Wanted to introduce myself and my limited

H

handmedown40limited

Member
I just wandered across your site and now super stoked.

this is going to be a long post. i appologize before you get half way through


my name is Ken I am a CNC machinist, 10 years ago at the age of 16 I was given my great grandfathers 1940 Buick limited he bought new with the promise i wouldn't start messing with the car for 10 years. my grandfather gave me the car and he was scared to see it go the way of my 68 gto. At 16 it had a built 455 pontiac 412hp 500+tq with a th400 w/2800 stall and 12 bolt with 3.42 and lots of other stuff( i know not a pontiac site) but ran 13.0 all day long on street tires and my grandfather didn't want to see the buick built in the same manner and at that time it would have been. probably would have pitched the str8 for a pontiac v8 and hot rodded it

Soooo. almost exactly 10 years later I fulfilled my side of the bargin. And just started looking into the project. The car is already going to my 3 year old son and will stay in the family.

The car has a neat history(at least i think) so here goes.

My great grandfather bought the car new in 1940 from somewhere in canada (will get exact location next time i talk my grandfather) The car was bought one because he was a buick guy and two it was huge. Every month he would travel from northern california(bay area) to canada and stay for a month and then return. He was a doctor would return to his home town in canada and stay for a month and serve the town. During the summer the brought his family with him and equipment.

My grandfather claims the original motor had almost 145k when the car was given to him in 1948. Motor was replaced and rebuilt with a 1950 320(originally a 1940 320) 3/4 race cam(still don't really know what that means) don't really know much else about it. except.


after getting the new motor built and installed he originally started the motor and only had about 30-60minutes run time on it. shut it down and the next day went away for the week with the family on vacation. the day after gettin back he was under the car bleeding the brakes when my great grandma comes home from the post office with a draft notice for the korean war. he jumps in her car and runs down the the local navy office and enlists in the navy. couple days later he was gone.... and that is how the car was left. the wrench is still hanging from the wheel cylinder to this day.

Some info(dates) I have said might not be 100% correct. my grandfather was a pilot for PanAm and one of the unlucky pilots to come down with temporary memory loss issues due to lack of fresh oxygen being circulated to the pilots for years. and info is sketchy sometimes but this is what i have gotten from him and the rest of the family members.


Okay so what i have is a 1940 limited with a fresh but 55+ year old rebuild.
car is 100% complete with some cool parts.

now last monday. memorial day. i spent about 60 minutes tinkering on it.(pretty much first time i opened the hood in 10 years). pulled the valve cover and looks perfectly clean. also pulled carb and intake shows no signs of rust. pulled dipstick and the oil was red but great looking, called my grandfather and he claimed redline oil was red and that is what he ran. So at this point I am kind of shocked at the internal condition as I was seeing it.

so next i pulled one plug at a time checked for rust best i could with a flashlight and squirted a little marvel mystery oil in each cylinder.

disconected wiring to the car best i could and ran just the starter to the battery 12v and ground. hit it real quick and it turned over.

at this point i am more excited then words can discribe. i install a 12 volt coil and grab some starter fluid and squirt it down the carb hit it again and it spuddered and popped. the second try with the starter fluid it comes to life. life for about 10 seconds but it ran that was all it mattered. so i did it a couple more times and after about 40 seconds of run time. keeping it running with the fluid (valve cover still off) i see oil coming off the rockers and the glass fuel bowl is filled with a yellow fluid pulled the fuel line and it smelled like kerosen almost. at that point i got wise and didn't start it again.

i want to get a oil filter( need to know what i am looking for)
and do some more prep.

Now this is where i am with this project. i want to find another stock distributor. my plan is to build a hei style distributor for this 320 using the basic dimensions of an original and the HEI top half

also what is the lug pattern on this car. it is the series 80 its huge
i believe its 5x5 but haven't measured it.

more to come. also will be posting pictures

thanks for reading this horribly long post
Ken Stauffer
 
Look for the entry called"electronic ignition" I tell how I put a pontiac hei in the 320 motor. If this entry is #2 it will be #263. If the first entry back in 2003 is listed as #1 it will be about #510. very confusing but my numbers flip flop about every 4 or 5 months.
 
the glass fuel bowl is filled with a yellow fluid pulled the fuel line and it smelled like kerosen almost. at that point i got wise and didn't start it again.


hah! the you started the engine on fuel that's been sitting since 1950?

the things we forget to check... :D


the compression should be just over 7:1, unless they cut the head and block on the 'hot' rebuild. it'll probably run on just about anything flammable.
 
well i wasn't starting it on the yellow fluid. it was being started on the starter fluid and i don't think any of the "gas" got into the motor. the carb won't do anything. i was just amazed the fuel pump was still working.
 
charley


i found the post i think. this is what i found

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I put a HEI in my 36 320" motor. the HEI just barely clears the cyl. head. It will rotate about 60 or 70 degrees before the cap holddown clamps hit the head. That should be plenty to time the engine.The dist. to use is the pontiac. It rotates CCW like the buick which is important for the vacuum and centrifical advance to work right. I made a plate 7/16" thick with the 2 slots for the hold down bolts and put on the pontiac shank. The plate positions the dist.gear to the right height. Oddly enough the pontiac gear is identical to the buick except for the bore where it fits over the oil pump shaft. Needs to be counterbored.


this is all i can find. do you have any pictures of the hei unit. i should have a pontiac hei somewhere laying around. i need to call my brother. was it the pontiac and buick hei's that interchanged or the oldsmobiles?

thanks
ken
 
i'm pretty sure the Pontiac DOESN'T interchange with the more modern Buick engine families.

Buick big blocks and small blocks can swap HEI units back and forth with a gear swap, but i'm not aware of any other compatible units.
 
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You are right Bob, the buick v-8 dist rotates CW and the str.8 and pontiac v-8 turn CCW. The olds also rotates CCW but cant be machined to work in the str. 8. I know because in one of my costly false starts I bought a import olds hei. One of my friends here in town gave me the pontiac dist.
 
cool thanks for the info. i will find a pontiac distributor then. also does anyone have a drawing or anything of what the 7/16 plate looks like? i haven't get my head deep enough in the engine bay yet to figure even how the stock distributor is held down. and i really wouldn't want to pull my distributor until i have the pontiac unit ready to drop in.

just stopped by my limited (stored at my grandmas house) and grabbed the valve cover and air cleaner assembly and some other parts and going to start cleaning them up and powder coat them at work.

is there anyone from the str 8 section of this site near san fransisco bay area in california?

thanks
ken
 
okay one more step closer to doing the big start up.

i just finished making an adapter for the carb. i have a 2 bbl off a 76 camaro 305 that was running great 2 weeks ago. so i made an adapter to go from the smaller 2 bbl size to the larger 70's style.

the only reason i did this is to get a carb that i know is good. also a little easier to rebuild if needed but i don't plan on keeping this setup like this.

so really all i need to get is some oil filters. about 15 qts of oil, a qt of marvel mystery tank of gas and some hose and a new coil.

can anyone help me with the wiring for the starter. i don't think i am gettin power to the solenoid properly and when i rescently started it i was using a screw driver to manually plunge the starter. kind of crowbaring the starter.

the i will go the night before and squirt marvel in each cylinder and let it sit over night. also install the carb and run fuel lines plug the vacuum ports.
primer the new carb and see if i can get it fired up and idleing. do a couple oil changes on it the within the first 30 minutes of run time and just keep track of temp. maybe this thing will move under its own power.

also need to pull the radiator and take it to a shop and get it checked. i don't want to run it without water. as the water pump running dry may be a bad thing. who knows the water pump may still be good.

thanks
ken
 
Ok so its been a while. But my limited came home last weekend. I am gathering what I need to get it running and will hopefully get her running this weekend.I am looking at building my own intake and exhaust. I work at a sheet metal shop so building the stuff is no problem on my off time.

I am going to build a set of headers but I don't know what cylinders would be best to pair together. Firing order is 16258374. Can you guys help me out?
On a v8 dual exhaust is just odd and even cylinders. Which looks like it could work. But what do you guys suggest?

I want to build a 3 x 2 intake and run a set of tri power carb with a center with idle circuits and a progressive linkage to the two outer carb.
I don't want to build a log style manifold.

My sheet metal guy at work said he can punch out a top and bottom plate out of aluminum that would be the top and bottom of my intake and I can shear and bend the walls to fit and weld into place. So instead of round runners I would have square runners. And then the last inch or so I would machine the flanges to go from the round intake ports of the head to the square intake runners. Hope this makes sense. I want to try to equalize the lengths of the runners as much as possible.

I will try to get pictures of my sketches. There are no real numbers yet.
 
handmedown

Sounds like a great story to tell when every body is BSing about their cars. Keep it forever and there is nothing wrong with fixing it up a little. Just keep all the old parts. I would consider dropping the pan and cleaning it out. I am sure after all these years the oil in there has deteriorated and you might pump some "bad stuff" into your oil gallery and plug it up. The pan can be removed without removing the engine. If you have already considered this just disregard, just my idea. Also the old oil was a non detergent oil and modern oil is a detergent. So if you get that old stuff out with so little time on the engine you could switch to modern detergent oil with no problems.
 
I am planning on keeping all original parts. I was hoping to not drop the pan. I was goin to sacrifice anbout 5 qts. Of oil And flush the motor keeping the drain plug open. Where can I get a pan gasket? Kanter? I have seen gaskets kits on eBay, are they descent quality? I know the whole motor will need to get done soon so I may just spring from a complete kit
 
40 limited

great car to work on. I recommend taking down the pan I had a a 39 Buick that had set a longtime and it had some lumps growing in there, you don,t want to goo up the oil passages. I have made my own pan gaskets with very good results. get a roll of cork gasket material or equivalent and cut it out they are fairly easy to make. Cut a little interlock [like puzzle pieces] for any joint. I glue it on the engine intermittaintly to hold it in place, let it dry, then I rub a little grease on pan side. I had the same idea for making the manifold but didnt have access to a punch. I would suggest you use a 4 bbl carb. it works better, and is more than enough for the straight 8. Makes it powerful an smooth. Good luck and enjoy it.
 
You have talked me into it. I will drop the pan. Found pan gaskets on eBay for 20. But still may make my own. I don't want to harm this motor. I can't afford to rebuild it anytime soon. And if I did I would be tempted to drop in the ls1 I have sitting in the garage.

Doing a 4bbl would work but doesn't have the cool factor. I love tri powers had one on my 68 lemans for a while. But I bet a 600 cfm edelbrock would be plenty
 
I already have a 800 edelbrock laying around so I could use that. I already have a 1941 2x2bbl manifold for it but I wasiking the 3x2bbl but a 4bbl would work and possibly help the future project of forced induction. Well future dream
 
another 40 Buick Limited

Sounds like you have a great project. I am just in the final stages of a similar project on a Series 80 but a bit more involved at this point then what you are doing. I built a '49 320 for it to get the insert bearings and hydraulic lifters. .125 off the head, Ross pistons for 9.3 to 1 compression, camshaft by Elgin cam works, triple carb manifold of my own design and custom headers. We did a complete front end modification using a Mustang front end with Fat Man Fabricators design. I got rid of the old dash instruments and opted for modern electric stuff, a Stereo/Nav system all mounted on walnut dash. A lot of little things such as cruise control, two unit air conditioning, power steering, etc. Pulls like a freight train right up to 4500 (where I chicken out) and is smooth as glass in cruise. I live in the Napa Valley so perhaps we could get together and swap stories. If you are interested, call me at
707 963-31375-19-2010 Progress 005.jpg5-19-2010 Progress 001.jpgP19-MINUS INTAKE.jpg
 
I would love to get together some time. The car looks great. I hope to have mine running before then end of the month. 2 weeks ago I broke my thumb at work and I'm in a cast and the wife rather me not work on the car. But as soon as its off the pan is bein dropped

I really like the headers.simple and easy. I may copy the design if that's alright. Who built the headers?
 
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Presten- do u have any of your old dash parts? I would be interested in buying them
Since u changed out motors any chance you have the old head laying around. Want to get one so I can use it when buying the intake and headers
 
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