1966 442

[82z]

Sorry to hear about your louck. I ran into simular issues with my car this year. It took 4 tries before the motor was right, even when the shop is fixing everything for free. the time and labor wears you out. put in the back up motor and enjoy the car. Glad to hear that everyone is healthy, the rest comes with time.

[tarafied1]

I love it when a car has a history like yours! I have had my car 21 years and thought that was a long time! I won't hijack your thread to tell all my troubles over the years but I do share your frustration of "life happens" and no budget. I do hope you can enjoy the summer with the 455 and get the 400 sorted out. Good luck and thanks for sharing

[SuperBuickGuy]

I totally get letting it sit for awhile. I'm so irritated at my Buick that it's going to sit until my first inclination isn't to take a sledgehammer to it (I have to pull the motor to fix an oil leak that resulted from fixing a low oil pressure problem).

Still, I'm very impressed that you caught the hitch problem and the motor problem before big damage occurred. Wish more people like you.

[Huskinhano]

That totally sucks. I've had my moments as well. What I have done is do do something even if it's just 5 minutes a week to keep to keep the momentum going. Best of luck.

I just got a Howard's Cam catalog. They have an option on some cams with an unlimited 5 year warranty. You have to use their oil supplement to keep the warranty in effect. If the cam fails for any reason even if it's totally your fault, even if you drop it on the floor and breaks in half, they'll replace it free.

[SpiderGearsMan]

one thing to consider ...bent cam ...olds cams don't fly off the shelf ...they may warp in the box
wiping out cam bearings is often overlooked , but my experience in the buick world taught me to be very sensitive to the cam bearings

[R442]

I love it when a car has a history like yours! I have had my car 21 years and thought that was a long time! I won't hijack your thread to tell all my troubles over the years but I do share your frustration of "life happens" and no budget. I do hope you can enjoy the summer with the 455 and get the 400 sorted out. Good luck and thanks for sharing

Thats the thing about keeping a car for ever, the problems never go away. I saw your car a while back on cardomain. That thing is badass.

[R442]

I totally get letting it sit for awhile. I'm so irritated at my Buick that it's going to sit until my first inclination isn't to take a sledgehammer to it (I have to pull the motor to fix an oil leak that resulted from fixing a low oil pressure problem).

Still, I'm very impressed that you caught the hitch problem and the motor problem before big damage occurred. Wish more people like you.

I'm glad to see I am not the only one that feels this way. I've been following your Buick and truck builds I like them both. How did the adjustable upper control arms work out? I've been thinking of building a set for mine, I had one of mine tear a few years back and would like something a little stronger.

It sounds like your going to have quite a truck when you get done. I love seeing purpose built vehicles.
We've had horses for 25 years and have always had Chevy/GMC trucks for pulling the trailers. You can never be to safe when it comes to trailer safety. I go through the hitch and receiver a couple times a year. I've seen and heard to many horror stories especially when you are hauling live cargo, it tends to move around by itself. We bought one horse trailer that had the front windows painted because the horse they hauled would see teh turn coming and lean before they got there.

[SuperBuickGuy]

the upper control arms work great... cheap to build too - I truly don't get why they charge better than 200 for the store-bought ones... suppose it's because they can't get red paint anymore.

that would be quite a ride if the horse leaned too early... lol

my funny animal story today - the bloodhound was out practicing her air-search skills (she has attitude and does everything with flair). So during the scent training, she was to point (with her nose) at the place where the scent was.... she pointed with her foot - never seen that before in a dog.... everyone watching was in tears laughing so hard.

[R442]

I love the air scent dogs. We had one dog that could follow the exact trail the kids would make in the back yard. The kids would try to throw her off by running in circles and criss crossing thier trail but it never worked. She ruled at hide and seek.

[R442]

That totally sucks. I've had my moments as well. What I have done is do do something even if it's just 5 minutes a week to keep to keep the momentum going. Best of luck.

I just got a Howard's Cam catalog. They have an option on some cams with an unlimited 5 year warranty. You have to use their oil supplement to keep the warranty in effect. If the cam fails for any reason even if it's totally your fault, even if you drop it on the floor and breaks in half, they'll replace it free.

Thats kind of my plan, tonight I started tearing it apart again. I'm in no big hurry but would like to try and get it running by the end of the month. That will still give a couple months of driving.
Once I get the motors swapped I'm going to inspect the damage and then see what to do next.

[SuperBuickGuy]

I love the air scent dogs. We had one dog that could follow the exact trail the kids would make in the back yard. The kids would try to throw her off by running in circles and criss crossing thier trail but it never worked. She ruled at hide and seek.

we spent a lot of money saving this one's life when she was a pup - and whether it's coincidence or higher power, dunno, but they turn out to be some of the best dogs. This one can air or track. Today was practice for competition on a new scents - so she was given the scent then told to go find it. She went straight to it - pretty amazing - but the funniest was the pointing bit, I wonder if it was the new scent that since she didn't know she was supposed to point her nose at it she was alerting to a "new" scent thus didn't use her normal point.... in any case, the rest of the class was roaring - but they also pointed out that they really don't like competing against her... fortunately for them, she's also a petslut so she will acknowledge where the scent is, go visit everyone, then go point like she's trained to do.... a bit frustrating, but also very hard to extinguish.

Most dogs are good trackers, it comes naturally, it's the handler that needs the training to recognize when the dog has found what it's supposed to find.

[Huskinhano]

Just wondering. Didn't Olds use a couple different tappet angles in their motors? What about worn tappet bores? Maybe some mis match in parts or something?

[R442]

Huskinhano

Some of the older Oldsmobile V8's had a 45deg. lifter angle but mine is 39 degs. the only difference is the lifters. Mine are .921 dia. instead of the standard .842. I have double checked the cam to verify it is the proper one.

The builder is trying to tell me that it has to be something external to the engine but I find that hard to believe. I have repalced everything except for the drive shaft. I have had a drivetrian vibration in the past but it is no worse than an out of balance tire. I have been running my old 455 for years while trying to isolate the vibration and have had no issues with that engine. When I first started driving with the new engine I had the vibration eliminated. After about 350 miles it started to vibrate again. At first it didn't seem serious but it did seem to get worse. Now I'm not sure if this was the drive line or the motor starting to go south.

I'm not sure anymore where the problem is but my plan is to get everything sorted out with the 455 before going back to the 400.

[R442]

Well its been a while but I'm still here and the 455 is still running. I am always amazed at how well the motor runs with such low oil pressure. I tore the engine apart in February and found a few bearings that were bad, nothing spun but they were close. The engine is at a different shop, after looking at the build specs. and going through it completely they seem to think the clearances were too loose for a street engine. The bearings are being sent for evaluation to see if there are any contaminants that may have caused the failure. I have run into a great opportunity with my engine this go around and hope to have it rebuilt and back in the car by the end of July. I also know how things go so I'm not holding my breath.

I've been working on a few things in the mean time. I finally cut out he rusty spots on my floor and welded in patches. While I was at it I took 1946Austin's advice about the foil backed foam with adhesive from the home improvement stores. I put that down under the carpet and it made a noticeable difference. That really helps during the hot weather on the drive home after work.

I also built a trailer hitch to pull the 1969 Apache camper that I acquired. It was abandoned at a storage yard, last licensed in 86. Everything is there and is in decent shape except for the tires and a couple rips in the canvas at the top corners. I am hoping that its something the wife can fix. Now all I have to do is figure out how to get a title for it.

Here is the camper.


It doesn't show up well here but the screens and clear windows are in great shape.



I even found the hub caps under one of the seats. A little chrome cleaner and they should be good as new.



Here is the hitch I built for it. I used the receiver from an old hitch I had laying around.


Between not wanting to drill holes into the bumper and the normal overkill that I usually build into things it ended up bigger than I wanted.



It's not a major issue since it's easy enough to remove when I don't need it.

[Huskinhano]

Looks like you did a great job on the hitch. I wouldn't worry about the aesthetics of it. I'd rather know I'm safe then something getting wrecked. Glad to hear you're getting things sorted out with the engine. When I bought my 66 I had a vibration that I contributed to the engine. Apparently it was rebuilt when the quickie lube shop failed to put oil in it with the last owner. I thought the engine was put to gather with left over parts since the oil shop was eating the bill. I swapped motors and still had the vibration. It looked like the trans was rebuilt in it's past because it was painted blue. When I did my 4 speed swap, I found the pump bushing was worn as well as the snout on the converter. No more vibration