'59 back to square one

["Hugh & Therese" <hugtrees@xxxxxxxx>]

Bill,

 

You are getting soaked, no doubt.  There was almost a consensus from your first post that your actual symptoms were caused by poor fuel delivery and possibly coolant issues.  May I suggest you start with a tune up.  Your engine runs fine at idle and is neither blowing smoke nor burning huge quantities of oil, if I recall correctly.  The new brake booster is replacing one that was full of holes and this may be affecting the timing.  See if it makes a difference.  It always has worked wonders for me.  If necessary, get the carburetor rebuilt if the car still isn't right.  An engine coolant flush wouldn't hurt, either.  Where I live its advisable to get this procedure done every year.

 

A rebuild is a wonderful thing but it is the solution to what ails you?  I have to say no because the engine is OK at idle.  I have had to replace a failed booster myself and a tune up made a significant difference to how the engine ran after I got mine to stop leaking.  I even had to tune mine by ear as the marks on the harmonic balancer were impossible to find with a timing light.  I changed the plugs because it was so cheap to do so.  I think the distributor is far easier to reach on the 413 than it is on the 392.

 

I think your car is starving for fuel at anything above idle so a carburetor rebuild, or replacement, may be in your future.  When a car runs lean it runs hot.  Run it rich for a while and see what happens.

 

What reasons have you been given for rebuilding the engine.  Is it the valves or what?  Was a compression test performed?  Are the rings bad, or what?  The key thing to getting the right answer is to ask the right question.  There is a disconnect between the solution you were given and your immediate problem.  My 392 is being rebuilt right now due to excessive oil consumption but it was running pretty OK otherwise.  I drove it to the shop and even in stop start traffic it was not running hot or rough.

 

I don't know how confident you feel about your own abilities to work on the car yourself.  No one knows it better or cares more.  I pretty much rebuilt the top end of my engine myself and, trust me, if I could do it so can you.  Accessing the distributor on the 392 is a major pain requiring an old shaped wrench and more dexterity than I normally possess, but I have learned how to do it and have always achieved a good result.  I tune it like I would a radio.  Get it to sound bad then get it to sound good, then try it again at with more throttle.  Listening, really listening, to your engine is a marvelous experience.  Learning how to do these things for yourself is so beneficial.  It decreases your dependency on mechanics who really don't want to work on your car.  It will hog up one of their bays for days on end while a similar job on a more modern car with more readily available parts will be in and out in hours.

 

A shop explained to me that this is why the quoted price for working on my 58 was so high.  It is their 'Go away with this unprofitable, unfamiliar, difficult to find parts for, time consuming, hunk of junk' price.  Specialist shops with real mechanics cost a fortune and there are a lot of people out there that are willing to pay these prices on their collector car.  The best solution is to learn how to do as much as possible yourself.  It adds an amazing dimension to the hobby.  It decreases your financial outlay and increases your satisfaction.

 

Hugh

 

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Imperial59crown@xxxxxxx

To: mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sent: Tuesday, May 11, 2004 11:06 PM

Subject: IML: '59 back to square one

Just got the pleasant news today from the mechanic I brought my Imperial to for the engine rebuild, that his cost alone on the rebuild was going to be around $4,000.00, and that I would end up paying around $6,000.00. I told him for six thousand I could go buy another '59 and swap engines, and that I would be there to pick up the car tomorrow. He was telling me he was going to put in brand new pistons, a new crank shaft, new valves with stainless steel seals for non leaded gas, and all kinds of crap, but the truth is when I got the car back how would I know if all of this stuff was in there? Fortunately the car is in an area where there are literally hundreds of mechanics, so I'm sure I will find someone to do it at a reasonable price. If the going price for a new V-8 rebuild is around $2,500.00, why are they trying to soak me on my old '59, which is much easier to work on? I certainly don't look rich when I go there, on the contrary with my casual shorts and old tattered t shirt, I look just slightly better than some bum off the street. I guess I shouldn't be bringing it to shops which specialize in antique automobiles. I will keep you posted on the outcome of my quest to get my '59 back on the streets again. For an engine which is so straight forward and easy to get at that even I have done minor repairs on it, you would think a mechanic would jump at the chance to work on it, and not charge an arm and a leg. The engine on my Nissan is so crammed into the engine compartment that I don't think I have ever seen a spark plug in there. Oh well, life goes on!

 

Bill '59 Crown