Project Franken-Riviera -1964 Buick Riviera-

[CTX-SLPR]

Well let it sit over the week I was gone and came back and the battery was still at 12.96V so if there is a drain, it's microscopic.

Found a vacuum hose disconnected so I plugged that in and I also dumped a quart of ATF into the oil to thin it out and make sure it got everywhere it needed to.

Started up just fine and the knocking sounds were all gone. However the ticking/clanking sounds from valvetrain were still there and maybe even louder than before. I think it's because I swapped the heads side to side to eliminate the EGR completely (one of the CNC ported heads has the passage drilled) since it pulls from only a single side and that changed the valve clearance. I'll pull the valve covers and relash the valves and check that I have oil getting up to the valvetrain.

I'm still chasing why the Autometer tach is not working as I've tried plugging it into the ignition module directly and the ECM Tach output and nothing comes up on the gauge.

This means the carshow this weekend is a bust but I'll keep plugging away at getting it all fixed. There's another show in Oct and if it works well a Buick show in Denver later this month I can try to hit.

[CTX-SLPR]

Rattle sound was not any of the valve train, what it was is almost stupid... The block off plate that I have on the turbo exhaust housing so I don't have to run a whole turbo to get the exhaust system done once was the source of the rattle. It was thin enough material that it was oil canning and when I pushed on it with a screwdriver it stopped. Interim fix is I stuck a 2in welding magnet on it and that quieted it up completely.

Transmission leak is coming from the electrical connection pass through and a slight weep at the shift select lever. Put a new seal on the shift select lever and am looking up how to seal up that stupid electrical connector!

After all of this I might actually get a chance to see if the transmission is any good or just low on fluid from the constant leak. Cruise in is the first Saturday in Oct and I hope to be there!

[CTX-SLPR]

Well the governor housing was leaking and tightening it up seams to have slowed the trans leak down to something at near a drip, I'll count that one as a victory and done. I also checked that the internal electrical stuff for the switch pitch and kickdown are working when 12V goes to the external terminal. The control box however on the TPS is DOA, which means I'm calling them tomorrow to see if I can have another one made and actually tested before delivered. Been too busy with other things to mess with testing the switch in the years since I custom ordered it. Basically it's a double window switch so I can set the kickdown and high stall trigger points as a % of TPS.

I finally broke down in tightening up exhaust bolts since I could hear an exhaust leak and the WBO2 was reading very lean despite the rich smell to the exhaust and put a gasket on the offending side of the motor. The Ultra Copper RTV didn't hold up. The sounds of a leak are gone but I didn't have time to put the scanner on it and read the WBO2 to see if it was back to something reasonable.

Got the throttle "minimum air" set so that it idles better but might have to play with it more. See the EFI section for my question about a whistling IAC.

I think I can get it down off of the jackstands and drive it soon, just need to do one last piece of wiring while the fender is off and turns out that one of my wife's new friend's husband is a body man so I'm taking the fender to him tomorrow so he can give me an estimate on how much to straighten it.

I think I'll actually make Saturday's cruise though tuning will still take a while to get so it's not such a dog without the turbo.

[mopar57]

slow and steady progress, hope the road trip woprks, I like this car and the direction you are going.

[CTX-SLPR]

Made it to the cruise without trouble. I thought my TPS controller box was hanging the switch pitch in high stall since it's a dog off the line. At the cruise I unplugged it and proceeded to get around 4 cars away when a small crowd would gather to look under my hood so I'd go back to the car.
When it came time to leave I tried to start it and it wouldn't start, just crank and crank... I could smell the fuel and hear the pump so I suddenly realized that 6yrs ago when I wired up the engine I hot wired the coils to direct 12V and I wasn't getting spark. Plugged it in and it struggled and started since it was partially flooded.
On the way home things were great since I pulled the relay for the switch pitch and it was in low stall... till it started popping out the intake and died on the side of the road. I limped it down the side of the road to a gas station figuring it was out of gas and the gas gauge just read 1/4 tank when it was really empty. Ran great after putting 5 gal in!

Now I've got a short list of things that have to be done. Mainly fixing an oil leak on my remote oil filter bracket and un-hot-wiring the coils since I think that's also causing my troubles with the tach. All in all a very good morning!

[CTX-SLPR]

I cleaned it up for the first time in 3yrs with a mop and hot soapy water. It was so bad that it looked great with just that much effort.

Not what people were expecting...

Leaving the show:

[TheSilverBuick]

Feels good to get out and about in a car that's sat for a while, even better when washed.

[mlcraven]

Must be a great feeling to be back on the road...I must confess that your wiring thrash made my under-dash experiences seem trivial in comparison.

[CTX-SLPR]

Thanks for the reinforcement of why I do this in the first place. It still sitting where I parked it Saturday morning but it looks like the oil leak is resolved with new sealant and a plug instead of a gauge sender I wasn't actually using.

Just scored some '69 Riviera road wheels (15x6) which are mainly a stylistic upgrade however 68-69 road wheels are arched, like a Torque Thrust D, for 4 piston brake caliper clearance that the earlier wheels aren't. While this still might require spacers to fit, it's practically guaranteed to clear the F-body calipers and might clear the R32 Skyline 4 piston units. Either way happy to get them. Picking them up on Saturday and will get the brake caliper brackets made quickly so I can get the tires swapped over and the wheels on the car.

[CTX-SLPR]

No work done or pictures of the car sitting in the driveway but I did snap some of the wheels before I put them in the garage. Major score for $60 and 2 have already had the centering rings knocked out like I needed to do.

[TheSilverBuick]

Nice! I need to pick up two more for my drag radials. Currently the Centurion's rear wheels are two different tire sized steelies until I get the drag radials off it's rims.

[CTX-SLPR]

Nice! I need to pick up two more for my drag radials. Currently the Centurion's rear wheels are two different tire sized steelies until I get the drag radials off it's rims.

Do you have the 15x6's or the Estate Wagon 15x7's? Not that the 15x7's are easy to find but they are out there.

Huge night for me last night working on the Riv overall. First I knew that I could hear a vacuum leak on the passengers side so I pulled the PCV hose and found it was fine on the outside but cracked straight through on inside creating a big vacuum leak so we replaced that hose and it started without hesitation from dead cold, the idle stabilized, and the sucking sound was gone.
Next we went looking for more vacuum leaks and found that spraying starting fluid around the IAC housing gasket produced a noticeable uptick in idle. Pulled the housing off and found that 3 of the 4 cap screws were bottoming out on the TB and not holding the bracket down. I'll be heading to Fastenal today to pick up 4 shorter screws or if they are ridiculously priced a nut so I can run it back off after cutting 0.25in off of them.

Finally on the wheels.... HUGE SCORE!!! F-body calipers clear without a hitch, the 4 piston R32 calipers barely drag on the wheel and clear with a 0.125in spacer which will also take care of the tires rubbing on the frame. I'll be ordering the spacers once I finalize the list of parts I need to save on Summit shipping. I also have an early prototype caliper mount for the R32 calipers vs nothing at all for the F-body units. I am probably going to redo the hydroboost mounting since the pedal is very flaky and wants to bind with the short pushrod needed to mount the hydroboost directly to the firewall like the stock booster.

[TheSilverBuick]

I think they are 15x6". They all came off Centurions.

[CTX-SLPR]

Gotta love Fastenal when they have it in stock $0.69 for 4 stainless capscrews... Got to get some punches to make the holes in the new gasket since the old gasket has index dowel holes that are causing bridging between sides of the IAC and the likely source of my whistle.

[CTX-SLPR]

Today I had an adventure with my 3.5yr old son on making a new gasket for the IAC block since the old one has two holes that allowed a leak between sides of the motor and that's what was likely causing the whistle. Enjoy the pictures.

You can barely see how the unused holes (originally for index pins) allowed air to go between sides of the IAC block


Liam and some of the supplies


Liam helping punch holes


We've got bolt holes!


Old and new gaskets side by side.


New gasket on the IAC block, I did go back and clean up the fuzz on the rounded corners