1951 Special with Engine Issues
Hi,
About 5 years ago I bought my 1951 Special with its original 263 Straight 8, but a replacement air filter. When I first got the car, it ran though at times had trouble starting. I had it towed to my mechanic who checked everything out and got it running consistently for a while. Overall I have enjoyed it very much, though later I made the mistake of driving it in heavy traffic once, which caused me some engine issues. It stalled out on me and wouldn't restart. I had it towed to my mechanic who got it running again, but it eventually after a couple more months it stopped turning over again.
Due to lack of money at the time (I got engaged and suddenly couldn't afford both my car and other new expenses :clonk:) so sadly my car has sat for over a year in a non running condition. Now that my finances are a little better off, I really want to get the car running again, but am not sure how best to proceed.
On the one hand I do like the old Straight 8 engine, especially since its something that you don't see all that often, but am concerned that there may be hidden issues lurking with it since I have had it into the mechanic at least three (possibly four) times since buying the car, and have never gotten the car to start and run as reliably as I would hope.
In general, my real hope for the car is just to have something to ride around town on the weekends and something to play around with, hopefully once I retire in 10+yrs or so (if I can keep it running that long).
As such I have looked both into having a complete engine rebuild or having the engine swapped out with something else. My biggest fear on a rebuild is that a) a rebuild may or may not help make the car more "reliable" since you really won't know what problems may be present or if any new problems may arise until the engine is opened and b) I'm not sure if that would be something my current mechanic would be interested in trying to tackle.
However, I'm also not yet fully certain that trying to replace the engine would be a good option either. Specifically, if I tried to buy an older engine, such as another Straight 8 or perhaps a Nailhead V-8 there would still be the concern that it being an older engine there might be hidden issues with them and I'm not fully sure that this alone would help make the car a "reliable weekend driver", while if I were to try and add something newer, like a small block Chevy, that would also require a change to the transmission, drive train, rear axle and rear suspension.
As such, I'm kind of in a holding pattern on how to proceed. I've done some preliminary costing for the different options where the new small block engine option might run $6-7K in parts alone, while a rebuild kit for the Straight 8 may be on the order of $1.5-2K, plus of course labor for any of the options.
As such, I guess I'm just looking for feedback and suggestion or recommendations from anyone who may have been in a similar situation before to see if there are any lessons learned, or other thoughts that might help me decide on a path forward.
Thanks
Pat