Cheap to a Good Home - Added Pics

[DanStokes]

You guys have heard me mention a 1956 322CI Buick Nailhead that I bought some years back for a project the never happened (had to do with a rulebook change......).

So what's changed? Well, I got me an apprentice. Young Asa is 11 and wants to learn how to get good and grubby - just my kind of kid! His folks do Church with ME so they knew me and are willing to entrust Asa to me for a few hours a week to augment his home schooling with some hands-on. So for our first project we tackled getting the Buick to rotate and then free of its transmission. I expanded the lesson and we also put it on one of the engine stands. Next session (after I get back on my feet following surgery) we'll clean out the pan and maybe pull a piston so he can see what one looks like as well as torquing the rod cap back on (I don't have a bolt stretch gage).

The engine now rotates though it'll take more PB Blaster and rolling over before it's fully free. Nonetheless, it looks like an easy rebuild based on my preliminary observations and there's no need to pound it apart with a sledge hammer. I'm thinking the Dynaflow may have been the major source of the bind though I'm not positive of that.

I'll consider ANY offers as long as the end user works with me to pick it up. This would work great in a street rod or some other vintage ride and my main goal is to see it get used. Egge and others offer parts (rings, bearings, valvetrain parts, etc.) so it shouldn't be too hard to get it back to being a sound engine. It comes with a free Dynaflow that you have to take to get the engine!

So some pics:




The bores look pretty good. That rust stain is very shallow, just a stain.



The cart with most of the odds and ends. This was a complete engine when I got it so all the bits are there though I'd rebuild it.

[squirrel]

Doesn't look like there's a ridge at the top of the bore, but it's hard to tell from pictures. Are the pistons marked with an oversize, or not?

[DanStokes]

Doesn't look like there's a ridge at the top of the bore, but it's hard to tell from pictures. Are the pistons marked with an oversize, or not?

Haven't looked that far into it yet but it seems pretty unmolested. I didn't notice any ridge but haven't done the fingernail check yet. Probably tomorrow will be a grubby day (ME has plans for me for later today so I'm staying clean) and I'll see what I see.

Dan

[Russell]

There is a lot of meat between the cylinders! I hope it finds a good home.

[STINEY]

I R & R’d one of those once in a ‘59 Buick. Neat engine. HEAVY engine, but then it was a heavy car too. I bet that engine stand was begging for mercy until the manifold and heads came off.

[DanStokes]

Dunno. I pulled the heads years ago so I could start soaking the bores hoping to get it unstuck. I started soaking the bores with whatever slippery stuff I had in my hand whenever I walked past it - WD40, PB Blaster, etc. and did that for probably 8 years or so. Guess it worked, more or less.

But they spared no cast iron making these. Remember, this was the early 1950's when they started to cast them (pretty sure '52 was the last year for the straight 8 though I'd need to fact check that) so the thin wall casting techniques didn't yet exist. Buick's goal was for these to be smooth, quiet, and indestructible and they pretty much hit those benchmarks.

Let's find it a home!

Dan

[DanStokes]

More pics per Jim's questions:

First, there's little detectable ridge. I'll rent a ridge reamer just to be sure but it's limited.


Cleaned up piston. No oversize indications on the crown but not sure what the "L" means. Maybe "Lifter Galley" as that's where they point.


Shot from the bottom. I've seen the oversize stamped on the wrist pin bosses but nothing there either so I'm guessing it's a standard bore.



So why was this fine Buick parked? Think this is the answer:



The broken chunks looked pretty nasty, like they'd been bouncing around in the combustion chamber, so I don't think I broke this when we broke the engine loose. When I'm back on my feet and Asa and I get a chance to mess with this again I think we'll pull that piston and see just how nasty it is. That will also give Asa a chance to look at a piston, see how the reciprocating parts work, etc. Anyone who gets this engine will have to replace that slug anyhow so there's nothing lost.

Dan

[squirrel]

you can measure the top of the bore with a caliper or even a scale (if your eyes are good) and see how big it is...but to measure the bore down a bit further requires more complicated instruments

Some engines have L and R pistons, having to do with the dome shape vs the pin offset.

[DanStokes]

you can measure the top of the bore with a caliper or even a scale (if your eyes are good) and see how big it is...but to measure the bore down a bit further requires more complicated instruments

Some engines have L and R pistons, having to do with the dome shape vs the pin offset.

Don't think that's what the "L" is for as all the pistons have the L at the top regardless of side and the dome shape is consistent from side to side indicating that they didn't put the pistons in wrong.

I know the drill on bore measurement having done displacement checks on flatheads at Bonneville I don't own a dial bore gage or even a snap gage so I'll probably just measure the top of the bore with the caliper and call that close enough. And I can measure the piston once I get it out and add the clearance so that'll give me a close approximation. Pretty sure it's stock, however.

Dan

[squirrel]

interesting...I've encountered stock bore engines with a ridge at the top that is exactly the stock bore size, and stock bore engines where the ridge has been reamed, and the top of the bore is quite a bit bigger than the bottom. And a few stock bore engines with no ridge and no wear, but none of those were from the 1950s!

[DanStokes]

We'll see what I get a chance to get back on it. By buddy Dave (owns the repair shop at the end of our street) might have a dial bore gage that I can borrow so that's a maybe.

Dan