Hello I'm new to the forum and I have a 1973 Electra limited 4 door. It has 86,000 miles on the clock. Since I have acuired this car I have repaired many things. The car sat in a garage for ten years never run. The first thing was the timing chain, the nylon teeth gave it up and started breaking starter noses trying to start the car. I originally ran it from a gas jug to keep from pulling stale gas in the engine. Then I replaced the fuel pump and rebuilt the carb. Carb is jetting from both sides of the carb and the secondarys open and jet well. I cleaned the gas tank and replaced all the rubber lines and engine vaccume lines. New plugs that were gapped and wires and points. Set the dell to 30 and set timing at 8 even though it is suppose to be 4. Vaccume advance works and mechanical advance work in the distributor. Just serviced the trans and installed a new modulator. Car has single exaust and is new from where the y pipe ends back. The car runs good just won't burn the tires off and I believe it should. Both vaccume pull offs work on the carb hold vaccume and it chokes properly and warms up properly. It still has the smog pump connected and the egr valve connected. I checked the egr valve and it holds vaccume, so I guess its ok. I have advanced the timing and didn't really get any better results. Any suggestions I would appreciate.
This sounds just like my '70 Wildcat. I rebuilt it bone stock in 1998 (it was undrivable before that), and it pulls and pulls and pulls when you floor it, but there's no snap. Looking forward to driving it after recurving the distributor as per the sticky thread "Power timing your Buick." But if there are any other suggestions, I'm all ears!
Also, I jacked the car up from the rear end and put the tranny in neutral and turned one rear wheel and the other didn't move. So I went to the other wheel and did the same thing and nothing happend from that side either. I can get it to spin both rear wheels in gravel. Is this limited slip? I have another 73 electra limited that is my grandparents old car, that has pretty much been sitting outside since 1987 and in poor shape. I have been robbing parts off of this car. One thing that is different is that the cruise master cruise control unit in the good car has an extra solinoid looking thing on top of it, with a vaccume hose going to it. I don't know what it's purpose is. Is it possible that the car has Max Trac? If so I wonder if this is what is causing my car to not launch like I think it should. I just hope someone could shed some light on this matter.
There are a few simple things you can do but don't expect any miracles. My dad had a new `69 Electra with a 430 when I was in high school that would smoke the tires at will. How do I know that? I was a teenager :grin: When he got his new `72 Electra it was a total slug and would barely spin the tires on ice. This, of course, was right off the showroom floor so nothing had been done to either of them. Welcome to the world of low compression. Very unlikely the car car has a posi. To test it accurately, jack up one wheel and try to spin it while the other side is on the ground. It if spins, it's a peg leg.
my wildcat was like that when i first got it..... a dog off the line recurve your distributor i also installed a stall converter now i can spin the tires at will scott
Another thing I forget to have people check is the heat riser valve on the left(?) exhaust manifold where the pipe bolts up. When the engine is cold it's closed to divert hot exhaust from that side through the exhaust crossover in the intake manifold to warm up the carb quickly, and it's supposed to gradually open as the engine warms up. If the car sat for an extended time it can rust shut, causing a significant exhaust restriction all the time. Worth a look to see if the valve is moving freely, anyway. Devon
I looked at the exhaust manifold and didn't see what you are describing. All I see is the flex tube that connects to the air cleaner from the manifold, where the restrictor plate is There is a heat shield that connects to the manifold that collects the hot air, but I don't see a door. Does anyone else's 73 electra burn out?
It'll look something like this well below and rearward from where you're seeing the flex tube that attaches to the air cleaner. It sits between the end of the cast iron exhaust manifold and the steel exhaust pipe that heads toward the rear of the car. It may not look exactly like the pic, but similar. Devon
the donor car (74 buick electra) i got my 74 455 out of had a very tired 455 with 5 exh valve sunk and broken exh manifold a jacked up qjet and a broken rocker shaft and i could burn out for 3 city blocks. couldnt even tell it was so bad. i thought i was just going to spend a couple hundred at the machine shop it ran so good but the bill was almost 1500 with no head porting or oil mods. and no crank regrind.
I think that most cars since about 1968(?) don't use a heat riser due to using other techniques like the stovepipe to the air cleaner snorkel instead. That said, with the reduction of compression, EGR valves and low-lift long duration cams pretty much killed performance, especially on whales like yours. Though my dad's '75 Chevy convertible could light 'em up on occasion. Solutions are to be had, as have been mentioned. Devon, that's an SBC heat riser valve! 'course it don't look like the Buick one.
Sorry for the picture and commentary, I used it as an example, but I didn't know if the heat riser valve was still used for his car. If it doesn't apply, please dismiss this for my lack of knowledge. It wouldn't be the first time for the same reason! Devon
if you can take off the vacuum hose to the egr valve and unhook the smog pump and plug the metal tubing on the drivers side intake. and see what happens. have you done a compression check? i thought a buick 455 that couldnt burn the tires was unheard of o No:
One thing that I did notice while I had the carb off the engine is, under the carb base gasket the intake looks like it is machined so the air can bridge between both sides of the intake. I guess this is normal it dosen't look like it is broken, just strange that the base gasket runs over the top of this bridged area, but dosen't have anything to seal to.
It's not a matter of a modification, the stockers have a small passage between the throttle bores by design...it's normal. Devon
One word.... "Exhaust" Get a nice dual exhaust on there and FEEL the power! The poor 455 trying to exhust into a single pipe for 15' is like a cork stuck in the engine!
Thanks for clearing that question up for me. I guess this car is just a slug stock from the factory and thats just the nature of the beast. But watching the old car and driver tests on the 71-73 Rivieras they would boil the hides off the line. So i'm not sold on the electra not being able to do the same. It just bogs down when you stomp the gas. Can someone with a stock 73 buick tell or show me any different.
