My '59 in car hospital, Heart transplant!

["Tim Hulse" <thulse@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Has Paul or any of his mechanics even checked the timing on the 59? I know I 
have just done a bunch of work on the 60 and forgot all about the timing until 
night before last. After unhooking the vaccum advance and setting it to the 
proper (10 deg before TDC) she smoothed up really nice. If they have and I   
missed it them I'm sorry for the post.

Tim
1960 

-----Original Message-----
From: mailing-list-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
[mailto:mailing-list-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of RandalPark@xxxxxxx
Sent: Thursday, May 06, 2004 7:10 AM
To: mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: IML: My '59 in car hospital, Heart transplant!


Rebuilding the engine is definitely a good thing to do. Based on your post it 
sounds like it has needed that all along. Bad rings are bad rings, there is no 
getting around that.

I am still stumped though on why it would run perfectly smooth in neutral and 
really rough in gear. Burned valves effect the smoothness of the motor in both 
scenarios, although when pulling, the roughness would be more noticeable. The 
engine would run poorly all the time, well at least not good ever.

It is true that when in neutral, the engine RPM would be higher, and could 
cover up some symptoms of rough running, but I have not heard of a case where 
the difference was as drastic as you describe, unless the idle speed is set way 
too high. That would bring about other issues, though such as transmission 
damage when going into gear, using both feet on the brake to hold the car at 
stop lights, etc. 

Although I would not dispute the fact that your engine should be overhauled, I 
think a few more ideas about what could be causing this problem might be in 
order. I have driven cars that had new motors and cars that were worn out, but 
short of having burned valves, broken pistons, blown head gaskets, cracked 
blocks, or some other catastrophe, I have always been able to make an engine 
run smoothly with fairly minor repairs.

If it were to turn out that your car had a burned valve, it would not be the 
end of the world to fix it and move on. True enough, it is always advisable to 
rebuild the entire engine if it needs to be rebuilt, but if you don't have or 
want to spend the money, there are alternatives. Do you plan on driving this 
car everyday, or occasionally? I have heard of people having their cylinder 
heads reconditioned without doing the bottom end, and their cars ran fine.

To get your car to run smoothly, I think more diagnosis my be in order. Taking 
your car to mechanic after mechanic is going to result in them telling you what 
they want to do, not necessarily what should be done. It still sounds like 
there are vacuum issues to me. Did you replace the hose to the booster? Did you 
check to see if the gasket at the base of the carburator is leaking? Are you 
sure that the intake manifold gaskets are not leaking? Have you done a 
compression test?

I would be willing to bet that many of us have cars that need engine overhauls, 
but that doesn't mean that the cars can't run smoothly. Of course your car 
could have one of those "catastrophic illnesses" mentioned earlier, but I think 
that would be obvious.

Good luck!

Paul

In a message dated 5/6/2004 1:15:49 AM Eastern Daylight Time, Imperial59crown 
writes:

> After taking my '59 Imperial to a couple of mechanics who deal with 
> antique cars, the consensus was that it needs an engine rebuild, or I will 
>only be able to use the car to go to the corner grocery store. My other 
>alternative is to drive the car with two feet, one on the gas and the other on 
>the brake, or putting it in neutral every time I stop. The engine is fine in 
>neutral, but as soon as it is pulling it starts running very rough. Even when 
>I pulled into the parking lot of the mechanic the car started stalling out all 
>of the time. I decided to give the car to the mechanic who explained 
>everything clear cut, and most of what he had to say was exactly the same 
>responses I have gotten from members on this list. He could give the car a 
>valve job, but that wasn't going to cure bad rings, and would only make the 
>bottom of the engine blow out that much faster. I had to think for a while 
>since this was my new super computer I've been wanting for so long, going on 
>hold. By the time I finish this one I will have a fourteen thousand dollar 
>Imperial which still looks like crap in the interior. Anyway I love it, so I 
>will keep it going, and the most important part of a restoration is to get the 
>car running
> perfectly, the rest is all cosmetic!
>  
> Bill '59 Crown
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