Buick Straight Eight Jalopy Rebuild

So i am trying to breathe new life in to my 52 buick special on a 1952 beer budget. In short it was locked up, broke it loose and had low compression on half the cylinders (35psi) others were almost perfect (100 psi). Car has sat since 93. The plan is to yank the pistons and rering and hone. However i have some ridges on a few cylinders. Do i ream the ridge to prevent piston damage or i do leave it and take my chances. I know a lot of rich people or by the book whimps would say if theres a ridge it needs to be bored however, pistons alone are almost 500 bucks. Not to mention the machine shop bill. So for those who have done so sucessfully will it be feasible to hone and rering it as planned? Do i ream the ridge on the cylinders requiring it? I dont want to give up on the straight eight. I dont want to be the guy that opens his hood on another SBC. The hood is a football field long for a reason.

Thoughts ???? Comments?????????? Advice?????

 

Depends on how big the ridge is,try honing it and see what happens.I wouldn'y rering until the ridge is gone even if it means taking it to a maching shop.Good luck

 

You know it probably needs to be bored already, but if you are going to try the rering then cut the ridges off so the pistons can come out without damage. Rings are going to hang up on the ridge and can damage the pistons.

 

Fwiw and a former straight eight 320" Buick owner, join theBuick Club of America, cheap dues, lots of great people, parts and advice. I applaud you for keeping the eight, it was the Dynaflows that always gave me trouble!

 

For many years, engine overhauls were done without the benefit of a machine shop. Tear it down, ream the ridge, remove the pistons and rods, check the bearings (Buick had inserts in '52 did they not?); hone the cylinders , install the new standard rings, replace bearings if needed, (Check the crank for scored journals while you're into it-you may have to have crank ground ), put it all back together. Low compression might also indicate a need for a valve grind. That's the one thing best left to the machine shop.

 

The head I know needs some work. I'm going to have it decked .100 to raise the compression slightly and have the valves reground. I know by doing a static test that some of the valves were leaky. I was able to raise the compression by adding some oil through the plug hole. I would then pressurize to 100 psi with the shop air and it would hold for a little while until all oil was pushed past the rings. I am assuming the rings are stuck to the piston and not expanding to seat against the wall. Knowing that the rings were stuck to the cylinder wall for 20 years tells me that it is very likely. I tried for 3 weeks to get her to run but she wouldn't. Car was redone in the 80's (interior and re chromed) and was someones pride and joy, bummer is it sat outside for 10 years and the door seals let water in and did some damage to the interior. I picked up this car and 61 bel air for 2k and the bel air runs and drives.

 

Cast iron rings will work in some pretty worn bores and are good for maybe 50,000 miles. Don't try to hone the ridge away, as there is a tool, ridge reamer, that actually cuts it. Stop cutting before it starts scoring the area where the rings travel. This tool is probably available as a loaner at some of the parts houses. On reassembly, be sure to stagger the ring end gaps and be careful of cleanliness and the details. If the bearings are to be reused, sometimes they will be likely to fall out of the rod before assembly, and if they aren't in there just right you can get a spun bearing that can ruin the crank and rod. This can be alleviated by standing them up on an oily piece of glass and applying some downward pressure to cause the shell to spread a tad. Careful though!
Hope this helps. I know most folks believe that the only way to do a motor is to go all the way, but the truth is maybe they're right, but maybe sometimes you'd be surprised. I've even knurled piston skirts to tighten them up and was able to get some pretty worn stuff back on the road without abnormal oil consumption.

 

I love the straight 8's. I have a 37 Special that is an original driver, and have taken it on some long slow trips around the midwest. They are solid motors, and as pointed out in a previous post it was normally the DynaFlow trans that caused problems. I'm 80% finished building a 263 to replace the 248 in the 37, just need to build the intake and header to finish it up. Converted to full-flow oil filtering, and also built some new rocker stands, as the original aluminum ones tend to crack at the base. I had Dimitri Elgin regrind the cam and reface the lifters. I took .050 off of the head and .050 off the block to come up with the same .100 you're doing. PLEASE LOOK at the picture that shows where I had to remove a bit of casting in the combustion chamber just below the spark plug in order to provide clearance for the pistons, which will kiss the head due to the .100 decking you're doing. At least mine did. The pistons do stick up into the chamber a bit. I've attached a couple of pics to show where the rocker stands crack, and what I did to permanently "fix" that problem.

 

When built right and using good components the Buick straight eight OHV engines can really be a surprising performer. None are a high RPM engine. All are Torque Monsters at a bout 3500 RPM's. There is a built 320 (now 336) that goes out to the Dry Lakes with a full roller cam setup custom rods and pistons and a good HEI using 8.5 wires and also a multi- throttle body setup for fuel management. 1.88 gears = 226. MPH and nothing ever breaks. Not bad for a engine that is 60 + years old! The exhaust roar from this eight does command attention too.
Normbc9

 

Thanks for the information on the decking (Ebbsspeed). I was a little suspicious of that being too close. Are there any option besides total custom intake? Or finding a 41-42 manifold for less than a million dollars. Just curious.

 

"porknbeaner" had a good , basic "teardown thread on here
yesterday or the day before, CHECK IT OUT !!!

 

I'm not aware of any other options for an intake than what you've mentioned. The good thing is that header flanges are available (Hot Rod Chassis and Cycle, Alliance Vendor on the HAMB) and they are pretty simple to make. I still haven;t decided if I'll run four individual Mikunis, a pair of carter WGD's. or a pair of Weber DCOE's.

 

I was thinking about going with fuel injection on my 49 I was thinking about swaping in a complete stock system off of an early 90s roadmaster its a two barrel throttle body it should bolt right on there is no maf or anything like that to deal with just a couple sensors. Has anyone ever tried this?

 

Sat Cat Racing but theres a whole lot more to it then that with the siamezed intake ports

 

Throttle body would work OK, since it's mixing the air/fuel way upstream from the ports, just like a carb does. The issue with doing port injection is that it's very hard to get the same mixture to the two cylinders that share each intake port, since the intake events of those adjacent cylinders are not evenly spaced, with the firing order being 1-6-2-5-8-3-7-4. The Salt Cat straight eight head is highly modified, with a separate intake port for each cylinder. Check out this video and imagine the surgery they had to do to make it that way.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQrduPZ1xfI

 

So i yanked out the pistons and discovered my rings are glued to the pistons, which is a good thing. They are so tight there is no gap present. So who has the majic recipe to soak them? I have heard brake fluid, atf, diesel, and even simple green. I am wondering how well Evapo rust would work? I used that stuff on many other steel and cast items and it is pretty incredible stuff, only bummer is that it is 20 bucks a gallon.

I also found just one rod bearing rubbed down to copper. Looks like maybe it was oil starved at some point. So new rod bearings and rings will be thrown at her. All the crank journals look really good.

I attached some pictures of my mayhem. I also threw in a pictures of the new David Dunbar Buick bronze statue that was just revealed in down town Flint last week.

 

BTT for monday morning crowd

 

Boring has to do with the condition of the cylinder and how much piston clearance you have not on the ridge. tThe ridge is an indication of wear but it is not the entire story.

Yes ream the ridge, being broke does not mean you throw good mechanics out the window. Be careful and remember that reaming the ridge is not a final mechining process only take out what is required to get the pistons out then finish it up when you hone the cylinders.

Here is a trick that many don't do, but it is a trick, if you cylinders are on the loose side as in on the very outer limits for a cast piston but your cylinders don't have too much taper you can sometimes get away with a set of forged pistons for the same cylinder bore then just a good honeing to fit. Forged pistons use a looser cylinder set up than cast do.

While you have it apart it is also a good idea to mic your pistons and make sure you don't have any collasped skirts.

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Edit damn it:

So already torn down, kind of makes my info a moot point I suppose, well maybe someone else will use it.

Soak the rings in kerosene to get them loose. You will also need to clean the ring groove while you have the rings out of the piston. An old broken ring works well if you don't own a tool. Something else that works well is seafoam to soak the rings to get them to come lose.

Someone mentioned an old tear down and inspection thread it is located here:

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=679583&highlight=inspection

 

So i have been feeding the stove some wood and myself some coffee in the barn and progress is slow. I got the 8 Aluminum slugs back in the old iron block fitted with new rings and rod bearings. The rod bearings were cool NOS from Egge in their original 1950's packaging. Now on to the head and intake/exhaust setup. The head i am going to drop off to have checked for cracks and the deck checked for flatness. The idea of milling to bump up compression is very appealing however i think something to do next winter. I would rather have the confidence of reliability than the small gain in performance. However i may smooth out the ports some. A header style exhaust is in the works too. Intake will probably be stock for now and a rebuild and clean up of the carter carb. I have talked to a few people about cam regrinds but havent found anything yet, Egge would do it but shipping the steel yardstick to California is not exactly cheap.

Anyone know of any easy swap to a Dual circuit master cylinder? The odd ball frame mounts all seem to be single circuits.

 

GM TBI you might have to machine to adapt some of the sensors over to make it go. Or go with an aftermarket computer to run it.

 

Why not try a nitrous bottle? Reasonable, available at the turn of a valve and dead stock when you don't need it. Thinks of an HEI too.
Normbc9

 

you can also use pertronix i used it in my 37 and it works great.If you know who makes an hei for this engine would like to know that too.

 

You can modify Pontiac HEI to work, google it or search on the HAMB. Gerry Duttweiler also offers a HEI for the Buick straight 8.

 

There are also the DUI HEI for the Straight 8.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Buick-1936-1953-248-263-320-Straight-8-DUI-HEI-One-Piece-Ignition-Distributor-/120854925934?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item1c2383d26e&vxp=mtr
http://www.performancedistributors.com/gmssdui.htm
I does not look traditional however. I am using the Pertronix but I am in need to change the advance cure to fit the modern fuel.

 

First time fire up since 1993!

Still got some tweaking to do.

http://youtu.be/Ug-z1pG9bBE

 

CONGRATULATIONS !!!!


Ray

 

Congrats on the engine fire up.

 

I converted to a dual master by adapting a Wilwood Racing 1" bore MC with remote reservoirs on my 37 Special. Made simple brackets from angle steel (MC) and 16Ga. sheet steel (reservoirs) to bolt MC to original MC holes in frame and reservoirs to steering column. Brake lines were easily altered to suit.

 

Nothing since April!! How is it running?

Ben