350 swap in a 55

[imported_buick5563]

Naw, just wanted to get your attention. With the help of Old Tank Pittman, I just put a rebuilt 322 in my 55 Special. For those of you wanting to plop a 350 into your car for speed sake let me tell you, this 322 smokes my tires. Yeah it took me at least ten trips to the machine shop to make sure they were doing things right ( They weren't) and cost about 2 grand but I have a two barrel carb on this thing and, did I mention peeled out in drive (with a Dynaflow). Personally the thought of putting a crate motor in my car never crossed my mind, nor did using an alternator, or any of the other "updates". I assure you it doesn't. This is the first car I ever owned (since '85) and used to take me to work landscaping with shovels and day labor in the back seat (She's much more pampered now). These cars were really well engineered and can and should be driven often. So please, enough with the "reliability of a Chevy" thing. Drive 'em. Keep 'em Buick. Thanks a bunch Willie.

Mike Middleton

[old-tank]

Some of this response should be under the heading 'Those pesky young people'. Anyhow you should have seen the smile on Mike's face after his first drive...PRICELESS!!

It all started about a year ago when I invited Mike to my house to drive my 55 Centurys to see if he liked the power and response of a 322 compared to the anemic 264 in the Special. He was hooked! It also helped that I offered to give him a 322 from one of my parts cars (that was his last good deal).

Then in February the work started (and money spending...his money!). I figured it would take about 2-3 months and would be ready to drive to Flint for the big party. We (the word 'we' is to indicate that I was present and watching Mike do all of the dirty grunt work) started by pulling the engine out of the parts car complete with a 2 inch cover of rodent turds. Then disassembly which revealed a very sludged up and abused mess, but it did look promising. So off to the machine shop for cleaning and further inspection. That it turned out was our first mistake even though this shop has a good reputation building race engines (chebbie???) and rescued me from a previous machine shop disaster. It took the machine shop a month to clean and inspect: crank is ok, just needed polishing, block needed one sleeve and bored 0.040", heads ok just needed hardened seats and valve guides. Now to order the needed parts, and that was the second mistake (ordering or "attempting to order parts" from Buick World...Mike can give better details of that fiasco). Two more months go by before parts are delivered to the machine shop which by now has put the 322 on the back burner. So another month before anything is done. Now it is June and getting HOT in South Texas, and the Flint trip for that car is scrubbed. (Actually Mike did not go to Flint either...stayed home with his wife...something about birth of 1st son...)

Finally the machine shop called and said everything was ready, so 2 days later we go to pick it up and it was not ready...waited 2 hours for them to 'tie up loose ends'. After we got it back to my shop and unwrapped the parts we found the bad news: even though they said everything would be "assembly clean", everything was filthy with machine oil and grindings; the crank also had rusty finger prints on the polished journals; the oil galleys in the block were still full of sludge since the plugs had not been removed for cleaning; the heads were a mess. Ah, the heads. First thing I noticed was the valve stem height varied more than 1/8", second after removing some valves we noticed that the valve guide seals that were paid for were not installed, an intake valve seat had a rust pit that you could catch a finger nail on, and no valve spring shims were present even though the old springs were used. So back to the machine shop and a formal ass-chewing with the owner who agreed that this was not acceptable. Back home everything looked fine except the heads: when I removed a valve I found that the generic shims for the outer valve spring covered the recess for the inner valve spring. This the exact same thing that happened on a previous rebuild, except it was not discovered until after the engine was started: that little old spring bind resulted in bent push rods, broken rockers, bent and broken rocker shafts and a bent camshaft! Back to the machine shop and 3 weeks for them to find and install the correct shims for both the inner and outer springs.

Assembly went slowly since EVERYTHING was checked and rechecked...we were sorta gun-shy at this point (everything was on the money). When torqueing the main bearing cap bolts one would not tighten (it stretched 1/4" but did not break...off to the parts store for trip number 79). The rebuilt water pump would not turn after installation...had to grind the shaft off flush with the impeller. I asked Mike after he installed the heads if he put thread sealer on the head bolts..."uh no, why?" Anyhow you need to put thread sealer on every bolt or stud that goes into the block or head of a 322! That includes the engine mounts and studs for the sparkplug covers...even if you are sure that it does not communicate with an oil or water cavity, put it on anyway!

Painting the engine should be a no-brainer except the paint in the quart container did not match the paint in a rattle can purchased at the same time from "Cars". The paint was Acrylic enamel which may bubble and lift if repainted...engine enamel used to be Synthetic enamel, which was more forgiving...just another aggravation.

On the Saturday morning that we 'stabbed' the engine back in I had arranged for another friend to stop by to pick up a tool that he needed...you know the rest: audience participates!

Mike worked until late that day and another but still lacked the plug wires and a few other details, but I waited for his return before firing it up for the first time. I wanted to show him how a properly built nail would start right away...NOT! The #$%&@*%$#@# distributor was installed 180* off! I still think Mike turned the engine while I was not looking.

Another mystery for awhile: after starting to drive it the engine would die on right turns...a few days of tinkering found a battery cable touching the starter splash shield.

One reason it took so long is that Mike lives 60 miles from my shop and the machine shop is 30 miles further and we both have 'day jobs'.

OK so it runs, what is the verdict? It could not have turned out better: Very quiet and smooth owing to the excellent balancing and very good power, throttle response. Part of this is due to the 3.6 rear gears from the Special vs 3.4 gears in the Century and the 2 bbl carb that flows better in the low and mid range than the primaries of a 4 bbl (I thought I heard that some where, but I just got back from measuring the bores at the throttle plate on a 2 bbl and a 4 bbl and the 2bbl is larger). It does run out of steam at higher rpm's where the secondaries of a 4bbl would come into play. I'm still trying to talk Mike into a 3 deuce setup...ok to dream with someone else's money! He will need his money for tires if he keeps burning rubber!

'Those pesky young people'. Anyhow you should have seen the smile on Mike?s face after his first drive...PRICELESS!!

Willie

[old-tank]

Recently I've recieved some emails asking for details on this rebuild. My respsonse to these inquiries was to post the questions on the forum so all could benefit or that I would address them on the forum.

The pistons were bought from Kanter but had the Egge part number and looked identical to an example I have from Egge except that the ring grooves were closer to the top of the piston which might give slightly higher compression.

The valve parts were all 1956: camshaft, lifters, pushrods and dist gear. Hardened exhaust valve seats were installed and all of the old valves were reused.

This is a late producton engine and did not have a windage tray, but had the bolt holes in the block for attaching (attaches with 4-5/16 bolts). I have done other late engines and the windage tray was present. It is probably not necessary except in extreme applications.

While the engine was still on the engine stand, oil was added (it took 7+ quarts to fill a dry engine), the oil pump was spun with a drill and it developed 30# pressure. Then a starter was attached and activated and it developed 20# at cranking speed with the plugs out. A compression check was done and showed 150# on all cylinders.

A 2bbl carb was used because it was available and Mike wants to keep the stock look (for now). The "seat of the pants" performance is more than adequate.

A neoprene seal for a Buick 455 was used in the timing cover. This IS NOT a direct and easy replacement: the 0.020" interference fit is too tight to just tap in; it was taken to a machine shop where the timing cover was chamfered and then pressed in.

The rear seal was the usual "rope". The side seals (between the rear main bearing cap and the side of the block): I used cotton string with #2 permatex packed in tighly with a nail until flush with the top. Anaerobic sealer was used on the clamping surfaces between the block and the rear main bearing cap).

Gaskets were always glued to the part with 3-M weatherstripping cement and then either assembled dry (cork) or brush on sealer was used. If you use rubber valve cover gaskets, glue these to the valve cover and use anaerobic sealer on the other side. You CAN build a dry nailhead.

Willie

[imported_buick5563]

Let me add that the reason Willie used the string on the side seals was that the seals that came with the kit didn't actually seal. It was really tight on one side and just flopping around on the other. Watching Willie stuff 20 feet of goopy string into this opening was pretty hilarious and darn near classic. Another thing, referring to his comment on Buick World. BW please get your stuff together. You had competitive prices and good products but you were reeeeeeeally slow, and I still don't know if I got the refund on the stuff you guys didn't send. I know it's hard to run a small business, I used to run one. If you can't do it right don't do it at all. BTW my dynaflow leak finally subsided with a metric ton of leak sealer (Lucas) thus bypassing the gnarly rebuild of my tranny. Later,

Mike

[55Steve]

Great info as I am about to put a 56 322 in my 55. I wanted to keep the car some what period. I am planning to but the dual 4 bl carbs on it for looks.