I've had Dynaflow Buicks since I was 17, and that was a loooooooonnnnngggg time ago. Still have one, along with many other makes. These are superlative cars, and I've owned most American and some foreign makes and still do. That 364 V-8 in your '57 is a great engine ... swapping a 401 won't gain you much. However, doing a bit of massaging of the 364 while it's apart - say swapping a few higher-vitamin Century or Roadmaster 364 engine bits - will wake it up! Regarding the Dynaflow and leaks - I think good ol' Transmission Bob here in Tucson ("Same Old Bob, Same Old Place - Since 1968) says it best: "Drive a Dynaflow every other day and it won't leak. Drive it once a week or once a month and plan to have a drip pan under it when parked." I would wager that trans in your car will need nothing more than fresh fluid in the trans, and don't forget to drain the torque converter too. The AACA website has directions for this under the thread "Dynaflow Question." Good luck and I appreciate your plan to keep it stock!
Overcame my first little challenge. One of the bolts through the lower control arm and ball joint was seized in there solid!! Got the nut off fine but the bolt wouldn't budge. Beat it with a sledge and mushroomed the end of the bolt but the bolt didn't move. I ground that side flush to the control arm and figured maybe the bolt head is rusted solid to the arm so I ground the bold head off flush to the arm on the other side . beat it with hammer and punch still wouldn't move. Gave up for the night. Got a little propane torch today and heated the hell out if it but still couldn't get it to budge. Just couldn't get enough force with the punch. OK time to rig something up. I taped a small socket to a hammer and set that up against the end of the bolt after heating it with the torch again then smacked that hammer with a sledge . this way I could get some real force on it. After a few good solid hits and me hoping the socket wouldnt fly apart and take out a eye it gave way and started to go. From there I could get it out with a punch. Improvise , adapt , and overcome ! I ordered a deluxe front end rebuild kit from kanter now that I got that last ball joint off I'll mail those in to them as cores tomorrow and should get the kit in about 3 weeks.
I've been ordering parts... Front end rebuild kit from kanter , ball joints ( EXPENSIVE ) , front disc brake conversion brackets from scarebird , all other brake parts needed from Napa , shocks , bumpers all that from oldbuickparts.com , waiting on springs to ship and I'll have everything to put the front end together.
Yeah, unfortunately the '57 is a one-year only ball joint. Hope you didn't have to mortgage the farm to buy 'em!
Pulled the rear end apart to check it out and wow that's not good! Posted in a Buick group about it on Facebook and found a guy parting out a 57 near me. Not only am I getting the differential from it but also getting the complete 364 nailhead out of it all for $200!!
Got the complete front end rebuilt kit from kanter for $1800. The ball joints were like $1500 of that. My alerts aren't working either.
Got the rest of the frame cleaned and painted and my springs finally came. Was trying to figure out how to get the springs in since its a bare frame jacking the control arm up would just lift the frame. Decided to use my big ass ratch strap to strap the jack and frame together so it could compress the springs. Yeah it was a bit scary. I text me wife she was at work and told her to text me in 10 mins to make sure I'm not dead before I tried it lol. It worked! Started putting a few things together. The scarbird disc conversion all fit together great. Yes I know that caliper is on the wrong side I just grabbed one to see if it would fit its not bolted on.
I had two 1956 Buick Century convertibles. Loved them. you could cruise all day at 80. One was wrecked by a drunk. Thank god no one was hurt. The other had robin egg blue paint and a white top and wide whites. I wound up trading in after I got out of College. I still miss it. Tom
Got a motor. 364 from another 57 it has a 4 barrel so that's pretty cool. Guy also gave me the tranny with it didn't need that but hey I'll take it. Also got a rear end from him for the center section since mine is screwed. All for $200. Was going to get it stripped and to the machine shop but that's going to have to wait until next month. I went on vacation to marthas vineyard and had some people I thought I could trust house sit and take care of my animals and they ended up ripping me off . Got about $3k worth of stuff so my car money for this month went to replacing that. One of these days I'll see them again and they'll get $3k worth of ass beating.
I was able to get it to the machine shop after all. So they are going to tear it all down get it all checked out then hit me with the quote for the long block in about 3 weeks. If I'm lucky I'll have enough by then to get it done. It is not fun seperating a trans from a locked up motor! I was able to finally seperate it enough to get a wrench in between the motor and trans and get at the bolts in there that way. So I loaded it up in my old truck and had my wife drop it off for me while I was at work. Managed to piss off the machine shop and my wife lol. Machine shop said they would have quoted me more if they knew how bad a condition the engine was in. I don't feel thats my fault though cause I did tell them it looked like its been sitting at least 20 years. I " forgot " to mention to my wife the money I gave here to give them was just a deposit and not what the whole build would cost but the machine shop told my wife that lol.
www.nailheadbuick.com, if you haven't been to this site check it out especialy the tech info before you let anybody work on it. it's russ martin's ,nailhead guru, web site.
Well the machine shop had fun . first said they had to cut a few rods , then a few days later the pistons are stuck lol. Yeah this motor wasn't in good shape but I knew that. Its apart now ready for shake and bake. Also the rear end I picked up looks good .
With my engine in the machine shop the last few weeks Ive been waiting to get the final quote which I'll get this week before doing anything else . I already bought all the front suspension stuff though so I got all new grade 8 bolts and got that all put together.
looks like some one was doing neutral slams in 1973 !!!! probably out in front of the high school !!!!!!!!!!!!
Some progress but the machine shop is taking FOREVER to get me a quote . Its holding up other things.
have abandoned my engine build. I found a deal I couldn't pass up on a complete everything but the block and bare heads new 364. I bought it from a machine shop who built it for a guy that went bankrupt and couldn't pay them. I called and talked to them about it and they sent me the build sheet everything looked great. The shop just wanted their parts money back so sold it to me for just their parts cost. My new engine
Congratulations, if you were a nicer guy, you would have called and told me about that engine instead of grabbing it up yourself. I'm sure I wanted the Special deal of the Century more than you did. Haha, lame pun... you have a Special, mine is a Century. Good for you my friend. You planning to run that intake? What does it have for a cam? Now what about the transmission, good time to upgrade that too, TH400 from a Jeep?
I' going to run it like it is if I decide to change it I have the single 4 barrel intake I can put on. It has a mild cam enough to sound good but still idle nice. Since I have the torque tube and dont want to deal with fabing a rear suspension I'm just using the stock dynaflow trans.
The Jalopy Journal
