New 73 Electra with some issues

I just brought home a 73 Electra on a flatbed due to a massive oil leak. Since I'm new to Buick engines could someone tell me places where the 455's tend to spring leaks? It's mainly present when the engine is running and the system is under pressure. That makes me think filter adapter or cooler lines, but I'm not sure if I should look at another spot too.

Also if there's someone in New England that hangs out in the Mansfield/Foxboro area (think Gillette stadium) that could give me some pointers I'd appreciate it.

I'm registering the car on Tuesday and would really like to be able to drive it to the inspection station to get it stickered.

 

You haven't specified which type of oil; - if it's motor oil, I'd check the oil pressure switch off the pump (up front) or the front and rear crank seals. Usually Buick engines don't leak, or don't leak as bad as a SBC would. So I would check for physical damage, such as a bad oil pan, loose drain plug, cracked oil filter housing, as well as the oil pressure switch. That switch is located on the passenger's side, right above the oil filter, and they do tend to fail over time and leak. And they do leak a lot.

If it's tranny fluid, check the lines, they run alongside the block in their own covered sheath and tend to abrade or rust out. Here again, Passenger's side, right above the lip of the pan gasket, but in behind the motor mount. These lines can be ugly to get at without pulling the motor partially out.

 

It's deffinetly motor oil. I'm hoping it's not the big pump housing/timing cover assembly. Hopefully it's that switch or the pump gasket or something stupid like that.

The low oil light is on, and whenever the engine runs it leaves a basketball size puddle on top of coating the front crossmember. It deffinetly looks like it's a pressurized spraying kind of issue at the front of the motor.

I'll get a look today in the light and start doing a serious diagnosis tomorrow since I have all day to play with it.

Motor still sounds clean and pulls hard so I know it's not something catastrophic like a rod punched through or anything like that :grin:

 

Looks like it's along these lines. The filter itself is bone dry, but the sensor you mentioned is soaked like it was dipped in a bucket of oil. I'm figuring the sensor blew open, the housing is cracked, or the pump gasket failed. Also the front main or the front of the oil pan is leaking, but not horrifically. Just a bit of oil sitting in the front lip of the pan.

I'll know more in a few days when I climb under the car and get everything cleaned up.

On a side note, the trans cooler lines are leaking too since the rubber lines are coming loose from the hard lines under the front of the engine. I'm thinking a good tightening of the clamps should do the trick. Worst case I'll run new lines.

 

Yeah, chances are it's the oil pressure sending unit. Also check and see if the spring and check valve are okay; - you're saying that the filter is bone dry? It sounds like the pump is running on bypass. Or it's got the wrong filter on it, and it's forcing the pump to run on bypass. You can access the spring by the big bolt (I think it's 1") above the filter. Sometimes the ring gasket on that bolt fails with age as well.

Front seal leaks are unfortunately fairly common, it'll usually sweat, not drip though. It needs to be run for a while. As the packing takes on more oil and swells again the leak might slow down.

If you decide to take the bottom cover off the pump, make sure that you pack the pump full of petroleum jelly when you reassemble it, otherwise the pump will not prime and you'll take out the bearings.

 

Yup. Outside of the filter is dry. That's why I doubt it's the pump housing that's the issue. I'm going to replace the sensor this week and change the oil and see what happens.

 

If you're not afraid of getting dirty, try to clean the engine in the suspected areas, and then start it for a few seconds to see where some new oil is coming out.

 

Yeah, I thought about that about an hour after I wrote it; - I've only seen a bone dry inside of the filter once, and the engine wasn't happy. You're completely right. I guess I should stop writing stuff at 4 in the morning.The last time my '67 Wildcat popped a sending unit the filter was dry on the outside too; but everything back of it was a mess. I've never seen a housing crack unless the car was involved in a serious accident. Usually in these cases, if the oil leak is something that "just happened" one day, it's something simple like the pressure switch.

My experience with those switches has also been that no two are alike; - while it's apart you may want to hook up a real pressure gauge and see what your oil pressure is actually like; - I've found that one switch may read low, whereas another might read higher. It might be the difference of a flickering oil light on idle. Just a suggestion...

 

I'm just going to get it cleaned up and running and then focus on stockpiling some of the parts for a more in depth cleaning later. I'm figuring over the winter I'll snag another timing cover and clean/paint it then install it along with a new oil pump, water pump, therm and therm housing, and a new front seal. That way come spring time it'll be as reliable as possible, at least at the front of the engine.

I just really need to find some affordble weatherstripping before this car ends up swiss cheese

 

Well that sucked. Somebodies math is wrong because my manual says the engine holds 5 qts of oil and my catch pan is rated at 7.5 qts. After the pan reached full another 2 qts or so hit the ground before I could put the drain plug back in and the flow at that point was still nice and strong. Either my car had way over 5 qts in it or the catch pan was way over-rated in its capacity.

On the plus side the new sensor is in. No clue if it fixed the main leak though since I need to get another pan and finish the oil change in the morning. I wasn't expecting this to be quite as much of a project, but that's how things go.

The old sensor was covered in oil and sludge and had oil dripping off of the prong even though the car hasn't been run in a week. So that was deffinetly blown. Now I need to figure out why the drivers side is covered in oil too o No:

 

If it was overfilled by two quarts, it could have popped a gasket somewhere. Also, a lot of oil from that sending unit would have rolled along the crossmember and deposited on the driver's side. I can imagine that the whole underside was a mess. Think of it this way; - it's cheap undercoating...

 

I've got more provisions and will finish the job tomorrow. It'll be interesting to see what other leaks I have once I get this mess cleaned up. I'm hoping using the teflon tape on the sensor won't prevent it from grounding. I may pull the sensor out and remove some tape so that more of the threads are open, in the hopes of making the sensor ground easier. Other than that it's more just a matter of trying to clean everything off which is tricky since I don't have a garden hose

If the pan is rated right then I'm already at around 8 qts of oil and that doesn't count the oil that's leaked out or what's left in the engine uzzled:

 

Fixed :grin:

Swapped the pressure sensor and the new one works flawlessly. New filter and fluid also. While I was under there I also snugged up a leaking trans line.

So for those who have been following along. I drained 10qts of fluid from the engine and that's not counting the 2 qts or so that the ground gobbled up. It appears as though they did an oil change and forgot to drain the old fluid first ou:

It took a while to get the car started since it's been sitting for almost 2 weeks without starting, but once it started the light went out and there were no new puddles.

On a related note it looks like my drivers side leak may be the power steering since those lines are very wet and the level isn't even showing on the dipstick. If that's the case then this could end up being a whole bunch of quick and cheap fixes to get this car up and running ray: