Buick 3.8 to Buick 350-1981 Century Wagon Build

[dogsht]

Poly will not make them harsh or transmit drone to your ears and numbness to your arse. Thats what hockey pucks and aluminum blocks are for.

 

[G-Body_Vet]

Poly will not make them harsh or transmit drone to your ears and numbness to your arse. Thats what hockey pucks and aluminum blocks are for.

What's your take on that with body mounts? I have a set that will be installed once I put the body back on the frame. I've heard of people spending more to get the original rubber body mounts. I'm going for a stiffer ride and less body roll so I don't particularly care.

 

[KrisW]

I use poly mounts and bushings everywhere except the rear control arms. I cannot explain it, but it makes my car "buck" sometimes when I hit a curve at speed. For those, I use heavy duty rubber, like the "Del-a-lum" bushings. I have seen other guys use rod ends and eliminate that problem too.

But everything else, poly.

 

[G-Body_Vet]

I use poly mounts and bushings everywhere except the rear control arms. I cannot explain it, but it makes my car "buck" sometimes when I hit a curve at speed. For those, I use heavy duty rubber, like the "Del-a-lum" bushings. I have seen other guys use rod ends and eliminate that problem too.

But everything else, poly.

Like a dangerous, about to get away from you "buck", or similar to how it feels when a car hooks?

I like poly everything too. Just never went the body bushing route before.

 

[KrisW]

I have ridden in G-bodies with poly bushings; they just feel tighter and better to me. Some people think it feels harsh. I think it feels confident.

The rear axle suspension control arms seem to bind up with poly bushings in the turns. The buck, well that's like the car unexpectedly hooks and then tries to rip the steering wheel out of your hand if you're not careful. I have heard some people call it "snap oversteer," or something like that. All I know is I don't like it and after doing the research it is the rear control arms binding up and then all of a sudden letting go. Its not consistent enough to be able to predict when it will happen.

I know lots of people don't complain about it, but I think that may be because they are running stock, hollow, c-channel control arms that can actually twist when the busing binds. I box and weld mine up and make them rigid, and I can feel it when it happens.

 

[G-Body_Vet]

I'll be using a set of tubular UMI's that I already have so we'll see. I'm going to give that Hellwig rear sway bar a shot too since I've heard good things about it. Didn't mean to jack the thread guys.

 

[dogsht]

IMO poly on everything but control arm bushings. Motor, body, transmission mount. When you use the poly on control arms with fresh grease or graphite they are still smooth and work well but its kind of a band aid. Eventually they will bind when under a hard load and then the car will want to dart and its kind of random and unpredictable. A good rubber bushing or better as stated Del-a-lum is ideal for control arms front or rear.

 

[pc350]

Wow, those poly mounts are spendy compared to the $10 mounts I've bought in the past! I suppose you get what you pay for, though. Thanks for the info, I'll probably order at least the one side.

You can buy the poly mounts from TA performance. They are supposed to fit either the V6 or the 350. I am assuming maybe that the mount has the holes elongated where the through bolt goes. They are on my list to purchase but I don't have them yet.

TA V1822D

I went through a similar ordeal with my 78 Firebird, years back. I put in a 340 from a 67 LeSabre, it fit perfect, but I had to use the V6 mounts which I tore also. I have heard that you can buy the poly set, and then just replace the one side that always tears with the poly, leaving the other side that gets compressed as original rubber. I will probably just do them both, I am not worried about harshness.

 

[Buick Power]

Just got done reading through this thread. I can chime in on the side bar discussion about the detonation issue. More than likely, it was just the distributor. The point style GM distributors had a pin that moved in a slot, over the years that slot and pin would get worn and allow the pin to move further during mechanical advance, causing excessive advance. I worked at TA Performance for several years and when the shop would curve them, they would braze up that slot to shorten the pin's travel. I probably did tech on a few hundred of these types of calls over the years and everyone that went with an aftermarket distributor or re-curved with modifying the slot solved the problem. The same process was used when going to a bigger cam, if you needed to run say 18 degrees initial, we would braze the slot to allow only 14 degrees advance for a total of 32 degrees. That is how an OE distributor gets curved, springs and weights just adjust when it comes in, not how much. Vacuum advance (on the Buicks) was only supposed to come into play at highway speed under light load to improve gas mileage.

 

[Blake442]

Where's the updates??
You taking good care of my wagon, Lue?

You gotta update your sig too... What's the point of having a wagon if you aren't going to show it off?! :lol: