[b-man]

I'd say leave the old straight-8 flatty alone.

These were never performance engines, and it takes too much work to get any real power out of them.

Leave it stock, but do all the maintenance on it to bring it up to snuff.

Detail it nicely, make it look just like it came out of the factory. No need for twin carbs or headers.

You have a nice low-mileage engine, enjoy it for what it was made to do, and that would be to give you many miles of driving pleasure.

[Pontirag]

You might pull the tranny pan and side cover and have a look in there too. Those old hydros need to be checked for adjustment about every 6000 miles , usually its done after a thorough and complete tune up. cant hurt to know rather than hope. Make sure the adjustments are done correctly and she will live a long and happy life.

[Bill Eveland]

All I meant Jack was instead of trying to locate a factory high compression head, he could mill his. I agree thats just one piece of the package to upgrade the performance. Just only changing the head would have no real differance if thats all that was done. Unless were talking aluminum than at least for looks it would look nicer.

Originally Posted by pontiac jack

Unfortunately, that's usually not effective on a flathead, since it negatively affects breathing around the valve heads. Combustion chamber configuration in a flathead is a whole 'nuther subject. But that doesn't mean there's no knowledge out there- you just need to tap into it.

[Pontirag]

Not sure but I believe the 53-54's had a slightly larger oil pump and aluminium pistons. You can actually notice a difference if you port the runners and polish the exuast runners. Also clean up and match the cast iron exhuaste and intake manifold. and relieve the area around the valves and you will notice an improvement. I never won a race but she pulled alot stronger up the mountains at 5200 feet. the engineers were ultra conservative with the performance and several others were already comming out with ohv v8's. Pontiac only up the hp each year enough to brag in its brochures. Besides they were already devloping the v8 by then and towards the end the str8 established the reliability of pontiac when it came time to promote the v8. Chevy had several problems with thier v8 when it came out.

Jim Wangers stated in his book that the pontiac str8 was the standard which all GM engines were to surpass. That says alot for your str8 just the way it is. I understand that ford four cylinder race cars(model A and up) used pontiac rods. I guess thats why they were first on race day.NOT!

[Rusty]

Thanks to all for their help and advice. I'm going to keep the Straight 8 after all. My goals once it gets a little warmer, say 40, is to run a compression check, clean out the gunk that might be in the oil pan as suggested and also rewire the car to 12 volt for more reliability. I don't want to spend all summer trying to find the 57 yoa 6v wire that went bad somewhere. But, all of that is on hold since the high today is likely to stay below 0!!!! Why did people choose to settle here versus someplace warm?????

There's a pretty good chance I'll be back on here with more questions sooner than later, thankfully everyone is so helpful!!

Rusty

[JDHolmes]

I've got a 53 with a straight 8 and I had mine rebuilt because I'm keeping the car as close to original as possible. The motor has been bored .040 over with all the associated crank changes. Most internals were reused. I had to rebuild mine because the rings were sealed to the pistons and had very very low compression.

All that remains is painting the motor and bay and getting it back in and the car will be back on the road.

Rebuild took 16 months, but straight 8 rebuilders are not on every corner, most have never seen one.

Several conditions should be taken into consideration about what you want to do. Are you keeping the car? If yes, then keep the straight 8 until it dies then put in a crate or alternate. If you plan on selling it as an original, keep the 8. If you're rodding it, change the motor when the 8 goes out.

edit after seeing the car: Keep the straight 8 and keep it original...beautiful car (but I'm partial to early 50's Pontiacs)

[PLAY400]

If my 6 cylinder in my 51 coupe had any compression it would be staying in. think it would be cool to drive a flat 6 at again.

[Jack Gifford]

Originally Posted by PLAY400

If my 6 cylinder in my 51 coupe had any compression...

Anything is fixable.

[Pontirag]

play400,

mine was a '50 six. low miles. been sitting from 64 to 93. I blew it using engine oil flush crap rather than pull the pan. Blew it on the way to motor vehicle dept. to get it registerd.I took one look at the cost to rebuild it and bought a 53 parts car and put that engine in. but first I tore it down and cleaned it up. put all new gaskets in and put her in and drove it for about a year. Stupid me I could never get it to run or idle right. did every thing I could think of then pulled it and put in a 400/th400 and a nine inch rear. when I went to hook up the vacuum line to the wipers I got curios about what was at the other end of the vaccum line. All along thinking my wipers were electric. and just didnt work. In AZ you rearly need them and I had a visor. Figured it out. trico vacuum motors have proprietary fasteners but i got it apart and grease it up and she ran soooo smoothly. MSD 6AL anf she would idle down to 425 rpm. People came up to admire the car and flipped out when they realised it was running. I had two mufflers from a 76 ford 350 series with a 460 engine. it was a single application but I used two and she was quite....until I went over a cattle gard then it rumbled. I hate noisy cars. noise does not equate with hp. especially in a convirtable. anyway

each approach is good but I would lean towards origional. If ya wanna hot rod something up get another one. They got real grace and poise. they were stately. It always amased me how narrow and meak looking the tires were. I put steel of a 74 catalina on mine and nice big fat rubber. much better road manners and the old full size hubcaps fit too. If there was anything I would suggest is a front and rear sway bar. worth it to have them made. Mine would never take a turn without seeming to tip over and throw the passengers around. You have no idea the difference good shocks(new) and anti sway bars make.

Not suggesting anything BUT if you do switch out the motor for ANY reason keep this in mind The vin plates were screwed in rather than rivited. the only other place you will find the vin is on your engine. keep the engine. Motor vehicle personnel get very nervous especially the young ones when you try to register a vehicle with screw in vin plate.Bring along the service manual to back up you story.

[Rusty]

I am definately keeping the straight 8. I just happened across a guy in my area who has a shop, Adelmann Engines. He specializes in flatheads. He's doing my dad's flathead now out of a 51 Ford F-3 1 ton pickup. Walking into this shop was like taking a step back in time. To say the least it was VERY neat!!! When it comes time to rebuild the motor, I'll have him do it. It's not free, but there aren't many out there like him and these motors aren't exactly easy to find parts for.

Hopefully this spring when I run a compression test all will come out fine. It seems to run very well when I can get it started, so we'll see. I'm hoping changing the wiring over to 12v might get rid of some of those issues/headaches.

[Bill Eveland]

If the wiring was good and didn't have to be replaced, you could also try an 8 volt battery to see if that would help with the starting issues.

[Rusty]

Bill,

I have thought about trying that too, but I don't know if I want to or not. I'm thinking it wouldn't be a bad idea necessarily to just get rid of the old wires as I had some other wiring issues last year also. Some of the lights don't work all the time and some don't work at all. I've started with the bulbs but that hasn't fixed all the issues. For a few hundred I'm thinking it will be worth it in the long run to know I have a solid electrical foundation. This is only the second time I've heard of an 8 volt battery, up until I bought this car I didn't even know they existed!

Thanks for the idea,
Rusty

[PLAY400]

I title everything as soon as I get it.

Rusty have you considered using Scarebirds disc brake set-up. If I was only to do 1 thing to these cars that would be it.

[Rusty]

I am looking to do some upgrades to the suspension to help improve the ride and drivability. As I think I might have said earlier, maybe not, one of my goals is to make this a car that anyone (including my wife) can get behind the wheel and easily drive. I'd like to upgrade the front brakes, and I'm also still trying to determine how to add power steering. My engineer friend talked about adapting a powersteering unit I have from a 71 Lemans that I parted a few years back. My brother thinks I should try to find a closer vintage GM with a power steering unit and go with that. Either way, power steering and disc brakes are a little ways off. Though there's a pretty good chance that I will take the vac wiper motor out and replace it with an electric before summer

Thanks for the direction on the disc brakes!!

[Bill Eveland]

With the addition of the disc brakes, the factory wheels probably won't work either, the center section of the wheel may be too close to the caliper.

I helped another guy out with a 41 doing his ball joint conversion deal, but he also made his own mounts for a cavaliar rack and pinion . Pretty much 37-57 is the same basic design suspension, although 37-48, 49-54 than 55-57 is how I would group them individually because of certain differances. But I would try to find an original set up first since your keeping the rest of it stock.

http://crankshaftcoalition.com/wiki/...ing%22_to_Rack

Just keep in mind, this article only applies to a 41 that has already had the ball joint conversion done with dropped spindles. It just gives you a basic idea if you ever decided to do this.

[PITTSBURGH 64]

Check this guys Edmond headed 36 out.
http://forums.aaca.org/ubbthreads.ph...440#Post477440

[stevep]

The Hydramatic equipped 52 should have a High Compression head. I believe that 52 was the 1st year for it. Back than, they all had a pinging problem and the dealer doubled the head gasket to solve the problem.

I have had several straight 8 cars over the years. My last was a 54 Star Chief Conv. While leaving a Rhode Island POCI show with my club a few years ago, one member (driving a GTO) commented when we all got onto the highway that I would not be able to keep up with the GTOs. I blew by them at about 75 MPH. No one ever doubted that car again! They are a stone off the line, but will keep up with anything once they are rolling.

I believe that a 53-54 Power Steering set up will bolt in. You just have to find one!

Gaylord Rachels in Fergus Falls has tons of parts for that car.

[Rusty]

SteveP,

Thanks for that info. A guy in my local POCI club also recommended I contact Gaylord as he apparently has a yard full of Pontiacs. I'll be calling him soon. I will have to check the head and see if I can find the markings for the high compression on it.

I agree that once this car gets rolling it goes just fine, which I guess is fine by me, since it's just a cruiser.

Rusty

[stevep]

You should see "HIGH COMPRESSION" clearly on the rear of the head in raised lettering. BTW, high compression is about 7.6-1.

If that straight 8 is running right, listen to the exhaust, it will "sing".

[Rusty]

I called the former owner today and talked to him about the motor. I had forgotten that they had replaced the head gasket and milled the head slightly to get it back to flat a few years back. He said when they had the head off everything looked very good. There was very little ridge in the cylinders and the valves all looked good.

I also checked and I do have the high compression head, which for what it's worth is good. I think I'm just going to focus on making sure it's running smooth and dress it up a bit. I'm also going to convert it over to the 12 volt and look at installing a petronics ignition system to assist with the starting and running performance. A friend put Petronics into his car and it made a world of difference for him.

I'm also looking for a power steering unit to bolt onto the car. If anyone comes across something you think might work, let me know. I'm going to try to call Gaylord Rachels who I was referred to earlier.

Thanks to everyone for the help!!