I should start this with an apology; I put this car back together without a build thread, and I came across a lot of problems in the process that I was able to resolve and should have been documented. I get a lot of enjoyment from the build threads here and I did not contribute myself, and I apologize for that. The story goes, I bought this car in 2010 in my early 20’s, and drove it almost daily until 2012 when it broke down in Long Beach. The 4 speed hydro had snapped a band, and it came home on a flat bed. Even then guys who knew how to fix them were getting scarce, so I shelled out the cash to have the case on a spare th400 I had laying around adapted to early olds V8 by Ross Racing. I also took the engine apart, and found the block had been bored .030 over but the crank was not turned, nor were the heads reworked. I had that machine work done, partially assembled the short block, and sent the heads to a very good but unreliable machine shop. After 9 months I got them back, but I had lost steam on the project and there it sat, for about 12 years. Fast forward last year- I got engaged and decided a few months later after a dream that I should use the car as the getaway vehicle from the wedding. The short block, heads, transmission, car… Everything had been sitting. Some things still needed purchasing, which still (of course) added up to thousands of dollars. To top all of that off, about this time I went into business for myself, so the budget was really tight. I worked on it almost entirely in the evenings after dark, sometimes staying up as late as 2 am. This is part of the reason I did not do a good job documenting the process- it was full speed ahead whenever I had time for it. I used to travel extensively for work, and luckily I was only away for about 8 weeks total this year. Despite that, I got the car moving under its own power only about a week before the wedding day. The wedding was in my backyard which took a lot of my time preparing, and I was lucky enough to have a good neighbor who is a (very recently) retired fleet mechanic and was willing to help with some finishing touches like brakes, actually washing and vacuuming the car, etc… It was that close. Got married on Saturday, and the car took us to the hotel and back, just as planned. It thankfully waited until Tuesday to develop a sticky lifter, but that and this is where it is at currently. I will update with anecdotes and incidents along the way as I have time, as well as progress going forward.
I was pretty adamant about keeping it… However I wouldn’t blame anyone for swapping one in just to get miles on the road. This sticky lifter situation could potentially cost me the entire summer driving the car… I will probably replace them with SBC lifters, and that will mean custom pushrods and I might as well go with a custom camshaft grind at that point. It was the original plan, but I did not have the time or money to go that route initially. The quality of modern replacement parts for these old rocket motors is extremely disappointing.
Damned car can’t share. The original breakdown occurred on a date… I generally didn’t like bringing it out on dates, but the OT but still old truck I had at the time was down. No, she was not the one I married… she wasn’t as good of a sport as my now wife I guess. One of two replies I was hoping to earn. Hopefully it’s Marvel Mystery oil so I can drive it for the rest of the summer.
A lot of hell was raised back during the first go round… My friends and I were in our early 20’s with a bunch of HAMB friendly cars before any of us knew what it was.
I had a sticky lifter on my 472 Cad engine that had sat for 20 years before I put it in my 49 Buick. I drove it like that only about 400 miles per year for 3 years. All of a sudden the lifter quit ticking and the engine was quiet. Use a high detergent oil and change it every 2000 miles and the lifter may come around.
I'd try some Sea Foam in it. I have good luck getting some engines to free up a lifter with it . I used it on a 4.3 V6 in a customers forklift last month and to my surprise after a day it suddenly got quiet. I changed to oil out right away after it got quiet . Cool car and I like the engine m
Thank you, I hope it will work. This is a fresh rebuild with less than 100 miles on it so I am afraid that I am in for a little more parts and labor. If I get time I will change the oil tomorrow morning or the following morning.
A 55 Olds 88 brought me home from the hospital when I was manufactured. We had it for the next 27 years. I’m sure it’s the reason I am still in love with all things automotive.
I changed the oil yesterday and only got about 3.5 quarts out of a 6 quart oil change back. There is evidence on the street that it is randomly barfing oil, but the mess under the oil pan and crossmembers doesn’t look like half of the oil ran down it. My driveway looks fine, which was suspicious in its own right. It looked more like the (tired) drain plug gaskets were leaking, so I replaced them with rubber washers. The car doesn’t smoke or smell; I’m going to pull the plugs today nonetheless to see if they have a story to tell. I do have a PCV valve and grommet installed where the road draft tube was, and it popped out at some point. There is a baffle inside of the block that should prevent oil getting out that way, and no sign of mess on the bell housing portion of the block. If that keeps giving me fits the road draft tube will find its way back on there. Otherwise the oil looked fine, there wasn’t any glitter or distinct metal bits.
I only had enough time to check 4 plugs; none of which look like they burned 3 quarts: cylinder 1: cylinder 7: cylinder 2: cylinder 8: I might be running a little rich, the primary jet size is 56 if I remember right and the secondaries are 54’s, right out of the Charlie price kit. I also have not done any idle circuit tuning since I got it running… Been using the same settings from when it was originally on the engine as a single 2 barrel 15 years ago. The spacing is extremely tight on this edelbrock intake, and getting a screwdriver (even a right angle wrench) on the mixture screws is going to be challenging. I have block off plates for the secondaries as well. Should I remove them temporarily and set it, or fight with it installed?
I was able to set the idle with my fingertips- the idle mixture screws are knurled so I did the usual 2 turns out and adjusted from there for highest vacuum. I have also had a disagreement with the accelerator pump on the primary carb- the one in it swelled and was hanging up in the bore. A replacement carb kit supplied me with a defective pump, so after exercising the one year warranty about 5 days into it I got a new kit and it seems to be running pretty well now. I put a bunch of bullshit OT cars inside the shop so I got to be a literal shade tree mechanic today. The 2x4 keeps me from throwing shit, which tends to happen after I hit my head on the corner of the hood.
The Jalopy Journal
