Michele's '51 Buick, Part II, by Charlie Nash

It quickly became obvious to me that just because a car has low original mileage, doesn’t mean most of its systems don’t need refreshing. The following narrative bears this out.
    
In keeping with my goal of ending up with a dependable driver while retaining originality, I now began to inspect, disassemble, and repair all engine components. The straight 8, 263 cu.in engine so far has been fairly easy to work on, thanks to its large engine bay. No stripped bolts, no broken off studs, no lacerated fingers. So far anyway.
 
Firstly, a nearly severed fuel line was replaced before anything bad happened. A local auto parts store provided the needed hose and connectors. The introductory photo shows the new flexible portion of the fuel line as seen from the floor looking up.

Second was the reinstallation of the engine crankcase breather components previously removed, cleaned, and painted. Both the Buick and I can now breathe easier.
Next I decided to drain all coolant preparatory to inspect the cooling system. The coolant came out fairly clean but belied what I later found, moderate to severe corrosion and blockage in various areas. Here’s a picture of the thermostat as it came out, stuck fast in the open position. A once pretty brass baffle affair, it was probably original. A new ugly but functioning 160 degree thermostat is now in place.​

I jumped next to the stressful project of removing the intake/exhaust/heat riser manifold assembly without cracking it. Should it happen, I’d be looking at an expensive replacement ($700.00). It would be a real lonely Buick then :(
 
At the risk of incurring the wrath of one of our venerable club members (he’ll remain nameless but I think he has a ’48 Plymouth or something) I disregarded his advice to “leave the darn thing alone and just drive the car”.
​However, since it had a a frozen heat riser and failing, leaking gaskets I decided to pull it off.
 Providence was with me. I gingerly loosened each bolt a little at a time until she gently broke loose. Because I work alone I rigged up in advance my shop crane in a manner that evenly supported the manifold.
 

Here she is swinging free and clear with no damage and currently is recovering from being resurfaced at a machine shop in Massachusetts.

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She had severe warping and a cracked heater box, not critical, but will be welded back by a competent welder at the shop.
 
Before it left, a friend and I managed to break free the frozen heat riser valve that was unmovable even after a month of squirting daily with penetrant.
 
I tried one last time heating the valve body with a propane torch while the shaft was beaten on by my Bosch hammer drill while being doused with penetrant. ​

That did it ! It freed up and after repeated turning, it actually worked. Simulating a running engine, the torch heat allowed the old rusty coil thermostat to expand and contract as the torch was held close then removed to permit cooling.

Next came the job of replacing a leaking engine block freeze plug. Technically it’s a casting plug, a term used when engine blocks are forged and workers need a way to remove the sand when the process is over. The plug apparently has no role in freeze protection contrary to popular belief.
​Good luck was with me as my retired master mechanic neighbor happened to wander over as he often likes to “supervise” my work. Seeing that I was having no luck banging on the plug with hammers, screwdrivers, chisels to remove the plug he suggested I stop before I destroy the block while he thought about a solution.
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He went home and returned with his MIG welder in a golf cart. After handing me a fire extinguisher, he ran a bead around the plug’s rim. Immediately quenching it with water the cooling effect caused the plug to shrink away from the block. It then easily and almost magically was pried out without very little force. (and no damage).
By the way, the fire extinguisher, he later explained, was in case his hair caught fire, not the barn. 

Drunk with success, we went on to remove all large plugs on that side. A good thing too. Two were rusted paper thin and ready to fail sooner than later.

 I purchased an installation tool that insured they went in even without
distortion. A little Aviation sealant was applied to the mating surfaces first.
 Nothing like a magnet to extract those loose pieces of scale…
​

 
 All four done, nice and shiny ! Block was then brush painted. Victory !
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I moved on to degreasing a thing called a ‘dash pot’.  (wikipedia definition: “a contrivance for producing gradual descent in a piece of mechanism”)
 Part of the throttle linkage, it keeps the engine RPMs from rapidly falling off when slowing the car down after being wide open.
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Here it is cleaned and disassembled. (If I can’t put it back together, I know of an eccentric club member that makes stick figures welded together from pieces like ​this).

 
The above projects took me most of January. It was not all fun especially in a partially heated barn. The monthly highlight was in the engine cylinder compression test numbers.​ The shop manual calls for 118 psi per cylinder with a 10-15% acceptable variation between cylinders.
 Here’s my readings. They exceed OEM. A head modification in the ’51 production year or gauge discrepancies, methodology, I don’t know, but I’m leaving this one alone !!