1950 Buick straight 8 head removal.

[Buick35]

On the opposite side of the engine is a vent that also has a mesh screen in it.Mine was deteriorated but I was able to take it apart and install a copper scrubbing pad in it on my 35s engine.

Edited December 7, 2021 by Buick35
Spelling (see edit history)

[Mr. Reed]

5 hours ago, rocketraider said:

That's a road draft tube for crankcase ventilation. It did the job long as the car was moving. EGR didn't appear till the 70s.

 

Fresh air enters the engine thru the breather or oil fill cap, then blowby gases and condensation exit thru the road draft tube. You'll notice it has an angle cut end under the car. Airflow across the open end of the tube creates a venturi effect, drawing fresh air in thru the breather, thru the crankcase picking up noncondensibles on the way, and out the tube- where it usually ends up on the bottom of the car or leaves an oily streak in the middle of the highway lane!

 

 

While you have all that loose, most road draft tubes have a canister filled with metal mesh inside the engine. Won't hurt to clean that out with some solvent after 70 years.

 

Let's see them greasy fingernails, young'un!👨‍🔧

There is a round can like shape integrated with the push rod cover. I'll remove that tomorrow and see what's behind there and snap some pictures and put them on here. That side cover on the driver's side has a flathead screw that's flush with the cover. I'll give that a go with removing too for cleaning. Ok so the part in the center of the first picture and the little box in the second picture right of the heat riser is where the mesh is located I believe.

[Mr. Reed]

Today i cleaned the head with parts cleaner and brushes. I removed the water pump, elbows, distributor cap and wires, belt and with the help of my dad punched out the front and rear freeze plugs and the rest of the coolant drained from the engine. I also removed a small metal box that looks like a breather and flushed it out with brake cleaner.

[Mr. Reed]

So the elbows, breather and water pump will be painted Buick blue torquise while we wait for the head to return from the machine shop.

[Ben Bruce aka First Born]

8 hours ago, Mr. Reed said:

Today i cleaned the head with parts cleaner and brushes. I removed the water pump, elbows, distributor cap and wires, belt and with the help of my dad punched out the front and rear freeze plugs and the rest of the coolant drained from the engine. I also removed a small metal box that looks like a breather and flushed it out with brake cleaner.

Breather is a good word for that. It is the "intake" for the crankcase venting, same as the oi filler cap is for the top end.  The road draft tube then is designed to  suck out any vapors. 

 

  Ben

[Mr. Reed]

I dropped the head off at the machine shop and he will start on it next week. The intake and exhaust manifolds need to be perfectly flat to mate up with the head as to not cause leaks he informed me. I'll give him the rocker arm assembly and manifolds for him to check while everything's apart.

[Bloo]

Now would be a good time to make sure the heat riser is intact and free, in other words that it moves freely and the plate has not broken free from the shaft. Hopefully you don't need to take the manifolds apart, but if you do, now is the time, not after you have paid someone to mill the flanges that face the head.

 

If it is screwed up, make any repairs necessary, and bolt the two pieces back together with a new gasket, lining up the flanges that face the head as flat as possible before you send it to the machine shop.

 

Edited December 11, 2021 by Bloo (see edit history)

[Mr. Reed]

Good news today. I removed the push rod cover to clean the that area. It's much better now. To remove the cover I removed the road draft tube and the fuel pump. I probably didn't have to remove the pump but it was in the way of the tube and didn't have enough clearance to come out. I didn't know the tube would come off the cover until it was out of the car. Oh well. The fuel pump probably needs some maintenance anyway. The lifters will come out to be lubed before everything goes back together. Just wanted to share some progress. By the way that inside of the cover was quite nasty. I think I'm in for a rude awaking as to what's in the oil pan.

[EmTee]

Make sure to replace the lifters to their original locations! 

[Mr. Reed]

I will. One at a time haha.

[Mr. Reed]

Is anyone familiar with the tacky undercoat like substance used under my car from back in the day. It doesn't dry and is like a tar. If you touch it turns your hand turns black with it. Common use in the 50s?

 

[Larry Schramm]

10 hours ago, Mr. Reed said:

Is anyone familiar with the tacky undercoat like substance used under my car from back in the day. It doesn't dry and is like a tar. If you touch it turns your hand turns black with it. Common use in the 50s?

 

 

Could be any one of a number of types of undercoating which was quite common in the day.

[Mr. Reed]

Today I did more cleaning of some engine parts of grease and oil. I think it will be fun to lay all the parts when they are painted with all the gaskets and everything I have for the car to show what's going back into the car. It will be awhile before that picture but it gives me something to look forward to.

[Mr. Reed]

As a better goal it will be good to get it running again for driving in the spring.

[Mr. Reed]

Today my dad and I tested the tubes of the radio while I'm waiting for the head to come back. Most of them were bad or weak a couple were marginal and the bulb for the station buttons was burned out. So I'll be cruising eBay for some replacements. Unless someone has a complete set on here that's good 🙂.

[Bloo]

Fixing the radio? Can you solder? If not, now might be a good time to learn. 🙂

 

For what it's worth, buying tubes because they test weak probably won't help. Nothing lies like a tube tester. Politicians try, but the closest they can manage is a distant second. I don't mean to imply tube testers are completely useless, if they find tubes completely burned out, or if they find shorts, you should probably believe it. Also... the 0z4. That might be bad. Those went bad a lot. But tubes that checked "weak" on a tube tester? Those aren't going to make any difference at all in 99% of all cases.

 

If you don't do anything else, replace the buffer capacitor. If its bad (and yes, it *IS* bad), it will most likely burn up the vibrator. When you bought a new vibrator back in the day, if you didn't change the buffer capacitor it voided the warranty. This is usually a paper/wax capacitor with a very high working voltage rating (maybe 1600 volts or so) located right near the vibrator, usually right underneath it. The value (uF) is critical. The working voltage is not so critical, just be sure to use the same or higher for the working voltage rating.

 

The parts that go bad in radios of this age are paper/wax and electrolytic capacitors, not tubes. Tubes hardly ever fail. They are high reliability parts compared to some of the other components. Paper/wax capacitors are made of paper that has acid in it left over from manufacturing. The acid causes the paper to rot. Few if any paper/wax capacitors are any good. A few squeak by because there is hardly any voltage on them, but they are still rotten. They should all be changed. There aren't that many in a car radio. If the electrolytic capacitors are bad on the other hand, you will have a loud hum in the speaker. Don't confuse this with the normal mechanical hum coming from the vibrator. The good news is the electrolytic capacitors could theoretically still work, as they are not chemically bound to fail. The bad news is they fail by drying out, and the seals may not be very good decades later, and they were a common failure even when they were new. The best policy is to replace them too.

 

Values (uF) are not super critical on the paper/wax and electrolytic capacitors, just get as close as you can on uF, and make the working voltage the same or higher. Replacements for the paper/wax ones are no longer paper/wax. They will be some other technology, probably "film".

 

 

Edited December 22, 2021 by Bloo (see edit history)

[37_Roadmaster_C]

Bloo is 110% right about this. Believe his advice. He has been working on this stuff since we were in Junior High School together and I will not mention how many decades ago that was 🤔. I made a career out of radio electronics and I have Bloo work on my car radios!!  One thing he passed over to lightly is exactly how important the buffer capacitor and the filter electrolytic capacitors are. If they fail in certain ways they can destroy the power transformer and then you are simply screwed. The likely hood of finding a replacement transformer is less than low.

Edited December 22, 2021 by 37_Roadmaster_C
spelling (see edit history)

[Mr. Reed]

When I turned on the radio it makes no sound but a couple of the tubes light up but no hum or anything. I put a new vibrator in too. There looks like a capacitor by where the fuse is located. That looks like it's pretty dried but may have been wax at one point and may be no good now?

[37_Roadmaster_C]

@Mr. Reed, When you say "No Sound", do you mean from the speaker or the vibrator or both? Well if the vibrator is silent then the speaker WILL be silent...  The vibrator should buzz or hum when the radio is turned on.  vibrator is a very special type of mechanical buzzer that "vibrates" a set of points inside the can. With no vibrate you have no high voltage for the tubes to operate with. If that is the case you need an experienced repair technician.

[Mr. Reed]

The vibrator and speaker make no sound but  some of the tubes light up. No static or anything comes of it.

[Mr. Reed]

I talked with a man who for around 600 can remove all the guts and re do it and make it work and you can play from your phone and everything and still retain the push button features.

[JACK M]

2 hours ago, Mr. Reed said:

I talked with a man who for around 600 can remove all the guts and re do it and make it work and you can play from your phone and everything and still retain the push button features.

You would probably be thankful if you did that.

I suspect that it could even play FM.

I had that done to an AM radio a few years ago.

The price will be forgotten eventually if the radio keeps playing.

 

[Bloo]

On the other hand, that is basically the same thing as gutting the car and putting in a different chassis and drivetrain. Some like it, some don't.

 

AM radio has been a wasteland in my area for years. FM is quickly becoming one. It isn't the way most people play music in cars these days anyway. Even the need for an input jack has all but disappeared with the popularity of bluetooth. Sure you might want to put some sort of sound system in a car, but the need to put it inside the AM radio has all but disappeared.

 

In my opinion these "conversions" are going the way of the 8 track and the cassette if they haven't already. When the "conversion" board fails, I suspect you are stuck with a useless gutted box as most modern electronics are NOT built to be repairable. Even things that are repairable tend to depend on integrated circuits, and many of those go out of production after a fairly short run.

 

A conversion might be a good way to get a radio working if it happens to be some piece of.... err.... fine engineering that never worked correctly in the first place, or fried output transistors once a year. Those do exist, but are exceptions. You sure aren't going to find something like that in a 50 Buick. GM/Delco radios of that period were among the best performing AM car radios of their time, or any time. They also worked for decades.

 

Edited December 24, 2021 by Bloo (see edit history)

[Mr. Reed]

So it may be worth finding the parts to fix mine instead of having someone put modern technology in the radio in place of the tubes and things. Where can I buy parts to fix what I have thanks. Nick.

[3macboys]

The other option is pickup something like this:  and polish the radio bezel, put it all back in the dash then roll down the windows and enjoy the sound of the outside world as you motor down the road.  Aside from boasting that the radio works you aren't going to find a lot on AM radio these days and most people forget what the world was like even 30 years before everyone had air conditioning and we drove with the windows down all the time.  If you really want a radio find something that you can mount under the seat or some other hidden location.  Just my 2 cents and even that is likely too much.

[SC38dls]

I have an original radio in my 38 Studebaker. It has been restored ( I can’t remember who did it but will fine the invoice and let you know) in the six years I’ve had the car running I have never found an AM station that comes in consistently.  When I do actually find one it’s usually not worth listening too. Currently I have it disconnected so I don’t forget to turn it off and therefore drain the battery. Get a modern radio and put it in the glove box or some other hidden place. 
dave s 

[Frank DuVal]

On 12/6/2021 at 6:39 PM, Ben Bruce aka First Born said:

Flushing with a solvent is about all one can do. 

Nowadays that's right. In the old days they set them on fire.......😲  I stopped doing that when the fire lasted a long time, caused me to wonder what else might be going wrong inside the mesh.🤔

[37_Roadmaster_C]

I hate to admit it as I tend to like stock original equipment, but AM radio is virtually a dead technology and the future looks even worse. I am going to have the same issues with the radios for both my 37 and 60 and I actually do not know what I am going to do. One thing I do know is that the radios WILL be in their respective dashes and look 100% stock. That is all I can say for now..................

[rocketraider]

6 hours ago, 37_Roadmaster_C said:

AM radio is virtually a dead technology

All the more reason to keep and use it.

 

Sure, AM frequencies are often talk, sports, or fundamentalists, but after around 7pm AM wakes up and comes alive with high power clear channel stations. AM is my companion of choice for night driving. Hit scan on a modern AM receiver at night and it will take you to other worlds. An old tube set requires manual tuning but will do the same with the "warm" sound only a tube set can deliver.

 

At night, out here in the wilds of southern Virginia I can pick up WBZ Boston, CFZM Toronto, KDKA Pittsburgh, KYW Philly, WSM Nashville, WCBS and WABC New York  and WSB Atlanta. Nick being in Ohio should have a good choice of something to listen to, day or night.

 

Young'un, get someone to service and tune your Buick's Delco and recone its speaker. You'll come to love it. You can always keep a boombox, bluetooth or CD/MP3 player in it for listening to your own playlists.

[JACK M]

6 hours ago, rocketraider said:

out here in the wilds of southern Virginia

 

Is the land pretty flat there? I am guessing these stations are some distance.

Its hilly where I live and AM radio even in new rigs is sketchy. (and boring)

I do often tune to the AM frequency on freeways that the hiway dept posts for road conditions etc.

[rocketraider]

It's what's called Piedmont or foothills. Rolling terrain here, and some of those stations are on the other side of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

 

The high power clear channel frequencies have a lot to do with reception as does lower power stations going off-air during night hours.

 

Even during day hours I lose signal from local AM stations about 15 miles out. The exceptions are a couple of mid-power AMs in Raleigh and Burlington NC, 50-70 miles away.

 

I think if Nick restores his Delco radio he'll find something he can tolerate listening to! Plus there's the satisfaction of demonstrating hey, look, the thing works!

[Mr. Reed]

Thanks rocket raider. I've found stations from Virginia when I was in Pennsylvania and they came in crystal clear.

[37_Roadmaster_C]

OFF the Original Topic

 

@rocketraiderhas hit the nail on the head about AM reception.  I worked many years of my career as the Chief Engineer of several radio stations including my highest goal of a 50000 watt PRIOR clear channel station. I Emphasize "Prior" as there are no longer "Clear Channel" stations. This is just a technicality as many of the old clear channel stations are still 50000 watt which is the highest power an AM station can be in the US. The problem plaguing terrestrial radio is simply satellite, streaming and MP3 sources of programming. AM is especially stretched as the  quality of the sound is actually quite poor in its best case due to the bandwidth of the channels. Hi fidelity and stereo are not to be had. Yes, I know there is stereo AM, but it is not FM or any other kind of quality. This is the reason that AM stations are almost all Sports, Talk, and News as these formats do not need or want high frequency response or stereo. I do think there will always be AM radio of some type as the frequency band is to limited for other uses, but it will never be what it was 30+ years ago. Radio lives on advertiser revenue and advertisers only buy ads on stations that have listeners. Listeners on AM are those of us who want NEWS, Talk and/or Sports. This is just a simple fact of life. When I was engineering radio I would have loved it if it was only AM as the technical upkeep of the stereo audio systems and transmitters was 80+ percent of my job time. AM was simpler and just seemed to keep working and working and work......  you get my point :).  In todays world, with a few exceptions in very large cities, the AM stations that are NOT News, Talk or Sports, ad air time is "given away" as a free bonus to the companion FM station advertisers. This is simply because the AM air time is more valuable as a bonus than as a stand alone product.  As Bob Dylan put to music:  "The Times They Are A-Changin' · Come gather 'round people, wherever you roam · And admit that the waters around you have grown. "

Oh for those days...........................................

[Eric Erb]

as i am also in possesion (or pseudo-possesion) of an old buick, i found this to be quite helpful: 

  the original poster has a series of videos about taking the enginge apart and all they did to get it back running.  You are already pretty far along the rocess but it may be of interest.  It sure helped me identify which parts were what and such.

[Mr. Reed]

I saw that series too. I want mine to look like that but it will be worth it. At least to me. It's a good series to watch.

[Frank DuVal]

At night AM works quite well in valleys.

 

Rocketraider is right, CFZM in Toronto is belting out music on 740 Kc (KHz for you youngins😆). And WSM (We Shield Millions) is still belting out Country Music on 650 Kc.

 

Even if I am out in my daily driver, I tune in these two stations to hear "radio" like I remember in my youth, phase shift fading and all.😉😎  My family thinks I'm weird....😆

[Mr. Reed]

I don't like rap or hip hop haha  You can't even understand what they are saying and they cuss too much. I'm a big band, newer jazz and Huey Lewis band guy myself.

 

[rocketraider]

CFZM 740AM has a "Big Band Sunday" program on Sunday nights. They air old radio shows every weeknight at 10.

 

Jazz? See if you can stream WNCU 90.7 which is North Carolina Central University's campus station. Blues on Friday and Saturday nights and "8-track Flashback" Saturday afternoons.

 

You may be able to stream WPTK 850AM out of Raleigh. "Just Right Radio" 1960s-80s and pretty much designed for people who grew up on AM rock.

 

Any of the above are good garage background music.

 

If we could just get stations to quit switching formats... used to see these on a lot of cars around here. WQDR was a ass-kicker rock station. I drove in to work one morning with it cranking. When I left at 7PM there was country blaring. Thought the radio had slipped tune and then they said it- "the NEW WQDR, country like you like it!" Well, I didn't like it, and there hasn't been another station like the Q since.

 

[Mr. Reed]

I sent the parts to be powder coated this week. We are working on color matching the parts as close as possible to the original engine color. The oil filter can and lid too. The valve body and manifolds are getting high temp cerikoted also. The head is still at the machine shop.

[critterpainter]

Did you remove the oil line adapter fitting at the right front corner of the head?  Sometimes there is an oil screen on that adapter.

  Also when built the intake and exhaust manifold ports were NOT on the same plane on the manifolds.   Gaskets were only used on the intake, but not the exhaust.  Most aftermarket sets are 3 piece and cover both the intake and exhaust.

   There should be a water drain fitting or plug at the bottom of the water jacket on the block above the starter.   Often there is so much sediment in the water jacket that the drain hole is completely plugged.

   It appears that you have hydraulic lifters in your engine so I assume that you have a DynaFlow transmission?

  Bobs Automobilia  805 434 2963 is an excellent source for parts for that year Buick as their specialty is the straight 8 Buicks.