ok, so i think its time... i've had what i thought was a bad lifter tick every now and then for the last couple of days - then this AM a total loss of power and ocassional miss... i'm not sure what it is yet - having a leakdown test done this AM. i thought it could have been something in the valvetrain - but now i'm thinking that i might have completely lost a cylinder. wah. :ball: regardless, its coming time for a rebuild. i've got a good mechanic that i take the car to - he has a nice machine shop and he's definitely up to doing a decent rebuild... my questions are these: 1. can anyone recommend good shop near the SF bay area that knows big block buicks, that can do an excellent job on the motor? 2. if i have my guy do it should i buy the necessary parts myself on the internet? where should i shop? 3. how much should i expect to spend on the whole deal to do it right? thanks for all your help in advance! yardley, i know you're out there!!! fearghal
hello I live in So CA, it is hard to find Buick guys out here in the West. I would like to visit the East coast some day to see all the hot Buicks. If you don't get any good info on local shops, just gather all the important info on Buick machining and pass it on to your machinist buddy (I'm sure you would have done this anyway). Good luck Disastro.
fearghal, I asked the same question awhile back but came up empty. Did some searching around on my own for local shops when I was living in the east bay. I found that Chris @ Elbys Machine in Dublin (at the 580/680 interchange) seemed to be pretty savvy on building motors and acknowledged right away that Buicks were built different than Chevy. He asked me to source a torque plate without me questioning him on it when we talked about boring, and knew about the tighter tolerances on rod and mains, as well as the preferred angles on valve cuts. He has a 350 of mine that I was planning on building, but we never got thru the entire rebuild process (foot dragging on my end, nothing to do with him, I found a 455 to build instead) so take it for what its worth. There was a thread that I started awhile back on how to select a shop, and someone posted a spreadsheet on questions/criteria for shop selection. I'll see if I can dig it up, that might help you find a local shop. You might try John in Sunnyvale (jbc455), he has some pretty serious motor work going on, he might be able to recommend a shop that worked for him. any reason that you wouldn't let your current guy do the work? if you really, really, really want it done right, crate the motor up and get it to either of the Jims - Jim W or Jim B. how did your leakdown test go? TA/Postons are the usual sources for parts, some stuff may be sourced at your local NAPA, etc. "doing it right" is a relative term, whats the target? stock/street/street-strip? HP/TQ targets?
Fearghal, Sorry for the long delay, I've been soooooo busy! Your shop sounds like he's aware of Buick differences, but is he a mechanic or a machine shop? Can he do the bore/hone of needed? Sounds like you cooked a front cam bearing. I doubt you did any major damage. You want to have him align hone the main journals. Use the teflon coated double-grooved cam bearings and be sure your guy follows all the instructions. Have him tank the snot out of it and be sure he uses brushes to clean every passage and galley in the block. Press the lifter galley plugs behind the cam gear in no farther than flush!!!!! And stake them in. Don't use Stage1 valve springs. The new ones are too stiff and cam bearing failure can result. If you want performance and plan on a bigger cam, spend the extra hundred bucks to have the shop machine the heads to use TA's 1125 dual springs. Don't use a High Volume/High Pressure oil pump. Just use TA's adjustable regulator and booster plate. Here is where I suggest you send your cover to Jim W at Tri Shield and have him port the passages and install the booster plate and regulator. Worth every penny. The 5/8" sump is a good idea too. Also, replace the rod bolts and have the rods resized. And use main cap studs instead of bolts. Your shop MUST be willing to do what YOU say and how you say it. WE tell the SHOP how to build our motors. The shop doesn't tell us. On ititial startup you'll need to keep retorquing the intake manifold bolts to seal any leaks. Actually, if using a metal bathtub gasket, you should retorque them over a 24 hour period before even firing it up. It takes a while to fully compress those gaskets, and you'll get a lot of retorque out of them the first day they are installed. What year 455? If it is 1971 or later, replace the pistons with the higher compression 1970 style. If I was going to build a motor and had the money to spend, I'd ship the dang thing off to Tri Shield. That way you can be sure it'll run for many years with no issues. But if your shop is willing to follow our instructions regarding specs and stuff, and he can torque things correctly and be clean, it should be OK. Yardley
