June 23rd 2021 Went over the block with scotchbrite cookies in the air powered angle grinder to remove all the loose paint remnants, blew it off with the air hose, then applied the PRE Paint Prep again. This time, the surface remained stable and I followed up with two coats of the Bill Hirsch Engine Enamel spray bomb. The Buick nailhead green is an acquired taste. Some have nicknamed it puke green. They also put these engines in medium duty Chevy trucks from 1956 to 1959 when the Chevy 348 was introduced. I didn't research Chevy's color for the 322 because I like the green. Beer of the day was Free State Brewing Company's Oatmeal Stout.
It’s looking really good Larry! Sorry that sometimes it’s making you fight tooth and nail just to get a small job accomplished. I guess that’s what makes it fun!?
June 24th 2021 Flipped the block right side up again and finished trimming the masking tape around the head and valley cover gaskets by running a sharpie line around the gaskets and trimming just inside the line with X-Acto knife. The paint is still tacky. The weather, here in South Florida, is muggy this week. After the top of the nailhead is painted and the masking comes off, touch ups can be made at any time by spraying a few blasts of paint in a cup and dabbing it on with a Q-Tip. Background music was the Rolling Stones It's only Rock and Roll.
Larry, It sounds like you and I are at opposite ends of the humidity spectrum. I’ve been cleaning bumper frame mounts with an angle grinder and a big mean wire brush. What a nasty job! Yesterday I was brushing on the primer. The humidity was sooo low, below 22% a couple of times, that the paint was drying as fast as I put it on. Yes, I was painting in the shade with cool parts. So much for self-leveling paint. I could see the brush marks in it this morning. This morning I woke up and started painting as soon as the sun came up. The humidity was 82% And I was able to get a nice smooth final coat on my parts. Go figure The crazy weather guy that gives the weather forecast every 30 minutes was calling the weather “hot and humid.” I guess he’s never been to Florida. Have a GREAT day!!! I almost forgot. Beer of the day was Natty Light. LMAO!!! Ya, I know. I have terrible taste except in owning Buick’s.
Thanx John. Currently, the temp here is 87 with a 97 heat index. We were having a reasonable summer until mid-July, but now it hits 90 daily and only goes down to 80 at night, I have a dehumidifier in the shop that I run during the day time when I'm at my office job. Surprisingly, it makes the difference to bring the shop in line with my ever narrowing old age comfort zone. This is the first summer I've spent significant time in the shop in years.
June 28th 2021 Plugged some more holes, PRE Paint Prepped and painted the upper nailhead block surfaces with two coats. Let the paint cure for a couple of days and mounted the block back on the engine stand. Removed the masking, cleaned the machined surfaces and wiped them with Marvel Mystery Oil. Matt Martin, of Centerville Auto Repair, commented about the block drain petcocks and I decided to go with his practice of using plugs. The petcocks will go in the parts box for radiator spares. I got 1/4" NPT brass plugs for the nailhead and installed them with Threadlocker blue. Beer of the day is Hanger 24 Craft Brewing's Orange Wheat American Wheat Ale.
June 29th 2021 Put tools away from the nailhead block painting and cleared the deck for the next operation - pistons and crankshaft. Disassembled piston assembly one and spent some deep ponder mode thinking on how to go about cleaning the various components. I am at sea since I haven't done this before and was concerned about removing the wrist pin retainers because I couldn't see them. Turns out I couldn't see them because there aren't any. The wrist pin is held against movement by the connecting rod pinch clamp. Examining the piston showed a chunk missing behind the oil ring. I could see the oil ring from inside the piston. That can't be good. I went back into ponder mode again as Cream's Disraeli Gears played in the background.
If you are going to run it hard with the supercharger, consider the late 55 or 56 rods without the weak pinch assembly. Replace the rod bolts too...ARP makes some that 'almost fit", but the shank can be ground down to fit. The two failures I have had on a 322/264 was the pinch clamp and a rod bolt...and that was with gentle cruising with Dynaflow.
Thanx Tom. This thing is being built as a no-go showboat. No rompin' n stompin'. The Latham provides 8 lbs boost at the most and I won't be hitting the high RPM's. They strapped these on stock engines back in the day. This engine will be living between 2,000 and 3,500 RPM while I am the caretaker. But, it may blow up on me. I'll let you all know if it does.
June 30th 2021 Hunted up my dial bore gauge. micrometers and dial caliper and commenced to measuring the nailhead cylinders so I can order rings and maybe new pistons. Fumbled around for awhile as I'm new to this and my OEM eyes don't help much, but I eventfully came up with a WAG of forty thousandths oversize pistons and bore. I'm going to keep at it until I'm more comfortable with my findings and I'm going to see if my machinist friend, John, will swing by after Sunday coffee to check my measurements. I would like to find '56 heads, pistons and rods for this build but, I've been unsuccessful in that search and I may have to live with what I have. The only certain thing is that more research is in order. Beer of the day was Free State Brewing Company's Ad Astra Amber Ale.
Thanx. I've talked to Matt Martin at Centerville Auto Repair about both those issues ('56 rods and ARP bolts) and he talked me out of both with a cost/benefit discussion, even tho' it meant the loss of a sale to him.
I don't think there is a benefit when the cost could be the time, money and effort in your engine. Matt may know his stuff, but maybe not as much as the manufacturers of and people with factory or aftermarket superchargers and turbos. Unless centrifugal, supercharged pistons see a lot more heat and power at any RPM under boost. These pistons are generally forged to resist fracturing and are purpose built with thicker crowns, deeper ringlands to resist extra heat. They represent hard won lessons over time and loss with supercharging. The extra fuel charge without intercooling is a very volatile mixture ripe for detonation. In a non computerized engine, a change in outside temperature or elevation is enough to cause detonation with an otherwise appropriate tune for supercharging. The forged pistons made for supercharging along with appropriate rings and ring gaps are the best defense against the heat and detonation of supercharging. I also don't see how a weaker rod would be suggested when Buick made some nice factory forged rods. They already fit your engine without the weak point and split in the rod that could lead to failure. Honestly, I see these issues as crippling to this engine from the start. A few more dollars would assure durability and strength indefinitely. As Tom likes to say, Just my thoughts. Cheryl
And your thoughts are welcome. I will certainly consider them. Here is some data on the Latham axial flow supercharger, I'm installing,
July 7th 2021 At four inches, my biggest mic is too small for this job, so I ordered a five inch mic, one day delivery. Cleaned the number one rod, cap, wrist pin and bolts in an overnite Evapo-Rust submersion and fiddled with the piston some. The rings are flush and corroded. I couldn't budge any of them. I took the piston to the Sunday coffee cruise-in. John didn't make it but Dave Sexton told me the marks on the thrust sides of the piston were from knurling and they were still pretty fresh. I took a look at all the pistons when I got back to the BillyBob Shop and they all have the knurling. Continued to measure the pistons with micrometer and cylinder bores with dial bore gauge and telescoping bore gauge until I had confidence in my measurements. Have decided to stay with the pistons I have. Got the corroded, stuck rings out of piston one with MAP torch, Kroil penetrating oil, small pick and needlenose pliers hand-to-hand combat technique. Background music was Jimmy Buffet's Banana Wind.
July 8th 2021 Cleaning no. one piston assembly. Figuring out what works, what works better and in what order. When I establish a procedure, the other seven will go quicker. That's the theory anyway. Dragged out my Dad's ancient piston ring groove cleaner and tried to intuit how to use it. This arrived on my doorstep a few years ago, addressed to "Mr Nimrod". My brother's short note that accompanied it, said it should come in handy in three or four years when I got around to BillyBob's stovebolt engine, the last engine Dad used it on in the eighties when my brother owned the truck. Did some initial cleaning of the piston with Scotchbrite buffs in the Dremel motor tool after knocking the worst carbon off the top with Scotchbrite cookies in an air angle grinder. The piston was marked with 040 on the top. The beer of the day was Hanger 24 Craft Brewing's Betty West Coast IPA.
July 12th 2021 Developed a procedure for the nailhead piston assembly cleanup: 1) Remove the rings; 2) Clean ring grooves; 3) Submerge assembly in Oileater parts washer for an hour; 4) Disassemble piston assembly; 5) Submerge piston in Chem-Dip; 6); Go over all parts that need it with the Scotchbrite buffs in the Dremel tool; 7) Submerge all parts in an ultrasonic cleaner session; 8) Submerge rod, cap, wrist pin and bolts in Evapo-Rust; Give all parts a light coating of Marvel Mystery Oil and reassemble loosely. This procedure may need fine tuning. We'll see how it goes for now. Background music was Pink Floyd's Meddle.
