2022 Today my wife and I took the Century to Cooperstown, about a 160 mile round trip. We met my daughter, son-in-law and grandsons at the Farmer's Museum. Temperature was in the lower 80s this afternoon and the car ran at 180* on the secondary roads (no interstates) and crept up to maybe 190* sitting in traffic, but dropped back to 180 once moving again. The car ran really well. There were many fairly steep grades along the way and I had no trouble holding speed in third gear. I do notice some smoke following long downgrades, however. Oil is apparently being pulled in through the valve stems under high vacuum. Anyway, the trip down involved some local 2-lane roads and at one point we were detoured onto a gravel road! Boy, it sure started feeling like the late 30's/early 40's! Kicked-up a nice trail of dust (Bernie would be proud)! Lastly, I was amazed by the attention the car received all day long. We had just gotten to the museum and were in the gift shop waiting for my daughter to arrive when through the window I could see a family gathered around it taking pictures of it and them standing in front of it! I lost count of all of the 'thumbs-up' and waves we received from others on the road. I'm used to exchanging waves with drivers of other classic cars, but these were normal, everyday autos. It took me by surprise... I'll go over the car this weekend and check everything in preparation for the next journey. Between the dust from that gravel road and the bugs smashed all over the front end, a bath is also on the to-do list! 11 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmTee Posted July 17, 2022 Author Share Posted July 17, 2022 (edited) Today I checked the car over following the trip to Cooperstown yesterday. The coolant level was right where it has been, so that's good. Oil was down, so I added a quart to the crankcase. Looking underneath I see the same trail of oil that looks like it's coming down the back of the engine and running over the inspection cover. I think I need to clean the area as well as I can so that I can determine whether that oil on the back of the block is an active leak or residue from when the valve cover was leaking previously. I then checked the transmission oil and it seemed a bit lower than the last time I looked. In order to better gauge the rate of loss I put 16 oz. of oil into my suction gun and slowly pushed oil into the transmission until it started running out the fill hole. I measured the amount remaining in the gun and determined that I had added 8 oz. to the transmission to refill it. Based on my estimate of miles traveled since the last time I filled the transmission (~400) the estimated torque ball seal leak rate is about 2 oz. per 100 miles. I will continue to monitor this over the next few weeks to see whether it changes one way or the other. I also saw this: So, I just ordered a new pitman shaft seal from Bob's. I had the pitman arm off once during the winter when I was checking tie rods and steering wheel alignment, so I'm hoping it will not be too difficult to get it off once again for the seal replacement. Edited July 17, 2022 by EmTee typo (see edit history) 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary W Posted July 17, 2022 Share Posted July 17, 2022 Put a dab of white paint on the pitman arm the shaft and the housing so it all goes back nice and straight. One little tooth off and the steering wheel won't be lined up nice and straight. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmTee Posted July 18, 2022 Author Share Posted July 18, 2022 Thanks, Gary - I'll pay close attention to the alignment. If I recall from when I had it off a few months ago, I believe there was a gap in the tooth pattern that only allows the arm to be installed in one position. I will mark it first, though -- just in case I'm dreaming... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmTee Posted July 18, 2022 Author Share Posted July 18, 2022 This morning I backed the car out of the garage so that I could hose the dust off of the lower body and wheels from my 'off-road' adventure en route to Cooperstown this past Friday. A county road detour (likely a culvert replacement) put us on a gravel road for a couple of miles which kicked-up a fair amount of dust and dirt. Once the body and wheels were clean again, I sprayed some degreaser on the back of the engine and bellhousing area to remove some accumulated oil that included a fair amount that resulted from an earlier valve cover leak. I did this to 'clean the slate' in order to try to figure out the source of a leak described above that runs down the outside of the flywheel inspection cover and drips on the floor. Once the area was clean, I started the car, let it warm-up a couple of minutes and then went for a drive. When I got home I opened the hood and could clearly see fresh oil emerging from under the sparkplug cover near the firewall end. The oil followed the lifter galley cover and ran down the side of the cover at the rear and continued down along the block next to the starter. This seems to be the oil that I'm seeing as it runs across the inspection cover. As Neil and Don Micheletti have mentioned, these engines are notorious for leaking oil from the rocker shaft bolts to the sparkplug area, where the threads break through the casting. The fix involves removing the bolts, sealing the threads and reinstalling the bolts. So, that's now on my 'to-do' list. Hopefully I'll be able to work that task in sometime this week, or at least before the next day-trip. 5 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmTee Posted July 18, 2022 Author Share Posted July 18, 2022 (edited) Well, since it rained here all day I figured it was a good opportunity to fix the oil leak from the rocker shaft support bolts. I removed the sparkplug cover and despite what I thought I saw yesterday, it turns out that most of the 'leakers' were on the front half of the engine. Some of this oil actually ran straight down the lifter galley cover to the oil pan rail. Here's a picture showing one of the bolt holes, which are situated directly above the sparkplugs. I removed one bolt at a time and cleaned each bolt in a cup of gasoline. I used a toothbrush to get the oil and gunk off and then hit the threads with a wire brush (by hand). I poked a rag above the sparkplug and used the straw to spray some brake cleaner in the hole, then brushed the threads with a small round brush. Then I rinsed the threads with another shot of Brakeleen. I then dried the hole with a squirt of compressed air. I applied some Permatex #2 to the bolt threads for the first ~3/8" of the bolt and then installed it. I tightened them securely with my ratchet wrench and made them maybe a wee bit tighter than they were, as a couple of them didn't seem very tight at all. Since it's raining today, I'll put the valve cover back on and let it sit until tomorrow before I start the engine. My engine had studs at both ends (back & front). I didn't mess with them, other than to just ensure that the nuts were tight (they were). Likewise, I checked the other (long) rocker shaft support bolts and those were also all tight. I did see evidence of what looked like some sort of red sealer on most, if not all of the bolts that I removed, but several didn't have much on them and all of them had it starting about halfway up the threads. I don't know whether that's from the factory or the alleged rebuild during the 80's... In any case, at least four were leaking to various degrees. I used brake cleaner, a rag and compressed air to clean-up the oil in the sparkplug area. I will leave the sparkplug cover off until I'm sure the bolts are sealed... Edited July 18, 2022 by EmTee (see edit history) 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Bruce aka First Born Posted July 19, 2022 Share Posted July 19, 2022 I believe a fellow could run a short plug in from the bottom thereby sealing. Maybe overkill. How many miles are supposed to be on the engine since rebuild? I have 20000+ and the rocker assembly is cleaner than that yet. Just saying. Ben 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmTee Posted July 20, 2022 Author Share Posted July 20, 2022 36 minutes ago, Ben Bruce aka First Born said: I believe a fellow could run a short plug in from the bottom thereby sealing. The hole is normally filled by one of the rocker shaft support bolts. The problem is the holes (and bolts) use straight threads, so they aren't 'liquid-tight' without some type of sealer applied before assembly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmTee Posted July 29, 2022 Author Share Posted July 29, 2022 I had to cut my ride short the other day when the ammeter started twitching. First just twitching "+", then twitching "+" and "-" with periods of mild discharge. My initial guess was burned/dirty regulator contacts. I went ahead and ran a small file through the regulator contacts since they looked dirty. Unfortunately, the car was still not charging after the contact cleaning. Today I troubleshot the problem by isolating the regulator and grounding the "F" terminal on the regulator, as described in the shop manual. Since the generator still failed to charge that meant it had to be removed and disassembled. Removing the band that covers the brush holders I found what looked like three or four layers of old, dried-out masking tape (???) covering the openings in the housing. I didn't see anything obviously 'bad', though the commutator was very black/dirty. Brushes looked OK (i.e., plenty of life left). I did find what appears to be some sand inside the housing in the area around the field coils. Presumably that got in as the chassis was being sandblasted... The end cap and brush holder was also very dirty. I cleaned the parts and used some fine sandpaper on the commutator. I reassembled the generator and lubricated the front bearing and rear bushing. Aside from the crud inside I noticed a couple of the brush leads were very close to the generator housing, so I can't be sure that one of them didn't short to the case. I think the likely cause was just the accumulated oil and dirt on the commutator. I reinstalled the generator and reconnected the battery. As soon as the engine started the ammeter showed full-scale charging. I took the car for a short drive and the ammeter was charging the whole time and slowly working its way toward the center of the scale. So, it looks like the charging system is now working properly. Tomorrow I'll check the rocker shaft bolts above the sparkplugs for leaks. If they're still dry I'll go ahead and reinstall the sparkplug cover. 12 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmTee Posted July 30, 2022 Author Share Posted July 30, 2022 Yesterday I adjusted the brake anchor pin on the LF wheel. Occasionally when backing out of the driveway that wheel will lock-up when I touch the brake pedal. I pulled the drum last week and everything looked fine (no leaks or contamination on the shoes) so I scuffed the shoes with sandpaper and put it back together. The LF brake did it again the other day and all I can imagine is the anchor pin was too high, causing the top of the secondary shoe to grab the drum. This only happens when backing-up; the brakes work fine when the car is moving forward - no pulling or grabbing. So, I loosened the pin and followed the procedure to tighten the adjuster while turning the wheel by hand. I then went for a short ride and the brake didn't grab, so hopefully it's fixed. I checked the rocker shaft bolts again and they are all dry, so I re-installed the sparkplug cover. The generator seems to be working normally now, so I think the next job is to install the new pitman shaft seal I received from Bob's... 7 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmTee Posted July 31, 2022 Author Share Posted July 31, 2022 Went for a ride this evening and the brakes felt good - didn't grab backing out of the garage. The car ran well and the weather was so nice (~77*, sunny with low humidity) that I ran my 'standard test loop' twice! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonMicheletti Posted July 31, 2022 Share Posted July 31, 2022 Good to hear that you got the oil leak stopped 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmTee Posted July 31, 2022 Author Share Posted July 31, 2022 Now I need to wash the right side of the engine to remove all of the accumulated crud. I'm still not convinced that the lifter cover isn't leaking... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonMicheletti Posted July 31, 2022 Share Posted July 31, 2022 The side covers can be very hard to seal up. I hate doing them 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmTee Posted August 4, 2022 Author Share Posted August 4, 2022 Took the wife and a neighbor couple for a ride in and around Cazenovia today. As soon as I parked the car we were approached by a couple who told us there was a collection of Franklins on display on the Cazenovia College quad. We were only a couple of blocks away, so we walked over and had a look. I didn't have my camera with me, but there were probably thirty or so nice looking Franklins of various models and years. Apparently they were part of the 2022 "Franklin Trek" going on all week. One car had an Oklahoma license plate! Had a nice lunch at the Blue Canoe on Tuscarora Lake. Then did a little more sight-seeing on the way home. Temperature was upper 80s, but humidity was pretty low. Car ran right at 180* except for when scaling a couple of steep grades where temp climbed to ~190. After cresting the hills the temp dropped back to 180 again. The car ran good today and everyone commented on how well it rode. I reminded everyone that it is a Buick, after all... 5 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edwin The Kid Posted August 7, 2022 Share Posted August 7, 2022 On 8/3/2022 at 8:34 PM, EmTee said: Took the wife and a neighbor couple for a ride in and around Cazenovia today. As soon as I parked the car we were approached by a couple who told us there was a collection of Franklins on display on the Cazenovia College quad. We were only a couple of blocks away, so we walked over and had a look. I didn't have my camera with me, but there were probably thirty or so nice looking Franklins of various models and years. Apparently they were part of the 2022 "Franklin Trek" going on all week. One car had an Oklahoma license plate! Had a nice lunch at the Blue Canoe on Tuscarora Lake. Then did a little more sight-seeing on the way home. Temperature was upper 80s, but humidity was pretty low. Car ran right at 180* except for when scaling a couple of steep grades where temp climbed to ~190. After cresting the hills the temp dropped back to 180 again. The car ran good today and everyone commented on how well it rode. I reminded everyone that it is a Buick, after all... I can't believe I missed you... I was at the Trek! it's the first week of August every year, and I'm planning to come back so maybe I'll catch you next year! 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmTee Posted August 8, 2022 Author Share Posted August 8, 2022 (edited) 11 hours ago, Edwin The Kid said: I can't believe I missed you... I was at the Trek! Ha - who knew...? Based on your forum posts I associated you with Buick, not Franklin! Well, now that I know better I'll mark my calendar for next year. There were indeed some beautiful Franklins in that bunch! Have you gone to the NE Classic Car Museum? If not, we should plan a visit there next August... Edited August 8, 2022 by EmTee typo (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edwin The Kid Posted August 8, 2022 Share Posted August 8, 2022 18 minutes ago, EmTee said: Ha - who knew...? Based on your forum posts I associated you with Buick, not Franklin! Well, now that I know better I'll mark my calendar for next year. There were indeed some beautiful Franklins in that bunch! Have you gone to the NE Classic Car Museum? If not, we should plan a visit there next August... I wore my Buick hat for most of the week I actually got the Franklin Club's student experience scholarship, which was an all expense paid week at the Trek. It was an awesome week and I got to ride in many of the cars, and had the pleasure of driving a few as well. All of the club members are super enthusiastic about driving their cars and giving people rides. I made a lot of new friends and am looking forward to coming back next year. I haven't been to that museum, I would be down to plan a visit! Reach out to me next summer and we can hopefully work something out. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmTee Posted August 8, 2022 Author Share Posted August 8, 2022 24 minutes ago, Edwin The Kid said: I haven't been to that museum, I would be down to plan a visit! Reach out to me next summer and we can hopefully work something out. OK, we can make that happen! Attention: @Machine Gun, @JohnD1956, @KAD36, @BUICK RACER's brother, Franklin Trekers and anyone/everyone else interested -- reserve a day the first week of August 2023 for a visit to the NE Classic Car museum - details to follow when the date gets closer... 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmTee Posted August 21, 2022 Author Share Posted August 21, 2022 Took the '38 to the Friday evening cruise-in. Now that we're deep into August the days are getting shorter and I have had to use the headlights on the ride home for the last two weeks. The headlights work fine, but I had no instrument lights. I reviewed the Owner's Manual and discovered there's a separate switch dedicated to that and the map light (another feature I couldn't figure out how to operate). The picture showed an arrow pointing to a location on the dash near the gauge cluster, but when I looked at the car I didn't see anything there. Come to find out, the switch points down and is mounted to the lower edge of the dashboard. It is a slide switch that moves left -center-right. Center position is 'off' and one way turns on the instrument light, the other way turns on the map light; so only one or the other can be 'on' at a time. 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonMicheletti Posted August 21, 2022 Share Posted August 21, 2022 It sure is in a lousy place. Not exactly convenient Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmTee Posted August 21, 2022 Author Share Posted August 21, 2022 Well, it's more accessible than the trip odometer reset knob... 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonMicheletti Posted August 22, 2022 Share Posted August 22, 2022 True. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodneybeauchamp Posted August 22, 2022 Share Posted August 22, 2022 On 8/22/2022 at 12:54 AM, EmTee said: Took the '38 to the Friday evening cruise-in. Now that we're deep into August the days are getting shorter and I have had to use the headlights on the ride home for the last two weeks. The headlights work fine, but I had no instrument lights. I reviewed the Owner's Manual and discovered there's a separate switch dedicated to that and the map light (another feature I couldn't figure out how to operate). The picture showed an arrow pointing to a location on the dash near the gauge cluster, but when I looked at the car I didn't see anything there. Come to find out, the switch points down and is mounted to the lower edge of the dashboard. It is a slide switch that moves left -center-right. Center position is 'off' and one way turns on the instrument light, the other way turns on the map light; so only one or the other can be 'on' at a time. It is a simple job to run a wire from the slide switch to the headlamp switch so that they automatically switch on with the headlights and park lights. I know it would not be what the factory did but you can’t accidentally leave your instrument lights on. (Which was the annoying thing I found with my ‘38.) Remember when I first picked up my ‘40 Pontiac and drove all the way home at night without instrument lights because I had no idea where the switch was. That was……. oops back in the late eighties 😳😳😳😳😳 Interesting that the Chevrolet has the license plate mounting bracket on the RHS and Buick is on the left. A handsome looking ‘38 Buick! Rodney 😀😀😀😀😀😀😀 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmTee Posted August 27, 2022 Author Share Posted August 27, 2022 Yesterday I finally got around to fabricating and installing the missing front exhaust pipe bracket. It appears to be used to stabilize the pipe after it emerges from the mud shield before it attaches to the muffler. The following illustration from the shop manual shows it in the upper left detail balloon. As best I can tell from the illustration, the bracket mounts to the front-corner bolt that holds the flywheel cover. I used some perforated pipe hanging tape to make a rough mock-up in order to establish the total length of strapping required. I then cut a length of 12 gauge, 3/4" steel strapping and used a scrap of 2 1/4" exhaust pipe to form the section that clamps around the pipe. Once that was done, I determined where and how much to bend the end which bolts to the flywheel cover. It seems to fit pretty well and will hopefully take some stress off the header pipe flange where it attaches to the manifold. I had to replace the gasket and tighten the flange bolts earlier this year and I'm guessing that may have been at least partially due to the missing bracket. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmTee Posted August 27, 2022 Author Share Posted August 27, 2022 I was bored the other day and while cleaning up my bench i came across a roll of dual-stripe gold pinstripe tape that i had bought awhile ago to repair a couple of spots on my boat where the stripe was damaged. Since it's a tape stripe it's not permanent and pretty simple to install, so I figured 'why not'...? Gold always looks great against black and I determined that the red tape stripe I added previously needed something to make it 'pop'. I'll leave them this way for awhile until I get tired of the look. The beauty of the tape is I can add or remove it as I please without messing-up the paint on the wheel... 7 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmTee Posted September 11, 2022 Author Share Posted September 11, 2022 Took the '38 Century to the Wampsville show put on by the Mohican Model A Ford club. Weather was 'on the edge' all day, but aside from some occasional light sprinkles, rain held off until after the show. Somehow I scored a prime spot at the start of the first row of cars as people entered the show field from the parking lot across the street. Needless to say, there were groups of people around the car all day. Many had never seen a '38 Buick, but I had a nice chat with a couple of guys associated with the NE Classic Car Museum in Norwich. They new exactly what it was and asked me whether I had personally verified the Buick's reputed performance. I told them that I have had it up to 65 mph and I have no reason to doubt the Century claim... And here are some other Buicks that I saw on the show field. First, a nice '53: Then a '41 Super: Another '53: And there was this '50: 7 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmTee Posted September 14, 2022 Author Share Posted September 14, 2022 Today I took a closer look at the remaining oil leak that has persisted after resolving contributing leaks from the valve cover and rocker shaft bracket bolts. After fixing the last two leaks earlier this summer, there's still oil finding its way to the oil pan rail and collecting on the block near the starter and the right side of the flywheel cover. I first checked the oil pan bolts and determined that they were tight. Since it's obviously wet around the pushrod cover I decided to focus there. I removed the sparkplug cover and saw traces of oil on the flats below the plugs in a couple of areas. The wet spots were not coming from above, as with the rocker shaft bracket bolts; those were all dry. Then when looking at the top center of the interface between the pushrod cover and the block I could literally see a gap where the center 8 or so inches of the cover gasket had sagged into the cavity. This is apparently the source of the oil that I see running down the sides of the cover and then to the oil pan rail. So, I removed the cap and wires to allow removal of the cover. With the cover off, I could see exactly where the gasket had sagged. The rest of the perimeter looked OK and the gasket was still OK. It was a composition gasket (like a FelPro) rather than cork. Since I couldn't locate a new gasket locally I decided to clean-up the old one. I used some HighTack to stick the gasket to the cover and gave it time to set up while I cleaned-up the flange on the block. I then smeared some #2 Permatex on the block side of the gasket and reinstalled the cover. I checked the lower perimeter of the cover with my dental mirror and confirmed the gasket was in place. I could see the gasket in place along the top edge, so I'm hopeful that this will take care of the largest remaining motor oil leak. I snugged the cover bolts and will let it stand over night before I give the bolts a final check before running the engine. This past Saturday I topped-off the transmission to compensate for the torque ball seal leak. I added approximately 8 ounces to bring the level back to full. According to my records it was a little over 500 miles when I last topped it off. I'll be replacing the torque ball seal over the winter... 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Bruce aka First Born Posted September 14, 2022 Share Posted September 14, 2022 Those stamped covers were seldom, if ever, perfectly straight. You are a better man than I am if you achieve perfect sealing. If you have not already done so, you might check the fittings where the oil enters an exits the head on the way to the rocker arms. One should be a restricted one, about a .060 opening. If it has been replaced/eliminated the overhead and pushrod drains may be overwhelmed. Just a thought. Ben 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Harwood Posted September 14, 2022 Share Posted September 14, 2022 11 hours ago, EmTee said: This past Saturday I topped-off the transmission to compensate for the torque ball seal leak. I added approximately 8 ounces to bring the level back to full. According to my records it was a little over 500 miles when I last topped it off. I'll be replacing the torque ball seal over the winter... Looks like we'll both be doing a torque ball seal this winter. We'll have to compare notes. I might do the clutch while I'm in there. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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