Hi all,

I joined this as a referral from one of the Buick forum guys. I have one of the 78 Buick Electra’s with the 403. Been in my family since early 90’s or so. The 403 is why I joined as there is limited info on the other sites. And to start off, No I don’t have one of the infamous SWM blocks 😂. Of course I posted pictures because what good is a thread without pictures….

for those that don’t know, the metal carrier olds oil pan gasket is really nice, part number is
Mahle: OS30534TC
Felpro: OS30471C






Intake was a fun little side project, painted in cast color and hand painted the numbers.

 

Nice job! Love those Electra’s, I’ve had a couple of them, they float like boats.

 

Welcome to the site!!

 

Welcome aboard! We would like to see some pics of your Electra also! Nice job on detailing your 403!

 

Finding interior pieces has been fun.



Finding these pieces have been fun, but recently finally found them.

 

Welcome, Mike.

You've got a beautiful car and you did a great job on detailing the engine.

You even have intake and exhaust manifolds without rust pits!

Gary

 

Thanks Gary, the intake has a little bit where EGR goes but have to look really close to see it, the exhaust manifolds came out great, I’m hoping they don’t turn once running but I baked them for awhile, wife wasn’t to happy to see car parts in the oven 😂 , I’m still trying to navigate the site, I definitely need to put a want Ad for a power steering pulley.

 

Your Electra looks every bit as good as the 403! Very nice!

 

It’s coming along, sand blasting, painting and baking takes time though, never mind the mess please. When priming the oil pump… the valve cover leaked 🤦‍♂️. Glad I checked it verse in the car. This forum is great I can say that. If anyone is curious I’m using the duplicolor paint with ceramic for the brackets and pulleys, I’ve had great luck with it.

 

Beautiful car. Engine almost too pretty.LOL

 

I hope it retains at 70% of its cleanliness, I put together a 77 corvette years ago and It had an oil pan leak… pulled the engine to clean and reseal since it aggravated me so much I despise oil leaks.

 

Great job!

 

Nice car, and massive bonus with the olds 403! I’ve always loved that body style of the Buick/Olds/Chevys of those years. The car I learned how to drive in was a 77’ 2 door Caprice….they definitely floated over the road. Going into corners at high speed was a little scary though….😬….talk about body roll!!

 

I did a little more work the past few days while I await some parts, working on engine bay clean up has not been fun at all and getting the crossover on exhaust cleaned was not either there was 45+ years of oil and dirt that was like concrete getting off of it. Never mind the mess, it’s all toys/kid stuff awaiting to be donated or tossed. I have all new parts to rebuild the entire front suspension, contemplating doing that before I install engine just so I’m not fighting it as much. For those that have done the front suspension, is a coil spring compressor really necessary? Or will it just pop out when I drop the lower control arm with spindle.

 

I've done mine that way. I put a loose cable through and around the spring and control arm for safety.

 

The old springs should pop out just fine, but be safe. You'll need a compressor when installing new springs.

Having the weight of the engine in the cradle will assist when installing new springs, but you don't have to.

 

I hadn’t planned to change them, not sure how they would go bad, but need to get control arms off to install new bushings and ball joints.

 

It’s very much the same as olds so if anyone needs pointers, I can say the old bushings which may have been original were a huge pain to get out, new ones going in were a pain too, so much so I called moog customer service, they did inform me the lower ball joints are manufactured a bit larger, anywhere from .011-.019 larger. But I have one side done.