:ball: Hey Everyone I'm working on my 52 special. It had 5 burnt exhaust valves, so i pulled it apart, and rebuilt the head. The car ran( badly) before i pulled the head, i even drove it on the street. while it was apart, i filled the cylinders with diesel, to free up the rings, i've used this method sucessfully on many buick engines.The theory is if the liquid will drain down through the ring-lands, they are free enough to build compression. anyway, i've been trying to start it, and NOW i only have compression on 2 cylinders....:error: the question is...how do i build compression in these cylinders without pulling the engine apart and doing a ring job? anyone have any ideas? thanks in advance Jon
Put a small amount of oil in those cylinders, turn it over slow by hand. leave the plugs out and let it sit. then turn it over with out the plugs with the starter and blow out the excess oil. It's kinda the same thing with flooding car badly. it may take a while to get the compression back. I bought a generator a couple years ago for 20 bills. he said the carb needed rebuilt and that it didn't run. I spun it over by hand and it had no compression. I figured i was infor a rebuild. But for 20 bucks it was worth it. took it home and found that the carb float was stuck open. i rebuilt the carb, did the above with the oil in the cylinder and put fresh oil in the crank case. started up and smoked big time. after twenty minutes it cleared up, and i have never done anything but use it since:laugh: The carb is gravity fed so it just puked gas in it continuously, and hosed down the rings. it was fine after it ran a while. So i suspect you washed down the rings pretty bad. just get some oil in them.
Rob, i oiled the cylinders today, and cranked and cranked, blew the oil out, and still nothing..... i've got compression on #2 and 7, but none of the others...it tries to run, but with only compression on 2 cyls, i cant get it to run, if it had copression on 4, i could probably get it to run.
your telling me...3 mechanics, dad and 1 other, we tried every trick we've ever heard of.... i hate to pull it back apart, but im not sure what to do now...anybody have any other tricks? i'm willing to try just about anything, but remember, other than a bad miss, this engine would start with a 6v battery with 1 revolution of the starter...mit ran into the garage, i repaired the compression loss in the head, now it has no compression:rant:
Many years ago I had some engines with similar problems and finally got them started by towing them on the road and got enough RPM and heat in the motor to finally crank off . I assume yours is automatic trans and do not know if that trans will pull start . The ones I did were standard shift .
Mike, its a dynaflow...it cranks fine, i put a resistor in the coil wire, used a 12v coil, brand new points,12 volt battery, its cranking fine, just not enough compression to maintain any kind of idle
OK I misunderstood and thought it would not crank . Have you ran it long enough to get up to normal operating temp ? If so try several heat cycles and see if that will help . Good Luck .
Bill, how tight is too tight? how do you adjust them with the engine not running? the only spec i have is 0 clearance????
Jon, I would bring #1 up and back the set screws off until you have clearance, bring them down so they touch, repeat in the firirg order. if it starts they may need to be tighten another 1/4 . turn. Good luck Bill
After the rocker touches the valve, you need to turn the adjusting screw down 2 turns...make sure you're on the right cylinder when you adjust them! Below is a helpful webpage for valve adjustment... http://www.buicks.net/shop/reference/l-8_valve_adjustment.html
Re: Straight8 No Compression IT RUNS!!!!!! MY THANKS TO BILL AND ALL YOU GUYS!!!!!!!!!! BACKED OFF THE VALVES, IN 15 MINUTES IT WAS RUNNING!!!!!!!! SMOKED LIKE A FRIGHT TRAIN, BUT ABSOLUTELY SMOOTH AS SILK THANKS AGAIN GUYS!!!!!!!!!!!:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :beer :beer
