1988 Buick Electra Estate Wagon -- End of the line

Hi all:

I have to apologize for all the silence from me. Normally I get the emails of each reply, then I go to the site. But I only got two this time -- one from from 1967 Tempest, and one from Fat Tedy, and that was this morning, then I was off to Vancouver for meetings . . . aw, who cares, and it's Friday night and I'm beat.

I just visited the site now, and yikes, that's a lot of action.

So I'm sorry for not weighing in. I'll do better . . . tomorrow. I'll answer all questions that I can.

That said, I did pick up the Roadmaster from the Buick dealer when I landed. That is one great car. Paid $1900 privately, and the dealer charged $1900 for a new power antenna, fixing a leaky valve seal, installing a new oil sensor so the gauge doesn't flip all over the place, retrofitting and charging the AC, and a bunch of other stuff. I separately ordered four new wheel caps, a right-front turn signal lens, and a power window switch for the driver's panel. I also had my other mechanic put in a new master cylinder when I got the car last week. It's been in the two shops for about ten days now.

OK, that's it. Apologies gain for silence. I'll respond again tomorrow.

Adfam

 

Adam...that was one of the better reads in a while.....even if it is a sad ending

dude...if your gonna drive to a wrecker...then go get a used engine of any size and throw her in...just to keep her mobile

and like Teddy...give me your bottom line before shes a Toyota door
Ive got SBC's fallin off the shelves in my store

 

I'd love to have it, too. But it sounds like it would be too complicated and expensive to ge it down here.

 

Would that car have the Olds motor?
You may have a clogged oil return passage in the cylinder head(s). Pretty common on Olds especially if oil wasn't changed so often. If the valve seals are operating submerged in oil the vacuum will suck oil into the cylinders with every intake stroke. Typically the first place is closest to the EGR where things get hotter so dirty oil bakes into sludge.
Pop off the valve covers. If you are greeted by a gush of oil the drains are clogged. Poke a screwdriver through and scoop up what sludge you can then button her up.
Nice looking car, it doesn't deserve to die yet. What's the worst case? A $500 used engine?

 

Yeah....I use a wire hanger to clean them out. Common problem with Olds engines. However, IF that's the problem....I don't like the fact that he took it out and drove it hard to "clean out the carbon" on that high mile engine. If it wasn't hurt before....it may be now.

 

Nah, not unless the pushrods are clogged too, in which case he'd be complaing of valve noise due to the worn rocker stands.

 

No argument from me on that. I'm very familiar with the Olds engines. Too many maybe's and could be's with this scenario.

 

It would be nice if it IS just clogged returns. Then KK could go get it and drive it home! He's not that far away.

 

i had that problem one time and didn't know it until i sold the 1970 cutlass with a 455 rocket for $500.00 . the next morning the guy drove it back to my house to show me he fixed the motor in about 3 hours and all it coast was a set of valve cover gaskets!!!

 

Yup. We would drill them out and reshape & smooth them on the built 455's we did.

 

There's alot of what if's, it could be this, that, etc....

They only thing we do know it's been smoking since 150thou kilomiters, it now has almost 400thou kilomiters and is blowing alot of smoke (what colour?). That's alot of millage to have not done anything about it/fix the problem. I also agree with Fox, if it was getting that bad, taking it on a highway run should not have happened.

 

tedy mebbe you could go pull the covers off,. if its just drain backs,. then the car is saveable,. that body and interior look great for 400 kms,.
i,ve enough air miles to fly out and drive it back here (toronto),.and a buddy of mine just murdered my favourite old gold run of the mill rusty roady wagon,.
Nick

 

I'll gladly look at it for any one but I won't start taking parts off etc in some elses drive way to try and find what the problem is. I'll do my best to describe what I think is wrong.

I'm selling cars rite now and I would'nt let some one start taking things apart, could be cracking open a whole new can of worms. Know what I'm getting at?


I've tried earler this week to contact through his ad via email, and in this post....still waiting for a reply

 

Nice of him to rub it in. What an A-hole.
I hope this story inspires our original poster to investigate this possibility.

 

I'd bet it sold. If I were close it would be in my driveway. (No, I wouldn't rub the easy fix in the seller's face)