The Regal Has died. For the 3rd time.

[MrSony]

No Chevy will violate my Regal while it's in my hands. And I guarantee the first thing that would happen if I ever sold the car with the motor, is the motor and trans would get tossed aside like it hasn't had damn near 5k spent on it. Why? Because it's not a chevy. People just don't care anymore about anything other than Chevy or Ford or Dodge. You NEVER see a non turbo regal with factory buick power, let alone a Buick swap. Plus, that motor looks too damn good in my engine compartment to start all over from scratch with something else. It's a money pit. It's never gonna be as fast for as cheap as the comparatively built SBC, but it's mine. And no other engine will ever be.

 

[pontiacgp]

View attachment 60573

Just playin' 😛

 

[Opie Knievel]

Thanks man. Yeah, I'm 18. 19 this September. And yes actually, I did put an add out on craigslist a few weeks ago. Just Sunday I helped a guy with his '73 Grandville. VC gaskets, carb installation, small stuff like that. It runs pretty damn good. Starts and idles like a new car from '73. Pontiac 400. Everyone I know just throws something away when it breaks. All my friends told me to junk my regal and get something else when the V6 blew up. I didn't do it then, I didn't do it when the transmission blew up, and I'm sure as hell not gonna do it now. I have really considered tech school, but I think that's a bit out of reach right now. Local community college has a two year course to get ASE certified and it cost 7700 a year. With my last job I only made 7300 for that whole year. Gotta get a steady job first then everything else falls into place. I'm gonna be out of highschool this summer, Class of 2017, and I'll be able to get a full time job, hopefully where my dad works making $17 bucks an hour.

Pell Grant and a small student loan will take care of the tuition. It's really easy to get into a tech school.

 

[L67ss]

I too used to be about the "olds in an olds...Buick in a Buick" crowd. Advantage of going the Chevy route is for the price of what it'd cost to just fix the crank you could buy a solid SBC/th350 setup from an Ls swapper. Would allow you to keep driving the car while still having money to work on the rest of the car. Then meanwhile you can take your time doing a full build on the Buick motor and trans and once you get a loil more financially stable stab it back in. Part of what resulted in my olds sitting for over a decade was the rising cost of upkeep plus the dwindling supply of parts. By the time I had gotten past the Chevy stigma the car had sat nearly ten years. And even then olds motors were more common than Buick v8s. And I had had the same oil pressure issue on a 70 455 buick I had in my other 86 cutlass

 

[MrSony]

I too used to be about the "olds in an olds...Buick in a Buick" crowd. Advantage of going the Chevy route is for the price of what it'd cost to just fix the crank you could buy a solid SBC/th350 setup from an Ls swapper. Would allow you to keep driving the car while still having money to work on the rest of the car. Then meanwhile you can take your time doing a full build on the Buick motor and trans and once you get a loil more financially stable stab it back in. Part of what resulted in my olds sitting for over a decade was the rising cost of upkeep plus the dwindling supply of parts. By the time I had gotten past the Chevy stigma the car had sat nearly ten years. And even then olds motors were more common than Buick v8s. And I had had the same oil pressure issue on a 70 455 buick I had in my other 86 cutlass

There wasn't an oil pressure issue. It was a me issue. Revving it to 6k all the time and all. It didn't like it. I'm gonna look into getting a parts hauler, such as a little S10 or something like that once I get a few hundo built up. Those are everywhere around here. I don't have a job right now, I have no bills, no responsibilities. I'm just gonna bide my time until the summer when I can start working a full time job. It's too much of a hassle to put a chevy in it. I gotta buy a motor I KNOW is good and will run well, thats about 500 bucks around here, I have to get ANOTHER transmission, that's another 2-300. I have to get new motor mounts, probably rad hoses, belts, EXHAUST, that's a biggie, and a myriad of anything else that chevy motor might need. Plus, I just don't like chevy motors really. Sure, there's power, but I'm just tired of them. The SBC is played out. It's been the reigning champeen since 1955. If my car was a monte carlo, or a caprice, or a malibu, it'd be different. I would've had a SBC in there years ago. But, it's not. It's a Buick. With a Buick powerplant. That's how it's gonna stay.

 

[Texas82GP]

If you buy a cheap little parts hauler or work car, baby it, or you will be back to walking.

 

[Pontiac455]

If ya think its a rod knock and want to isolate it. Fire her up and start pulling off plug wires one at a time. If the noise goes away thats yer cylinder.

 

[MrSony]

If ya think its a rod knock and want to isolate it. Fire her up and start pulling off plug wires one at a time. If the noise goes away thats yer cylinder.

Thanks for the tip, already did that. It's #7.

 

[pagrunt]

After reading your thread, with you going to take classes to be a pro wrench, I would say crack that block open & rebuild. Its not a Chevy or LS, but how often does a Buick V8 build comes about? As long as you can resize or core parts to rebuild the old girl, the cost shouldn't be that bad. This will can give you some more experiances that can help you keep your ride going. Some of those old timer machine shops may even have parts they been sitting on cause there hasn't been anyone looking for them.

 

[lilbowtie]

Regals actually came from the factory w/ sbc's.