Buick 3.8 to Buick 350-1981 Century Wagon Build

[Blake442]

Cool, a buick powered buick! For some strange reason ive always wanted to take a buick wagon and stick my drawthrough motor in and put my 455 back in the cutlass, but thats a long way off.

Do it!
Buy that Cutlass wagon that guy in Duluth has and we'll snag you a Buick front clip down at Rohner's!

Would you have any use for any of the leftovers of the 3.8?
Otherwise it'll probably just end up as ballast in the back of my pick-up this winter... :lol:

 

[rlsllc]

If it is an '81, it should have a vacuum advance distrubutor, IIRC. Which carb does it have?

 

[81cutlass]

If you want to save the timing cover if its good that would be nice, they seem to go out when bearings go through the motor :lol: I spent 3 hours when I put my motor back together sanding the scratches out of the cover from the 2 pistons and 3 spun bearings that went through the thing. :lol: I wish I had a use for the heads or something, but now mine are ported so I almost dont need em.

The cutlass wagon is tempting, but dad and I already have 4 unfinished projects, dads IH pickup needs a motor and body work, my cutlass needs rear end and trans work, the firebird needs to get the motor put back together, and the other cutlass needs to get out from the side of the grain bin out at the farm. I looked at it sitting in the 3 feet of grass today and shook my head....

Anybody want a 95% rust free cutlass shell with no title? :lol:

Thread hijack over.

 

[Blake442]

Got a little more done this weekend.

Started off with trying to remove the 3 bolts that the previous owner had broken off in the driver-side cylinder head for the exhaust manifold. Two were broken off with about 1 inch sticking out of the block, and 1 had broken off flush.

The 1 that I was most concerned about came out with ease, but unfortunately the other broke off... :x
So I start drilling into the 2 that are broken flush, get about 1/2 way thru them, get the eazy-outs I just bought and then proceeded to break off an eazy-out in each of them. :evil: Needless to say I was not a happy camper.
A torch would've saved me a lot of trouble, but alas, I don't have one...

I took a little time to harvest the rest of the things that I would need off of the 3.8 to reuse on the 350, like sensors, fasteners and other brackets that I hadn't removed before the motor came out.
Luckily, as an '81, almost all of the hardware is still SAE. Gotta catch a break every once in a while...

After that I drained, disconnected and pulled the Metric 200 out of the car to get ready for the TH-350 to go in it's place.
I'll be bolting it back together with the 3.8 and throwing it in my pickup for traction this winter.
Then come spring time I'll just dump it off at the scrap yard.

Gonna go buy a few more drill bits and head back over today to try and get the broken bolts out and the holes re-tapped.
Wish me luck... :lol:

 

[G-Body_Vet]

Got a little more done this weekend.

Started off with trying to remove the 3 bolts that the previous owner had broken off in the driver-side cylinder head for the exhaust manifold. Two were broken off with about 1 inch sticking out of the block, and 1 had broken off flush.

The 1 that I was most concerned about came out with ease, but unfortunately the other broke off... :x
So I start drilling into the 2 that are broken flush, get about 1/2 way thru them, get the eazy-outs I just bought and then proceeded to break off an eazy-out in each of them. :evil: Needless to say I was not a happy camper.
A torch would've saved me a lot of trouble, but alas, I don't have one...

I'm assuming this is on the 350? Worst case scenario you can call machine shops and see if they have an EDM Machine if you feel like pulling the head.

 

[Blake442]

Yeah, it's for the 350.

I was able to get them both out today, and after getting the first hole re-tapped, the god damn tap broke off. :x
Luckily I was able to get it out with a needle-nose pliers, but now I need to get a new tap and try again.

Between the 7 or so hours I spent dicking around, a $30 stud extractor that just broke it off (I could've done that for free), and $50 worth of drill bits and dremel grinding bits, those two little bolts turned out to be a huge pain in my *ss...

 

[Blake442]

I promised pictures...

Here's the grungy motor I started with, all masked up to get a half-assed cleaning...

Somewhat cleaned up and oil pump primed...

Check out my awesome oil pump drive I made...

Crankcase looked good, and a fresh pan gasket went on.

Last shot of the stock motor together...

Diggin' in...

Little more...

Ready to come out...

The wagon awaiting the 350...

A little known G-body perk... No need to remove the hood! Which is key when you're working alone.
This is the first and only time I've ever used the roof rack... :lol:
The extra bungees are because it was a bit windy.

Out it goes!

Next went the trans...

Kinda grungy, but still plenty solid. Should match the new motor and trans lol... :lol:

****!

That's all my pics for now.
I'll start taking more again once I head back over on friday to put the trans in and then the motor...

 

[Oldsmoletick]

A little known G-body perk... No need to remove the hood! Which is key when you're working alone.
This is the first and only time I've ever used the roof rack... :lol:
The extra bungees are because it was a bit windy.

I could have saved myself a big dent in my hood had I known this (it blew over once while it was off). Though I have gotten pretty good at removing and installing g-body hoods by myself without damaging anything . Great tip Blake, I'll remember this the next time I take the engine out of my car or the next time I throw a G body together for someone else, lol.

 

[Lue]

The wagon is coming along really nicely Blake 8)

 

[G-Body_Vet]

Though I have gotten pretty good at removing and installing g-body hoods by myself without damaging anything

x2! It's nice being 6'2" with long arms :lol: