There's no noise when it turns and you don't 'feel' it hitting anything when you turned it over by hand when building, and it makes no noise when it turns over (by the starter, though the sound of that could muffle it) at lower RPM, but does when it's running. Does it get louder when you rev it up? Does the engine seem to vibrate a bit and gets worse as you rev it? It might be difficult to detect with a lopey idle. Couple of questions: did you have the block sonic tested? Is it a new harmonic balancer? Did you turn the crank over with a torque wrench to see how many ft. lbs. it took to turn it (with plugs out on free-turning, assembled engine), and if you did, were there any noticable variances in ft. lbs. as you turned it with a steady even movement? Are there any anomalies such as extra moisture in the oil or oil in the water? (Just to be thorough) What sort of rods did you use? Were they reconditioned with new bolts? Mains look ok, and in the correct positions? Reuse stock bolts on mains or? Crank turned, checked for straightness, block align bored? How's the clearance on the oil pickup tube and the crank? Sump crushed a bit? How's the bolts holding it to the block? maybe it flexes under higher RPM, rubbing up against the crank? How's the oil pump? Stock or? Drill out the oil passage and use a 5/8" pickup tube, or is it a later model block? New gasket for pickup tube? How's the oil pressure? Oil pan gasket is stock thickness or? Not saying it's any of these things, but make a mental checklist to eliminate possibilities. As far as TA's pan, I haven't used one myself, but I have checked them out and they look pretty good. Stamped steel so they're nice and sturdy, have extra clearance for main studs and the 'kick in' has been eliminated from the back, giving an extra quart of oil capacity. Plug is magnetic too, I think. I would trust what anyone at TA has to say, they know their stuff. That's about all I can think of for now... G Edit: What about the transmission? I know you said it sounded like it was coming from the front, and I've listened to the sound in the video. Torque converter or flexplate issues? Maybe take the dust cover off and watch them move when it's idling. Is it a new water pump? Check the alignment of the belts on the pullies to see if they're unusually out of alignment. Check the alternator or any accessory that a belt is turning to see if it could be coming from them? This may seem silly, but you just never know! Better to eliminate what it could be.
Hi Gary, Thanks, again, for jumping in with these ideas. I have to say that the answer to most of your questions is "no." Old balancer. No torque wrench. No align hone but was "good." This was a "Glen L" rebuild and not a "Jim W." And, yeah, it turned nice all together. Odd! I'm 99% sure the problem is a damaged pan. There's a bump on the bottom at the front and when I put my fingers on the bump the tone on the noise becomes muffled. Doesn't feel like it's getting hit. The sound doesn't get worse with speed. I'll be working this thing through getting it set-up and tuned all Summer. Looking forward to your inputs!
I run the TA oil pan and it is a nice piece. There are 2 things about it that require attention as far as I can tell. The front 2 bolts are tough to get in so I use socket cap head and an Allen wrench. The factory oil pickup sits in the middle of the sump because of the rear addition so I added a vertical baffle right behind the pickup. I don't trust the oil to stay around the pickup on hard acceleration. Normally I add a horizontal baffle at the rear of the pan. I'm sure the average setup could get away without it. In a pinch I'd just be banging away a bit on the spot where the pan is being hit once you get it off.
I'm pretty average and the luxo-barge doesn't see 1/4 mile drag use. Seems like a plan. I might spring for that pan, though. I wish it came in red. Red is faster. Any thoughts on how a Performer or B4B intake manifold would change the performance?
You can get the pan plain and paint it Buick red! Performer is supposed to give little difference compared to the stock intake in terms of power increase, because the stock intakes are very well designed. The B4B is supposed to give a little more than stock because of the location of the carb closer to the center of the intake, making the fuel/air charge more evenly distributed. TA sells them both http://www.taperformance.com/products.asp?cat=103 Descriptions for both are in the details. G Edit: Keep in mind, however, that since the carburetor is located further up, you will probably have to do some modifying to your linkage. I would just stay with the stock intake if it were me. It's money better spent elsewhere. All the stock intakes flow the same, from what I've read on these forums--even the ones that have pollution accoutrements.
What about painting the black one? I've got a rattle can of red engine paint. It'd match my air cleaner! I always like advice that take no time and costs no money. Thanks!
Pulled the engine and removed the oil pan. It had three scrape marks on the pan. Back in but not quite started yet. That excitement will happen tonight. Then back to tuning the carb and spark for the new cam, heads and pistons.
Wow.... It's running without any banging or scraping sounds now. When I fired it up it actually sounded worse than ever. Seating an exhaust pipe better did some good. Turned out the flexplate cover was touching the crank. Pull and pound and it's all good. Now to deal with knocking in some throttle conditions and that'll probably boost the power a bit. Cripes. This has been almost a year from problem to cruising. Started this way: Load Cracking Sound thread
And an update... Finally addressed the timing issues with the car. I had resorted to running a 50/50 mix of 93 and 110 octane fuels to make it stop knocking but driveability was poor. What to do? DO IT RIGHT! Check out the miracle Power Timing yourBuick V8 thread. I followed that and it's running great on 92 octane gas. It's was simple enough once I found the time. First step was to lower the mechanical advance. I got a Mr. Gasket HEI advance curve kit #929. That didn't fit the distributor. I wasn't sure how the center plate was supposed to be put in. Maybe Chevys are different. What I did was to use the new weights and springs to get a lower mechanical advance. Eyeballing the stock setup with a protractor it was giving 25 degrees. I used a grinder on the new weights to shorten the points to fit with the stock center plate. (Sure, no pics!) I got the points to just fit into the divits and then had about 18 degrees advance. This'll make sense if you're looking at it. For vacuum advance I got an Accell 31035 adjustable HEI vacuum advance modulator. I wish it was adjustable, separately, for advance degrees and vacuum but it worked. Following Larry's procedure, I put a crayon mark on the flywheel at 30 degrees advance for high RPM running. I also put on a mark at 18 degrees advance for the idle. So that's marks at 1.75" and 1.1" past the zero mark. Running the engine with the vacuum removed, I adjusted the static advance so the 30 degree mark lined up with zero with it running fast. No tach available but it was past 3000 RPM. Then I connected and adjusted the vacuum advance to get 18 degrees advance with the vacuum attached. A few cycles of running and adjusting for each. Having the timing set right and a lot more static advance allowed me to lower the idle speed. Had to have that high or the car died when idling cold or when putting it into gear and being stopped. The car is running really well. The RPMs are a bit low when cold and needs a blip on the throttle now and then to keep running. It's fine when warm. Power on the road is really good. Not a hint of knocking with 92 octane gass. I could go back and adjust the timing, vacuum advance and idle screw for more but the next step is to rebuild the carb. Then I'll be going around again.
And another update! The car is running great after having the 800 CFM (7043240) carb rebuilt by Mark Northcutt at www.quadrajetpower.com I'm not sure what rod and jets went into it but what I do know is that it runs great. I just twisted the idle screws and idle speed a bit with no other adjustments I can tromp the go pedal at any speed and the car simply jumps ahead. No bog. No hesitation. Just solid Buick thunder with passersby swiveling their heads as my huge, black beast rockets by. Yeah. It's a good thing.
I cant help but think , ..... this is only the begining man. It will all depend on how strong the desire for power under your foot is. For that noise your hearin, , you didnt mention what flexplate your using, hopefully not stock. Not related to your noise but important is the balancer. A stock one will fail. And that definitely has a distinguishing noise to it.
Yeah... Stock flexplate and balancer. What's the flexplate good for torque-wise? I'm calling this one "done" except for, maybe, headers and a B4B intake. We'll see after that. You guys know how it goes.
