Hello Buick Friends, I'm trying to change the timing chain on my 69 Buick gs 400. I'm a weekend warrior and don't have a repair manual.... Does anyone have a manual I can borrow or have info on how to do this... I already took out the radiator and fans and front sections. Will I need to pull off the water pump to get to the timing chain? Do I need a special tool (like a pulley) to pull anything off? This is a labor of car love so any help will be appreciated. Thanks, Jono :beer
only take the 4 5/16 bolts out of the pump 1/2 headed take pulley off crank. break balancer bolt loose put engine on number 1 tdc line 0 up on the balancer . balancer will slide right off. pull dist and fuel pump off after marking dist base and t/c rotor and where cap touches. take the 4 front oil pan bolts out and a few more 5/16 bolts around the balancer area and its off. timing chain is self explanitory.
And here's the '71 Chassis Service manual if it helps, same procedure and parts as your '69. http://www.teambuick.com/reference/library/71_chassis/ Devon
The online manual only talks about 350 and 455 engines. I have a 400. Can i still follow those procedures? Thanks. Jono
400 430 455 are all identical except bore as far as short block goes. so follow the 455 instructions.
It's cake, those were good directions. Just make sure you get all the timing cover bolts out, you don't want to crack/break the timing cover pulling it off. Just remove the bolts that require a 1/2 inch socket. The hardest part will probably be breaking the balancer bolt loose cause the engine will want to turn. Also, when going back together, don't forget to install the oil slinger and be very patient re-installing the four oil pan bolts. They will cross thread if you look at them wrong, so take your time with them and make sure you put them in straight.
1 1/8 socket and a breakover that will reach the gearbox and bump the starter. make sure the radiator is out and BUMP it. if you have a buddy to hold the bar down even better. nothings worse than a flying breakover around a nicely painted car.
These are good instructions, but Lonnie is going about 100 mph on them, must be a Buick thing :3gears: . Its not that scary. 1. There are two types of bolts on the water pump. There are smaller ones, which simply bolt the water pump to the timing cover. There are also bigger ones, which go through the water pump, timing cover, and all the way back into the block. You want the timing cover and water pump to stay together, so only remove the big bolts. 2. The balancer bolt, is the giant 1.125 inch bolt holding the harmonic balancer to the crankshaft. You want to loosen it. A big impact wrench may do it, or you may have to do it the redneck way, which is to put a breaker bar on it, brace it against the floor, and hit the starter for just a fraction of a second. This is dangerous, be careful. 3. The next step is to turn the engine over to where cylinder 1 is at top dead center. There are a lot of detailed guides to doing this online, you can find one. If you have done it right, when you remove the timing cover in step 5, you will see two dots, one on the cam gear, and one on the crank gear. The dots should be facing eachother. As in, the dot on the cam gear will be at 6 o'clock, the dot on the crank gear will be at 12 o'clock, and the keyway on the crankshaft will be at about 2 o'clock. If it doesn't look like this, put the balancer bolt back in, and turn the engine over with a wrench until it does look like this. 4. The next step is to not ruin your ignition timing while you are doing this. Basically, what you need to do is get your engine to top dead center for cylinder #1, and then take off your dist. cap, and make note of where the rotor is pointing. The contact that it is pointing to is the one that leads to the number one spark plug. Mark the direction it is pointing on the timing cover or intake manifold or somewhere. When you put the distributor back in, you want to install it so the rotor is pointing to the same contact. That way, you won't have to redo all your plug wires when you put it back together. After you have it marked, undo the bolt that holds down the distributor, and pull up on it. If it won't come out, you're not pulling hard enough. 5. Take all the crap off. Fuel pump is two bolts, whole gang of bolts for the timing cover, including some from the oil pan side. Don't take the oil pump apart if its been working well. Clean and label everything you take off as you go, it will go back together easy that way. Make sure that your engine is clean before you take the cover off, falling debris will fall in the oil pan, which is bad. 6. Change the timing chain. Its held on by like, bolts and stuff. Just line up the dots if you are running factory timing. This would be a great opportunity to upgrade to a better cam, while you are right there and have it all torn down... but that is another story. 7. Clean all your gasket surfaces really well, without scraping a bunch of crap into the oil pan. Oil the new timing chain with whatever oil you are running in the engine. Hit the distributor gear and fuel pump lobe on the cam with some engine assembly lube if you want. Install gaskets, put it all back together like you found it. You will likely need to adjust the ignition timing by turning the distributor forward or back, using a timing light, see other threads for that. Once you feel good about everything, cross your fingers, and turn the key.
sorry using a cell phone get straight to the point. redneck , come on now. it works dont it? next thing you know bailing wire for and exhaust hanger and a budwieser can for flex pipe will be redneck too!
Hello, Thank you so much for the information. I'm going real slow so not to lose or screw anything up. let me tell you where I'm at: I took off the radiator, fan, belts, fuel pump, power steering (i know I didn't have to but I want to replace) and distributor. I removed all of the 1/2 inch bolts. I think there were 8. I also took out the 4 oil pan screws on the front. Will that whole front cover come off together (Water pump and lower covers) ? Will I have to take off the oil pan? The big screw I figure is the main harmonic bolt. will I have to take it out, Will I need an extra puller tool to do this or can I just put a power socket on it? I video taped my progress and am going to put it on youtube and send you the link. Can you take a look when I send it and let me know if am on the right track. I'll send to you later I'm off to coach a football game. Thanks for all your help. :beers2: Jono
balancer slides off once you take the balancer bolt off then make sure fuel pump is out and pull front cover glance at the front cam bearing when you take chain off. post a pic. if nylon teeth were shredded i would pull the oil pan.
Yes, the whole cover assembly dealy will come off as a unit. You can leave the oil pan on, just the oil pan bolts that go through the timing cover need to go. The harmonic balancer is the big round steel wheel that is in front of the timing cover. There was a pulley bolted to it with like, 6? bolts, that you should have already removed. The balancer is bolted directly into the crankshaft. You need to remove it to remove the timing cover. Removing it, like we said, is kind of tricky. It is bolted directly to the crankshaft, and tightened to 200+ ft/lbs. When you try to turn it, the entire engine will rotate, making it impossible to do with hand tools. Sometimes you can get them to come off with an impact wrench, but often you will have to resort to the "redneck" way that we've described, using the starter to knock it loose. Once you have the bolt out, the balancer itself is a slip fit. It will slide right off. On Chevys I think they are a press fit, and require a puller to remove, so talking to Chevy guys may have confused you on this part.
The gist of it is the same for a 350. The 215 was the beginning of the "modern" Buick V8 family, a completely different design from the Nailheads. The 215's basic design went on to become the 300, which was stroked to the 340, which the 400 was based on, which was bored to the 430, and 455, and also the 350, which replaced the 300-340 motors in '68.... Details, maybe not, but the gist.
