A couple questions about my F-263 engine on my 51 Special

[PFJN]

Hi.

Not too long ago I bought my first vintage car, a1951Buick Special Deluxe witha Straight 8 363 cu in engine. So far its been running great, but one thingI've been noticing is that usually the oil pressure gauge reads toward the highend when I start the car, rising a little when I step on the gas and dropping alittle when idling.

Although I haven't run the car on the highways, if I run it on some of thelocal boulevards and such (say up to45mph or so) when I do come to a stop a lotof the times the oil pressure gauge will typically drop to the lower range whenidling, but still climb to the high end once I start accelerating again.

Also, lately, now that the weather has warmed a bit, I’ve noticed thatsometimes when I start my car it’ll idle a little fast at first, and whenidling fast it won’t let me shift the Dynaflow Transmission into Low orReverse. However, if I rev the engine once or twice (while in Park) usually therpms will drop and everything else is fine.

As such, I was wondering if these two things are typical for a car this old orwhether there might be something going on with my engine that I may need tolook into.

Thanks

Pat

[Muley Gil]

First off, the Buick straight eight is an OHV (overhead valve) engine, not a F head.

It's been a long time since I've owned an old Buick, but IIRC, the oil pressure is normal.

Not sure about the tranny issues.

[PFJN]

First off, the Buick straight eight is an OHV (overhead valve) engine, not a F head.

It's been a long time since I've owned an old Buick, but IIRC, the oil pressure is normal.

Not sure about the tranny issues.

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. That helps.

Pat

PS. I didn’t mean to imply that the car had an F Head engine,I just noticed that in the shop manual that I have it calls it an F-263 (Iguess its short for Fireball 263 or something like that)

[Jenz38]

Yes,the Oilpressure are ok like that, and with the F 263 you are right,thats only the name of this engine.
I have the same inside,but with the 3speed,because of that i can't answering to your gearboxquestion.

[PFJN]

Thanks

Pat

[raycow]

It is normal for the engine to idle fast when it is first started. Any engine with an automatic choke will do this.

As already noted, your oil pressure fluctuations are also normal.

Ray

[PFJN]

Hi,

Thanks for the feedback. I decided to take my car in to a mechanic that I’ve used before, inorder to get another set of eyes on it. Hopefully, I’ll find out if there are any problems in a couple days.

Pat

[PFJN]

I heard back from my mechanic today and it looks like one of my transmission mounts had began to fail a little, which messed a bit with the shift linkages.

I guess after 60+ years stuff like that can happen

Hopefully I'll have the car back soon.

PF

[PFJN]

I got my car back last week and the new transmission mounts seem to have fixed my issues.