Need Buick V6 Help (Page 1 of 2)

Also, it sat outside for a while (years?) with no hood on it. Someone put a plastic bag over the carburetor, so even though it had no air cleaner, it didn't get full of water, but I'm wondering if water could have gotten into where the coil is on top of the distributor cap and corroded some stuff.

I'll check vacuum tomorrow.

Pull the Distributor cap and check the advance weights, the are probably frozen.(thus the lack of acceleration)
You can usually free them up with some penetrating oil and a little elbow grease.

Clearly the answer is a turbocharger.  I mean this is basically a Grand National.

Edit: Nope that was useless like most things on the internet that require knowledge before 1980.

Best I can find is if the distributor cap looks like a V8 cap with two plugs missing it's odd fire.
If It looks like a normal V6 cap it's even fire.

The only other ways are casting numbers and looking at the crank for the even fires offset shared journals.

Also, if anyone has any advice for making this thing hold together; I'll be racing it at CMP in September and have never raced a GM product before.

I figured I'd put an oil cooler on it, gauges for water temp, oil temp, and oil pressure, and tell the guys to baby it.

The trans is a THM-350, and it feels pretty good, although it really likes to upshift. I'll put a new vacuum regulator on it and see if that helps, and add a big trans cooler. It has some output shaft play, although feels fine while driving, so I may put a new output shaft bushing and seal in it; that looks easy enough.

Starter, alternator and all of their associated wiring are always on problem on the FWD 3800's but though related in architecture, they seem to be very different engines.

That's the best advice I've ever read on how to get a 40 year old engine to pop freeze plugs.

If that engine runs more than 180 degrees, there's something wrong.  The fan setup won't help anything over 30 mph.  Ditch the stock mechanical fan and rig up a decent-sized e-fan from something modern and Japanese and don't worry about it.

If the engine's running hot, one of the following is wrong:

- Running too lean, due to carburetor crapitude and/or vacuum leaks

- Distributor timing too retarded

- Head gasket leak

- Exhaust restricted

- Massive blockage in the cooling loop

Assuming it's not gulping coolant and there's no bubbles in the radiator while running, you can rule out a HG leak.  I'd yank the radiator and install a nice beefy aluminum racing one from Summit.  They're cheap and they've done a good job cooling our 460.  Add shrouding around the front to direct air into it at speed.  Backflush the cooling system before installing the new radiator.  Run a thermostat-delete restrictor plate.

Advance the base timing as much as possible before you get pinging under moderate loads and speeds.  A higher octane fuel and/or octane boost may let you run a bit more timing.  The engine will like this.

Dual 2" exhaust with race mufflers, get rid of the stock system- especially if it has a cat.  1970's catalytic converters were terrible like disco.

Replace every vacuum line on the car, remove anything superfluous (like vacuum controls to the HVAC system)

And overhaul the carburetor.

Just thinking about this...my first car was a '77 Suburban with the TH350.  IIRC it had a vacuum modulator and a mechanical kickdown.  If they're broken or missing then it will probably default to upshifting early.  Again, back to the vacuum issues, replace all the lines.  The modulator should be cheap, too. 

The kickdown linkage I think was pretty straightforward- basically make sure it's pressed all the way back when the gas is floored.

^ This. If you have to pump the pedal to keep it going, it's not getting enough fuel through the regular circuits. Almost certainly due to a clog somewhere from sitting for so long.

I got lucky with a Holley 1920 one-barrel that had only been sitting a couple years and managed to blow out the crap in the idle circuits with carb cleaner. Sounds like your issues might be related to the main circuit, though. No idea what model of carb it is, but maybe you can open up the bowl and go prospecting for garbage. If you do have to rebuild it, get the big can of carb cleaner so you can soak the whole disassembled body in it. Also make sure to check for excessive throttle shaft play before you waste the time and effort rebuilding it.

Some quick googling shows this car may have had either the THM 350 -or- the THM 200 transmission.  Probably better verify which before continuing.

If it is a THM 200, my Buick guy (who owns a 10 second GN) says you can direct- swap in a THM 350, easy.  You should be able to find a THM 350 about as easy as turning over a rock.

Or, better yet, run the 200 till it blows, and have a 350 with you to swap in.