1956 Buick Century Project

I've been looking at my blower motor housing and keep thinking I'm getting a lot of heat soak when the AC is on. I thought about wrapping it in some sort of heat wrap and then realized its roughly the size of a turbocharger... so i got a turbocharger heat blanket and it fits pretty good haha



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So are there two different people named Bob who frequent this sight? Bob and Bob Mando? I just realized that haha
 
I fired up the 56 convertible for the first time in a while and the oil burning is getting worse! this picture is after running it for just a few seconds. behind me is a wide open door. I'll be saving up for some forged pistons and rods, hopefully a January or February project


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Some black friday sales helped kickstart engine rebuild 2.0. Got these forged eagle rods! finishing up a project in the shop now, hoping to get the Buick's engine out soon.


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Jag rear

Looking fo some info on the jaguar rear you added to your Buick. What’s the face to face measurement ?
 
Looking fo some info on the jaguar rear you added to your Buick. What’s the face to face measurement ?


I don't have the hub to hub measurement but the track width (center of tire to center of tire) from the factory is 58" and these are wheels with a larger backspacing. so wheels with a lesser backspacing, like I have now and like the ones originally on these Buicks, will bring the track width closer to about 60"

From what I read online, it looks like the hub to hub measurement is 61 3/4" wide. as you see, it fits extremely well under the special / century body
 
I was digging through my parts in storage and four these springs had I had custom made for this 56 Buick back when I had my first suspension. These are a heavier spring rate and will firm up the back end of a 56 Special or Century, and I think 55 cars too. if anyone is interested in buying them let me know. these were only used for about 1 year and are in perfect shape.

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Started on the tear down! Will hopefully have it out and disassembled tomorrow, to the machine shop on Tuesday. Its always fun to see what the problems inside are. I have been having extreme blow-by and oil consumption so my bet is on a damaged piston.

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Well it was a little worse than I thought. It would seem I had some detonation issues. The crazy thing is, after this damage was done I still drove it from Las vegas up the coast to washington just fine. And it was running and driving this week still making good power.

Three different cylinders had issues: one piston with a sizable chunk missing, one piston with damage to the ring lands, and another rod bearing was getting chewed up. I doubt it would have taken long for that to turn into a knock or a thrown rod!

The heads look ok. The cylinder walls look worse in the picture than in person, but worst case it will need resleeved and thats not too difficult or expensive. the crankshaft will probably just need polished.

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Working on cleaning up some wiring and underwood stuff. When i put this together, I was under a tight timeline. Its all worked well, but the wiring wasn't too pretty.

Also got my pistons and other rebuild parts ordered. Going all forged this time!

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Got a lot more cleaning in the engine bay done. Re did a lot of work on the wiring harnesses to get rid of all butt connectors, and tidy it all up. Should be getting the engine back from the machine shop shortly. With some luck I can assemble it this weekend!

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' 56 century

Got a lot more cleaning in the engine bay done. Re did a lot of work on the wiring harnesses to get rid of all butt connectors, and tidy it all up. Should be getting the engine back from the machine shop shortly. With some luck I can assemble it this weekend!








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You make it sound so EASY!

Ben
 
Progress on the new engine has been pretty slow. I plastic-gauged my main bearings, got the crank in so far

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