engine.

At the end of May, we figured Betty had enough time to catch her breath, so Tim and Steve headed over to Jim's house to get elbow deep in 30 year old grease, grime and anything else that was stuck on that car. I wasn't there to witness this monumental event, but I sent Tim with camera in tow and strict orders to take pictures. -SB





Well, there it is, the grand poobah of them all. I'm not sure what the STR8 and the dynaflow weigh together. It's alot. Splitting the motor and tranny was a pain. Old school torque converters are two-piece, so essentially the front plate of the converter comes off, and until you get it off, they stay together. Inside was brown nasty tranny fluid that interestingly enough has no smell. Pretty much all trans fluid these days stinks even when right out of the bottle. Not this stuff. My bet is it's Dextron I....that's old stuff. The motor went on an engine stand to await rebuilding after the body, brakes, and suspension are done. We had to support the whole front of the engine with a wooden brace just to keep it from ripping the engine stand in half.

The 248 STR8 in stock form is a real dog. 115 HP and about 200LBS of torque, you make everything off of low-end grunt considering the red-line is around 4000 RPM. There were 3 STR8's that Buick made, the 248, 263, and 325. The 263 is the ideal motor, and it's still a mystery why Buick suddenly dropped the STR8 and especially the 263 in 1952 for the new Nailhead motor. Not that nailheads aren't cool as all hell, but still... Stock compression on the 248 is a measly 6.0:1. My intentions are to wait on the engine build until after the body, paint, suspension, and brakes are done. Through different pistons from Egge Machine, and shaving the daylights out of the head and/or block, my hopes are to get the compression into the 8.5:1 to 9.0:1 range. I'm going to probably stick with stock cam since there is nothing out there other than sending your cam out to re-grind. I'll be fabbing up an aluminum intake and a "3-5" header for the exhaust, which essentially makes dual exhaust using one header with 3 exhaust runners, and the other with 5. Why the hell you ask? Because it sounds freakin awesome. At least, that's what everyone tells me. Until then, the engine will wait. -TH

...on the up and up, moving along...

It wasn't until May that the weather here in lovely Holland, Michigan warmed up enough for us to even think about venturing outside. So, once the mercury rose above the freezing point, we called our buddy Jim and asked to borrow his brute strength... and his car hauler... and his pole barn... and... -SB





Some how, some way, Steve also got talked into helping, and since there were now three strong men on the moving force, I could pretty much sit back and watch document. Moving went much quicker this time thanks to the warmer weather and extra hands, and Betty got to rest a bit in the sun. -SB

I'd like to add here that Steve and Jim are two of the awesomist (is that a word?) guys you'll meet. Jim gave up half his pole-barn for Betty, but I'm sure I'll pay him back with work when I can. -TH