I created this thread to show off the few pictures that I took the weekend that Jeff, Eric, and Mike helped me not swap out the engine in my GS. As you may recall out there in TV land, I just had some major problems with timing that, along with some other circumstances, made me think I had toasted my motor when I actually hadn't. This Picture is the 455 that formerly lived in Yuk's 74 LeSabre.
I might add, that picture was taken before I went at it with the degreaser and wire brush. It looks a lot more like an engine now. Next Pic is the engine bay of my GS as we were getting ready to work on it.
Mike had the brilliant idea to actually see if I needed a new engine after all. No oil in the coolant, no coolant in the oil, and the plugs looked ok aside from the gap. It started OK, so we checked compression, and it was 180 or more on all 8 cylinders. No blown head gasket there. So, we checked the timing, found out that it was off for several reasons, and was 50 degrees advanced at highway speed. Mike opened his magic drawer of Buick parts, and produced correct weights and springs for my distributor, and had some seal from an air conditioner that he McGuyver-ed into my distributor to replace a missing bushing. Mike dialed in the timing and advance. He checked the Carb, and I was running 21+ inches of vacuum at idle on both sides of the carb. Mike has an awesome set of tools, dude! While we were checking all this out, Mike noticed that I was low on coolant and that my radiator cap was shot. In fact, I was a gallon low because I was checking it at the bottle instead of the radiator. So, the prognosis was that my timing was so far off that the engine was running very hot. Couple that with being low on coolant and the hot day that I was driving it in, and it just overheated so badly it wouldn't start. It only acted like I blew the motor. After the adjustments, it was running great. We let it idle for awhile to see if it would overheat again. Here's Dr. Mike taking my car's temperature shortly after asking it to turn its head and cough...
Hey Freed, since that was a "non" engine swap, would that second picture be a "Before and"Before" shot?:Brow:
The car didn't have any real problems with that test either, so, we were off to have a little fun. Mike's wife's car had a fresh tank of racing fuel in it, so we went for a little ride. Here's a slightly blurry pic of that motor:
It took a bit to get that high-compression beast started, so I took a couple of pics of Jeff's car while I was waiting. Front:
Is it a Skylark or is it a GS .Neither. Right now it's having an identity crisis until I can find a GS hood and grill for it.:laugh:
We went to Dave's place, and Mike showed us his toy. I took a couple of pics under the hood of that one:
Here's a little more of a closeup. Unless you want them sucked in, keep children and small dogs away from that carb.
So, after all of that, we figured that since my car was here, Mike had an awesome set of tools, and since we had the time, it would be a good time to change the oil and put a new starter in it. Here's Eric under the car losing some washer that he and Jeff will need later to put the new starter back on:
So, that's about all the pics I have. The car made it home under its own power, and I now have a spare running 455 and tranny. I'd like to thank everyone again for all their help with this. I have better, higher resolution versions of all of these pictures if anyone wants them. - Freed
Maybe an after and after, or before and after, or before after the before, or maybe after the before after.... ... ok, my head hurts ... - Freed
:shock: uzzled: :jd: Mine too!!Yes, honey I'll be off the computer in a minute.(winch)I didn't say that out loud did I?ou:
Re: Avatar Might be faster if someone else did that has better tools than I do. Mine took me almost an hour. Any volunteers? - Freed
Yoink! Man I need to get a digital camera.I guess I shouldn't rush things since I'm just learning how to use my home PC.:grin:
Hey Freed, a little scrubbing and a couple of spray cans and your engine bay can look like this: This is my 1st attempt at detailing. Just pull the covers and brackets, degrease and paint what you can reach, and put it back together.
Jeff, I took the liberty of making your rear shot small enough for your avatar. All you have to do is save it to your drive and replace your old one in the "user cp".
