Black Cherry Buick Build

Discussion in 'Street/strip 400/430/455' started by 1969RIVI, Jun 24, 2021.

  1. 1969RIVI

    1969RIVI Well-Known Member

    As most builds go the last few years I've been collecting parts, going through 3 455 blocks to find a good usable one and having my stuff at the machine shop since last fall. I picked everything up a few weeks ago and started preping the block for paint. As good as a new fresh "Buick Red" engines look I wanted something different than everyone else has. Fellow Canuck member @ghrp from Quebec inspired me to step outside the box with his Plum Crazy engine. I wanted to keep the buick red theme but with a twist;). The pics don't do it justice and it looks way better in person. 20210624_202321.jpg 20210624_202311.jpg 20210624_202215.jpg 20210624_202149.jpg 20210624_202247.jpg
     

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  2. Dan Gerber

    Dan Gerber Founders Club Member

    Beautiful color!
    As you said, shop/garage lighting doesn't do it justice.
    Can you take a couple more shots of it outside in the sun?
     
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  3. sean Buick 76

    sean Buick 76 Buick Nut

    Very cool!
     
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  4. 1969RIVI

    1969RIVI Well-Known Member

    I want to see what it looks like in natural light too. I'll get some outside sunlight pics hopefully tomorrow, it's overcast and rainy here today.
     
  5. Ken Mild

    Ken Mild King of 18 Year Resto's

    Is that the same color that the old Buick Blackhawk was painted?
     
  6. 1969RIVI

    1969RIVI Well-Known Member

    I'm going to say no as it's my own concoction but it may have been similar. You'll see alot of old school rods painted black cherry. I was just able to do it with high temp engine paint:).
     
    Ken Mild likes this.
  7. ghrp

    ghrp Well-Known Member

    Love it! Very neat color choice - I love how you didn't went too far from the "Buick roots" with that red. :cool:

    Are you going to paint the TC, heads and intake the very same color?
     
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  8. 1969RIVI

    1969RIVI Well-Known Member

    Thanks! The TC with oil&water pump and intake are staying aluminum colour and I haven't decided yet on the heads. I'm using 68 430 iron heads for now until I get some aluminums. So I'll either paint them aluminum colour or match them to the block. I also thought of doing the heads (either set) in aluminum and painting my Poston valve covers and the Star Wars air cleaner to match the block.
     
    ghrp likes this.
  9. rwsr65

    rwsr65 New Member

    Looks great!
     
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  10. Clarkie

    Clarkie Well-Known Member

    I like it.
     
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  11. 1969RIVI

    1969RIVI Well-Known Member

    Thanks fellas! Made some progress tonight. I got it all de-masked and started installing fittings, plugs and dowel pins. Took some pics with the new Performer intake on it and I'm really digging the bright aluminum on black cherry look:cool:. 20210625_204835.jpg 20210625_204852.jpg 20210625_204905.jpg 20210625_204918.jpg 20210625_204952.jpg 20210625_204939.jpg
     
  12. ghrp

    ghrp Well-Known Member

    Very nice! If you are keeping the iron heads for now, I'd really suggest you paint the heads in the same color as the block. Once the engine is set in the car you can barely see the color of the block, sadly. If I could do it all over again I think I'd paint both TC and intake in purple, and keep heads and water pump in greay alum color :D
     
  13. 1969RIVI

    1969RIVI Well-Known Member

    I hear ya! I've noticed the same thing looking at build pics on here. I'm seriously considering painting the heads and valve covers the same colour as the block.
     
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  14. 1969RIVI

    1969RIVI Well-Known Member

    I was messing around with the engine yesterday and I gave it a good final deep clean before assembly starts. I washed all the oil journals in the crank also. I set the crank in and torqued it down with plastigauge in all the mains and all 5 came out to .002 so I think my tolerances are right on the money. We had nice weather here so I was able to get some pics of the block out in the sunlight. It still looks way better in person.
     

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  15. 1969RIVI

    1969RIVI Well-Known Member

    Another update for this build. In another thread I have mentioned getting some aluminum Edelbrock heads, we'll here they are:). Going to have them ported and all the valves and guides checked/ reworked before running them.
     

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  16. 1969RIVI

    1969RIVI Well-Known Member

    Made some more progress on the build. I got the rear cam plug installed and checked the crank tolerances. The mains came out to .002 across the board, crank thrust is .006 and so far #1 rod is .015. I got the rear main seal and crank buttoned up, cam and #1 piston/rod installed, timing chain set is on and ready to start degreeing.
     

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    Darron72Skylark, TimR, ghrp and 2 others like this.
  17. 1969RIVI

    1969RIVI Well-Known Member

    So if I did the degreeing correctly I think I'm looking good. I installed the 9 keyway set dot to dot like JW'S thread says to start and my numbers were way out. I retarded the gear by 2 degrees and degreed the cam again (actually twice) and both times the numbers were almost perfect. My 290 94H cam calls for 226 intake 235 exhaust with a 112 LSA or 108 for 4 dgree advance. My degreeing came out to 225.5 intake, 107.75 for LSA and the exhaust came out to only 231, which Ithought was weird??. Also as per JW'S degreeing thread if you take my open at 10 degrees plus my close at 8 degrees that's a total of 13 degrees overlap and JW says he doesn't like to see any more than 15 degrees of overlap or it gets dicey for vaccum for power brakes.
     
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  18. 1969RIVI

    1969RIVI Well-Known Member

    So after spending quite a bit of time degreeing the cam , checking, checking and re-checking I came to the realization that my cam actually needed to be 2 degrees advanced. The first time I did it and I thought my numbers were right apparently I wasn't reading the wheel properly. After some much needed guidance (in another thread) I was able to finally finish the degreeing process and move on to installing all the pistons and rods. I did install the lifter valley splash guard also, just not in the pics. Blue loctite on the bolts and cam gear bolts. There's a few more odds and ends I can do but nothing major until I pull the other engine to harvest some parts to swap over. I may shift over to gasket port matching the heads and intake before I send the heads for valve work and port and polish.
     

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    Darron72Skylark, Clarkie and FLGS400 like this.
  19. sean Buick 76

    sean Buick 76 Buick Nut

    Cool project
     
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  20. FLGS400

    FLGS400 Gold Level Contributor

    Looking good!
     
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