Well i may have to do all those things anyways, the motor was in a flood this week due to the heavy rains, no water seen in the oil but i am definitely stripping it to the shortblock now. i am worried about the trans though, i will have to check that. The good news i started on my a/c delete box and it is costing me nothing as someone gave me a fiberglass kit, i am really excited with how this will turn out. after that i just have to patch the cowl side of the firewall, paint it up, reseal the motor, throw it in, paint the inner fenders, the core support, throw it all together with exhaust and i will have a respectable road legal car for under 700 bucks *knock on wood* http://www.acdelete.com/pages/68-74_X-Body.htm that is the delete box, which requires a relocation of the resistor, i can leave mine alone, and one painted will look almost as good as the delete box. Why doesnt everyone do it this way, is there a catch? i have seen a completed mod like mine and it looks amazing
Motor is out and i spent some time power washing and cleaning it, not going crazy though, then i am gunna do it up red and throw it back in. Got in a fight with the owner of the shop because i took the oil pan off. He said im wasting my time, i wanted to check things out and make sure there was no shavings or gunk. i have the gaskets, i cant see how it matters. What else should i check out? i dont have much cash (i need to buy a front end for my skylark) so i just want the bare minimum to make this motor hold up short of a rebuild. i wanted to take the heads off but i was advised against that as well. i was also told not to do the 4bbl intake as the heads and cam arent ment for it Last thing, some genius decided to weld the dipstick to the headers, now i need a new one, any place sell them cheap (the ta 455 dipstick is 65 bucks???? i hope the 350 isnt)
I'd rip that thing down so all the gaskets can be replaced and anyone telling you the cam and heads aren't made for the 4 barrel carb does not know anything about the induction and valvetrain of an engine. It's your car and don't let the owner of the shop tell you what to do as you're getting great advice here. The Buick 350 is an amazingly reliable engine where as long as the shortblock looks good and you have new gaskets and seals in place, you'll be good to go. I would replace the head gaskets too as they come in the kit and it's insurance knowing you're not going to worry about the chance of them going out. Plus, it won't take long to change out since everything is in the open. Just remember it's your car and do what you feel comfortable.
Thank you, thats how i feel too. i dont like to halfa$$ things, if i cant afford to do it right, ill wait till i can, just because the motor was cheap doesnt mean i shouldnt make sure its running right. i need a reliable motor i can have fun with, i dont care if it ran great before, its my motor now.:bla:
I found a chevy dipstick lying around, will i run into clearance issues? i know it wont be accurate so ill just put 5 quarts in and make a measurement line
How about you cut off the dipstick 1/2" from the 5 quarts mark, test this then cut the stick before you start the engine.
You mean cut the tube (i am using a chevy tube and dipstick), then measure, and then cut the stick? Sorry i dont know why i cant grasp the whole thing, i wish i could find my buick dipstick, i bet someone threw it out on me =[
It is not really a good idea to try to use a chevy dipstick on your 350, far from ideal....However using the tube you have and dipping the stick into it all the way with 5 quarts in the pan you can find out the 5 quart line on the stick... Mark the level on the stick and make sure the stock does not go much deeper into the oil pan by cutting off any extra after this test.
Sounds like a plan to me, thank you. Ahh i hope i get this beast running today, although i need to find a way to mount a rad without a core support . that and i want to get all the damn water out of the car maybe ill glue the rear window in today
I'd go for a quick walk through any nearby wreckers yards, should be a few buicks around with 350s. Check for pre-1980 Buicks with 350s. Otherwise, try posting in the parts wanted section and see if there is anyone near you who has one.
Get it up and running, work out the little kinks that are inevitable. Then save up your pennies and buy one of Burton Machines single turbo kits. You might decide the 455 isn't in your future. :bglasses: John
hehe a turbo would be sweet:3gears:. So its a runner, again. the guys said i wasted my time and money pulling it out,but that is only because i didnt get to reseal the motor like i wanted to. before i got this car it did a nice smokey burnout, now it wont even spin the tires, what could have happened? timing off? maybe i have some bad plugs (the autolite platinums have been known to be bad out of the box, stupid me i thought they ment the bosch plugs were the bad ones) Scott (the shop owner) says i messed up the motor, how the heck could i do that if all i did was valve cover and oil pan gaskets.
I do not like this Scott guy's attitude... I am sure something minor is wrong like timing or dirt in the carb... Start with a clean fuel supply, clean out the tank and replace the sock as well as the fuel filter at the carb.
Me either, he likes to be pessimistic and he is a know it all. Fuel or timing does sound like a viable issue, ill start with timing then work on fuel issues. i spent all the rest of my money today 20 dollars for driveshaft straps (my awesome friends decided they needed $10 for gas) i spent 20 on oil and a pack of header bolts that i only used 5 of. 5 dollars for pizza, 15 on gas for the buick (i only wanted to get $5 worth) and i have 6 dollars left. looks like this project is at a stand still until i sell some phoenix stuff. The brakes work very well, manual brakes will take some getting used to though, very touchy. the reverse buzzer works, i never even knew those existed. looking under the car the floor pan is horrible, it will need alot of patches :ball: the trunk pan has some small holes too. the cowl is horrible i might need a donor car for that, ah i makes me depressed just thinking about it, i need this car daily driver ready by septemberou:
Do you have a freind with a welder? I would search the wreckers and feilds in your area for an incomplete Skylark for free or cheap.
That is one thing i have alot of, i know at least 4 professional welders:grin:. Speaking of welding the headers have to come out, one tube on each side is pretty crushed, he offered to fix it for 30 bucks, they are hooker headers, i was told they are expensive:dollar:
http://vfnfiberglass.com/site.htm Wow 2 new fenders for 600bucks hell, thats way cheaper than NOS and 18lbs thats insane. Hopefully i can find a usable beat front end for less than 500 though.
Whew, it was definitely timing. it was way over advanced, while we were messing with it we tried out some different springs for the advance. still have to play with the vacuum advance though. i went full on the brakes and just tapped the gas and the car loaded up like before and i though to myself "great here we go again" i look behind me and theres nothin but tire smoke:TU:. That is the last of it for a while though, the car has no rad and a hack job driveshaft that is only 2" in the trans, not to mention theres water in the trans. This is addicting so i took the battery home so i cant start the car and break something. i am going to pick up some zddp, more oil, a crate of trans fluid, a driveshaft and i may just buy the crappy beat up fenders from scrams just so i can have a rad and put the car on the road.
A little bit heh. The car is all put together although it will have to come apart to patch the core support. I am putting it on the road this weekend without inner fenders (the pass side needs a patch as well) so I can do a nice smokey burnout for graduation. Motor runs great except for a bad accel pump and I have the idle a little low. It sounds sweet almost cammed out (pleas excuse my immaturity but it does hehe). I have a leak at the collectors that will be addressed when I repair the crushed primaries. I am very impressed with how the car runs, very torquey. My main concern now is the wiring and the trans. Recently my battery flat out died. It was dead over the winter but i charged it up for 2 days and it worked fine after that starting the buick everytime. Recently during a good rainstorm it wouldn't crank over. My signal lights also stopped working even though the hazards work. I think the constant for the radio drained the batt, I wired it right to the terminal. The crack in the batteries case at the top probably doesn't help. I am getting a job in july and here is what I will be doing 4bbl swap, I need a quadrajet still and a throttle cable Exhaust repair- Headers, I need exhaust hangers and I may swap the flowmasters for a set of dynomax ultras Correct radiator- I have one that isn't correct for the car and is held in with zip ties (don't shoot me) Transmission- I either rebuild this one, find another 350 or save up for a 2004-r swap if this trans lasts that long Patch work- Floors, core support, roof, trunk, fenders and more Driveshaft- The one I have was cut and welded, no vibration but still I wouldn't spin it at over 35mph Gagues- oil water voltage tach Okay thats enough I'll list it as I do it hehe this is the small block section anyways
