Hey guys, I definetly have to replace my rear main seal leaking oil pretty good now, also got to change out dipstick tube that repair shop crushed when adding on headers:ball:. Now question #1 willl motor have to be pulled to change out rear main seal? If so is now the time to change valve seal and add cam, lifters/ and push rods??? Next I have a set of 3.23 gears and a shift kit but my car is non posi I believe can these just be installed to car or do I need to rebuild rear end with posi??? Also does the clutch have to be touched with this being done... Just want to know how involved this really will get $$$$ wise cause i don't have the skills to do this myself.. Thx
You will need an rebuild on the rear end to add a different gearing and possi. best left to a pro... Order a possi/limited slip from Monzaz at 330-990-8155, also order a rebuild kit but find a good rebuilder or you will be sorry. Use the 3.23 gear... 3.73 will be a pretty high rev on the highway. If I was pulling the engine to do the rear main I would also have the timing set replaced and might as well do the cam and lifters too. If you are going to the trouble of swapping the cam etc might as well have the heads ported and rebuilt... That is the best bang for the buck on this engine. It is less hassle to me to pull the engine to change the rear main seal. I always leave my trans in place when I pull the Buick 350s out. I remove the inspection plate under the trans, un-bolt the torque converter bolts, un-do the bellhousing bolts from the trans to the engine. Remove the exhaust and starter. Loosen the engine mount bolts but leave them in place. next remove the battery, radiator and fan shroud, dis-connect the throttle cable and the trans kick down cable. Remove the ground strap from the back of one of the heads to the chassis. Take a marker for a whiteboard and trace the outside of the hinges. Have a friend help you remove the hood. Bolt up a chain from the back of one head the the front of the other head on a diagonal. Roll up the engine hoist and take up the slack do the engine mount bolts are no longer under any weight. Go under the car and remove the bolts and continue raising the engine out of the car. It just so happens I wrote and instructional paper on how to do this job. I will paste it in below: I just changed my rear seal and this is how I suggest you do it. It only took 1 day to get the motor out of the car and get the oil pan off and the rear main cap off. Another day to get it back together and back in the car. Heres how I did it. With the motor out 1. remove the oil pan 2. clean the oil off the botom rear of the block 3. find the small pins that are wedged into small rubber blocks on each side of the rear cap on the oil pan mounting surface. revove the pins with needle nose pliers then dig out the rubber with a thin screwdriver 4. remove one bolt form the flywheel and spray a little paint in the threads so you can match it back up later now remove the rest of the bolts 5.remove the 2 bolts holding the rear main onto the block 6. using an old flathead and a hammed LIGHTLY tap down on the caps alternating from on side of the crank to the other till it comes out 7. inspect the old seal, there should be some rope in the skinny groove in the cap 8. if your going to use a neoprene seal then you just need to remove the old rope. The part in the cap is no problem but you'll need a peice of wire bent to a curve to push ou the rope thats up between the block and the crank. It may take some time to get it out but it helps to rotate the motor in the direction you are trying to get the rope out 9. With all the rope removed now you need to cut small peices of scotchbright pads to feed up through were the old rope was to clean it. Use the wire you used before to feed it through. Repeat till the pads come out the other side of the crank clean 10. remove the neoprene seal from the package and aply a thin coat of rtv to the back side of the seal MAKE SURE THE SEAL IS INSTALLED WITH THE LIP FACING INSIDE THE MOTOR. (NOTE: It is a good idea to staggar or offset the ends of the seal with the junction between the cap and block because this is a prone spot for leakage) slide one half of the seal up into the grove between the crank and the block untill there is about 2 inches hangin out. Now you take the other half of the seal and slid it into the groove between the crank and block from the other side. Now you should have the two peices meeting each other closer to one side on the bottom of the crank. Cover the top of the cap with a tin coat of rtv. slide the rear main cap carefully up into the block and ensure with a flashlight that the seal is seated into the groove in the cap then put the 2 bolts in and turn them in by hand 11. slide the new rubber blocks into the slots between the cap and block on each side then drive in the metal pins. they must sit flush with the block or the oil pan will leak. 12. torque the main bolts to spec 13. put on the oil pickup cover 14. put on the oil pan wiht a new gasket and a magnetic drain plug from TA 15. find the paint marks you made and pu the flywheel back on, torque to spec 16. drop the motor back in and hopefully you will have no more leaks! Worked for me.
Yeah that's what I thought with the rear end so I will hold off for the rear end and start with the rear main seal. Thanks for the break down but to get all of that work done would be way out of my bolt on comfort zone especially with no experienced help, but thanks for the knowledge now I know what to expect. Would you recommend me to get a performance rebuild kit and go that route or buy things individually?
Your best bet might be to find another Buick 350 in your area and fix that one up and swap it in later. There really is nothing too hard about swapping engines... The tricky part is building them.... Take a Buick 350 to a machine shop and have them give you a quote for the machine work. Once you know what machine work is required sit down with the machine shop and decide on a Master Rebuild Kit from Northern Auto, as you will have to specify the piston over bore, bearing sizes etc. Ask Northern to delete the cam and cam bearings. Then order a camshaft and cam bearings from TA performance, they can help you pick a good cam. Spend a bit of money paying to have the heads ported and you will be pleased with the results. Also you might be able to just use a good 2500 Stall torque converter and leave your rear gear ratio alone if you want... This will help you get off the line better than you do now. This way you could just add another torque converter when you drop in the good engine... If you can find a good running engine then you could also go the cheap route and do a top end rebuild consisting of a camshaft, lifters, timing set, head rebuild and port. Find a 68-70 engine if you want higher compression. Just buy a cheap Buick 350 to build and learn as you go... It is easy to swap an engine, and we can talk you through it.:TU:
Have you ever considered putting some bigger rims on there? That might help with the performance gainso No:
Yea thanks buddy, the thought was not to race but to be able to play around town with it in between car shows:spank: ---------- Post added at 12:36 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:23 PM ---------- @ sean buick Thanks for the help never thought about just getting another block to play around with outside the car. That relieves some of the pressure of doing something wrong and having to get a tow. Thanks for positive feed back...
No worries... Pm me and I can give you my e-mail address.. That way you can ask me questions anytime directly if you want... PS, I want to see some more pics of your car with those nice wheels!
Thx they are 20x8 on front and 20x9.5 on rear I like em allot get big compliments at car show have at least 4" lip on front 6" lip on rear car sits nice not lifted just heavy duty shocks and springs gives good pro street look. I'll post some pics from the rear side of car so you can see what I mean
I did a rear main on my GS laying on my back and thought it was pretty easy.. Relatively speaking.. Hear is what you don't have to do.. Touch any wiring drain radiator and disconnect any hoses unbolt tranny remove hood for most people remove radiator for most unbolt exhaust touch any vacuum hoses or fuel lines set up engine hoist set up engine stand remove AC unit.. Jack up the engine a little and the pan slips right out..
Still trying to recover from shoulder surgery guys, and my motorcycle is blocking the car in. took some garage pics but are too dark, I haven'tForgot the pics tho..
I saw this car in person a few years ago. It is a clean, good looking ride. Glad to see you still working on it Dave.
Alright just geeting back to this thread, mission finally accomplished got neopro rear main seal installed, rear main bearings also had to be replaced so everything took alittle longer waiting for parts to get in but all back together and oh got the dipsitck installed... But now next problem took the car out for a ride and after 45min to an hour car started to hesitated sitting at the light, idle started bouncing around alittle bit but took off when light turned green. A few lights later still hesitating put car in netural or park idle comes up and runs fine when I put the car in drive to go car dies.....Wtf is all i could think anyone else got a clue.o No:
