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59 olds 394 build gone bad!wonder if anybody can help! Yes I spent four years rebuilding this 394, we couldn't get it running right when we finally did found out had a bad head gasket because I took bolts loose to mess with the rocker bar and I guess it blew the head gasket because of that, I was running with straight water in the radiator and it started knocking making a bunch of racket, I think I might have spun a rod bearing can you get another crankshaft for that by chance? And what else what I need to do?
You might as well pull the engine out of the car and put it on an engine stand .
Pull the heads and intake and take them to a machine shop to make sure they are flat .
They may need to be surfaced .
Check the pistons carefully for cracks . The rattling noise you heard may have been a cylinder sucking in water through the bad head gasket .
Bar the engine over by hand while you watch each piston come to the top of the stroke . If one doesn't quite come all the way to the top , you have a bent rod .
Turn the engine over and remove the pan . Grab the rods one at a time and check for any up and down play . You may want to pull a couple of rod caps anyway just to see what the bearings look like .
As mentioned , if the crankshaft is not too badly worn or damaged it can be re-ground .
Do you have a 1959 Oldsmobile Service manual ? If you don't , get one . The proper procedure for assembling the heads and rocker shafts are in this book .
You can get one on E-Bay ; 1959 oldsmobile service manual | eBay
Last edited by Charlie Jones; December 13th, 2020 at 10:42 PM.
Chances are you did spin a bearing but you wont know till you check it out. Does the radiator water look like a milk shake? Was there anything metallic floating in the oil or filter? Check those things first they cost nothing and will tell you a lot .If mine I would pull the heads next, you have to do that anyway) and see what damage you can asses from there. You should have a good idea what happened by then. If it's bad news it will be time to pull the engine and check the lower half of the engine you may get lucky and not scored the crank.... Tedd
Ya thx charlie,im gonna try that 1st with the heads,since I need head gaskets this is frustrating! Little nfo on the build,its got .30 over pistons,10 under crank,rods were no change.new camshaft,heres where it get funny the cam was how do i say it camshaft walked an where the gear is on camshaft was off from where the stock cam was,which made it walk,then I had bad rod bolts so I got a set off ebay,they had light rust on them,the bearings that were still in em looked great I meant say got 8 rods off ebay anyway 394's are very hard to get parts for aka rod bolts pistons,its gonna be a bit b4 can tear into it,hey charlie do ya know where could find any rod bollts? Rods from ebay
59oldsthunder!,
Once you determine what you actually need, I can provide AMERICAN made parts for your 394, such that you are not using Chineseum garbage and doing the job a 3rd time.....
Always best to simply call me --- Craig --- 516 - 485 - 1935.....
59oldsthunder! ,
Who did you buy your parts from ? Brands ?
Did you have those rods re-sized ?
Re-sizing , if your not familiar with it , is when a machinist grinds a few thousandths off the rod cap on the surface that contacts the rod .
Then the rod is assembled and it is honed out to the proper size and is perfectly round .
It is a necessary step in a successful re-build .
Stock rod bolts are good for multiple uses in a stock re-build . As long as they are not stretched or have damaged threads .
You mentioned the camshaft . There were several different cams used . 57 & 58 cams were different than later cams , and I believe 59 & 60 cams may have differed from 61 thru 64. Be sure to get the right one .
Last edited by Charlie Jones; December 14th, 2020 at 07:25 PM.
Hey charlie well got parts from mix of places,kanter,fusick,ebay and a place called Falcon parts online, as far as resizing the rods that's a good idea I wish I would have done it now I didn't really know I had to do that, as far as you were asking me earlier about metal shavings in the oil while I got a picture I want to show you I mean it's pretty wild looking I couldn't believe it when I saw it, this bucket was clean as can be before I put the oil in there and then when I dumped it this is what I ended up with so here you go!that looks like some grey that must of been in the block somewhere? Those shavings look really bad!
Hey craig sounds good so ya got lot of nos parts? Once I find out asses the damage then gonna try get it running prayerfully!I take it you seen this b4? With some of these builds?
It looks to me as though you will have to start all over .
Pull everything apart again and haul the pieces to a reputable , preferably long established , machine shop .
They will measure and evaluate the parts and give you an idea of what must be done to do the job right .
As I said before ;
One 1959 Oldsmobile Service Manual , $50 or less on E-Bay .
Knowing what you're doing , priceless .
Can you pick any of the shavings in the bucket with a magnet. Guess just out of curiosity the damage is done anyway but is it ferrous Iron, or nonferrous bearing material. I guess you will find out when you open her up...Tedd
A lot of that debris in the oil may have come from when the camshaft " walked ".
Do you have the original cam ? If you do , use it for comparison when you buy a new cam .
Also did you install the plunger and spring in the end of the cam ?
They are circled in the pic below ;
Last edited by Charlie Jones; December 16th, 2020 at 09:57 AM.
Yes that's a good page nice ok 2 things, the rods as long as you have spit holes towards the cam, the chamfuer side of rod will always be at outside of joirna? 2nd the crank gear goes on with the extened side away from crank? The gear is supposed be flush with ctank? Thx gettin lot help on here love it!
Yes I was able to pickup the shavings with magnet,there was was brass colored material in there as well cant think what would be brass colored?
The center of the rod and main shells are brass. The ferrous material came from somewhere that is not generally replaceable. hopefully it came from something not important..... Tedd
Hey Ted the cam walked on me! So some shavings had be from there and I may have put a rod in wrong way, which the chamfuer side is not toward the end of journal that would cause some ferrous material love these old big blocks
Yes that's a good page nice ok 2 things, the rods as long as you have spit holes towards the cam, the chamfuer side of rod will always be at outside of joirna? 2nd the crank gear goes on with the extened side away from crank? The gear is supposed be flush with ctank? Thx gettin lot help on here love it!
Yes , the spit holes should face the cam . Not sure what you mean by " chamfer side " .
Yes , the extended side of the crank timing gear goes on the outside .
If you had it backwards , then that is why the camshaft " walked " .
Well now thats strange ok charlie, I took some pics of my 394 teardown before I I rebuilt it, it shows the crank gear the other way of what it should be on there and I don't believe anybody ever tour this engine down before just by the way everything looks and I just don't believe they have, now on your 394 it's a 63 right? I know the first main bearing is wider than two through four, whereas on the 59 the one through four are all the same size so I'm wondering if you might have a longer crank in the 63 years so is that why the crank gear will be show different Maybe something I'm trying to figure out learning lot here! Hered few pics of crank at tear down!
That gear is backwards . There should be a timing mark , a dot or 0 , on the gear front face .
I don't know how you would line up the timing marks with the gear backwards .
If it was installed backwards , it would surely account for the camshaft "walk" .
Examine your camshaft and lifters carefully .
If the camshaft " walked " it probably destroyed itself and the lifters .
When parts start shedding metal particles , they circulate with the oil and wipe out bearings .
YA that makes total sense I know we timed it with both marks strange I got pics of when i puttin those parts on I put some on here later!ya would make it walk for sure I got some time b4 gets tore down again an redone! We will prevail! BTW I seen ur video of 394 runnin sounds awesome,!
Ya rocketraider thx these 394's kinda hard get parts an got a person on here who says can get me some have to get my wallet ready! Ha! Be few weeks until it gets tore down!
Well update olds fans,1st got my crank ground an straightened its .30 on rods an .20 on mains looks great now am workin on regrind lifters then find another cam heres pic of crank plus cleaned up flex plate an rust painted it!
Better start looking for a backup crank because this is the last ride on that one.
Can you put DX 921 roller lifters in, or is the oil band at a different altitude?
If mine I would have the heads magnafluxed as 394 heads had a tendency to crack. More so on the later 394's than the early but the cost is cheap compared to finding out later after it's built and finished...... Tedd
Yeah hey Fleming I'm just going to go with the stock 921 lifters nothing fancy, I'm just not sure where I'm going to get the cam from yet I'm probably going to have more machine work done I got different rods from a 394 make sure they're all good and round and no issues.
Hey thx charlie im talkin with camcraft now pretty good people,wonder does any you all know where can get another oil slinger for my 394? Mine kinda got crushed cant repair it ugg! Thx again people
Hey olds fans, great news just found my original .921 lifrers im goin to get them reground,wondee if any can help how get the plunger out of lifters its stuck heres a few pics
Hey olds fans, great news just found my original .921 lifrers im goin to get them reground,wondee if any can help how get the plunger out of lifters its stuck heres a few pics
Ya charlie,I got some new lifters from my rebuild I was even going to have them reground but then I found out there's no oil hole in the original ones I'm not sure if that makes any difference in the new lifters versus the old or not fast thinking about regrinding my old ones and using them, here's a few pics of my oil pan for 394 from when it spun a rod bearing going to flush it out and get it clean.
December 13th, 2020 | 01:17 PM
