[azbirds]

With the deeper pan and massive filter canister, how much oil does this thing take?

[b-man]

Originally Posted by azbirds

With the deeper pan and massive filter canister, how much oil does this thing take?

Right around 7 quarts.

[azbirds]

Thanks. Will try to put it in and fire it up today.

[b-man]

Originally Posted by azbirds

Thanks. Will try to put it in and fire it up today.

Looks great all painted up, wish mine was that far along.

Let us know how it goes and if you don't mind tell us what all you've done to it, what parts you've replaced and what machine work has been done on it.

[b-man]

Today I wanted to try to get some compression numbers, just to get an idea on the general health of the engine before I tear it down any further.

I put the auto trans bell and flexplate back on it along with the starter motor so I could run the compression test.



I also installed a nice tight lightly used double-roller timing set. This way the valve action wouldn't be retarded because of a loose chain, perhaps giving me a better chance of getting some decent compression readings.



I pirated a couple of good used battery cables from my stash and hooked up the battery. I also put the 2-barrel carb back on and blocked the choke plate and throttle linkage wide-open, to better simulate a test you'd do on a complete engine.



Now I'm ready to do some testing.



Since the engine is obviously cold and the lifters aren't pumped up the readings won't tell the whole story, but here they are:

1 - 110
3 - 80
5 - 65
7 - 105

2 - 95
4 - 70
6 - 65
8 - 110

Tested again after adding a squirt of Marvel Mystery Oil to each cylinder:

1 - 120
3 - 100
5 - 100
7 - 115

2 - 80
4 - 80
6 - 70
8 - 130

So at this point I'll let it sit for a week to give the MMO a chance to soak into the rings a bit more to perhaps free them some and test again, then I'll pull the heads.

[b-man]

I haven't had much time lately to mess with the 389, but I did pick up an interesting piece of the puzzle today.

A 1959 Tri-Power cast iron thermostat housing was generously donated to the project by PY member 56 Batwing. Thanks again Jack.

What makes this part unusual is the engine lifting loop built into it. On the '59 2 barrel and 4-barrel intakes the loop is integrated into the intake manifold casting, but for the Tri-Power they were only able to find room for the loop on the thermostat housing.







Here it is shown next to an aluminum repro of a '65 Tri-Power housing for comparison. The '59 unit is pretty big and heavy, I put it on a shipping scale and it weighs 2.85 pounds compared to the '65 aluminum repro at a scant .55 pounds.



Here you can see how the lifting loop configuration of the thermostat housing was copied in .150" to .175" thick stamped steel for later engines, attaching to one of the studs that mount the timing cover.

[b-man]

.....along with the correct linkage and fuel lines, sitting on the builder's workbench ready for shipment. The carbs, linkage and fuel lines are shown here mocked up on a 1960 intake.

Pretty unusual fuel line routing compared to what I'm used to seeing on the more common '64 -'66 setups.

New toys.

[GRX]

Great. Love seeing this old stuff.

Concerning that looped thermostat housing ... interesting to note the '60 version being for a non-reverse flow engine, has an extra hole to accommodate the small over flow tube.

[Kingman Man]

Originally Posted by b-man

Today I picked up an interesting and unique old Pontiac V8, a 10:1 compression 1959 280 HP 2-barrel 389. It was originally equipped with the 529472 letter stamp 'D' cam, the same profile as the 9779066 'N' cam. This same '472' cam was used in the 10:1 300 HP 4-barrel engines as well as the 10.5:1 315 HP Tri-Power engines in 1959.

Not sure what I will do with it at this point, but it certainly was worth picking up just to explore the differences between it and the later V8 offerings. The 1959 389 block has a reinforced casting in the oil pan rail area and is of higher nickel content than later blocks if I'm not mistaken. The 2-bolt main caps are also about 1/4" thicker than the caps on later engines. This block could very well end up as the basis for a future turbocharged engine project.

This was the first year of the 389 and the last year for reverse-flow cooling. These engines pipe water through the front of the cylinder heads first, then through the block. It was also the first year Pontiac used side engine mounts.

The engine code 'A' stamped in the front of the block just below the passenger side cylinder head indicates this engine is a 10:1 compression 2-barrel 280 HP version. The '295746' following the 'A' is the Motor Unit Number or MUN.



Block casting # on the passenger side 532000 confirms it's a 1959 389 block.



Here you can see the water inlets on the front the the heads and the cast iron timing cover with the corresponding water outlets on either side.







I was pleasantly surprised to see that it looked to be mostly intact after 56 years. Other than a few spliced hoses and various small repairs that kept it running over the years it looks to have retained all of the original equipment.







A thick sheet metal bracket mounts the power steering pump to the head and shields it from engine heat.



Cylinder head casting # 531395 was used on all 1959 389 engines.





Water pump casting # 518040. This is a 4-bolt pump that was used until the 8-bolt pump and timing cover was introduced in 1963 and used until 1967.



A road draft tube was used on these engines before a PCV valve was standard equipment, this one is still in perfect shape.



Intake manifold casting # 532119.



Note the unusual engine lifting loop that was cast into the front of the intake itself.



What looks to be the original 2-barrel carb. Later on I will clean it up and try to confirm this.





Both exhaust manifolds are still intact, the passenger side manifold has an interesting cast iron 'Y' connection bolted to it for both sides to feed into a single exhaust.



The Hydra-Matic trans is very heavy at over 200 pounds, most of the trans case is cast iron. In order to use a 1964 or later BOP pattern trans you must either buy or make an adapter. The trans is held to the block with big 7/16-14 threaded bolts, it wasn't until 1964 that 3/8-16 bolts were used here.

Gary, what is the transmission? sure hope you are more knowledgeable Than this person.

[Kingman Man]

Hay B-Man,

Hope you are well, better than me anyway, as have not had much energy.

Have no contact info or address for you and need. Have to get AAA to tell me how to get there. Why you ask? I screwed up, Truthfully.

It is all on my main, desktop computer.
Forgot it is on automatic update, and tried to download the latest update from Microsoft. No idea what went wrong, but it is now worse than my
first 4 mz PC. Please, The Yahoo account. Thanks Dan

[INchief]

Great, thanks for all the information, I appreciate it.

Originally Posted by b-man

.....will be told here to show that you can use either the 90-degree or the angled spin-on filter adapter on the early '55 -'60 blocks.

The blue filter adapter is the 90-degree one used on B-body big Pontiacs and first-gen '67 -'69 F-body Firebirds. The angled filter adapter is used on all A-body GTO/Le Mans/Tempest and second-gen '70 -'81 F-body Firebirds.



Note that the 90-degree adapter has the oil sender coming straight out the side, while the angled adapter has it coming out towards the rear.



The angled adapter is shown here installed on the '59 block.



As you can see here it's a very close fit.



Same shot, but this time with the stick shift bellhousing in place. As you can see there's plenty of clearance between the filter and the bellhousing.



The only point of interference was the head of this bolt, if there is a lock washer underneath it it hits the filter. The answer is to either go without the washer or shave down the head of the bolt a little.



Here's the 90-degree adapter installed, there's tons of room between it and the engine block.





Side view of 90-degree adapter.



Side view of the angled adapter.