| After the
extremely hot
August weather, it was a shock when it turned to September. End of
summer
- almost overnight.
Yesterday I could go to the beach, today it's too cold to work on the car without freezing your fingers! Anyway, I have been working on the headers. The original manifold had cracked into several pieces, so I didn't have any second thoughts. My original idea was to build a true equal-lenght header, but eventually decided to cut corners. There's just too much stuff in the way on the driver's side of block, and equal-length headers would have required too many curves. For the same reason, I couldn't avoid pairing up cylinders that fire in concecutive order, into the same collector (no:s 4 &1 and 5 & 8). But if my theory proves correct, this arrangement will make all the difference in the sound, as sound-wise, this is no more an even-firing straight-8, but more like 2 odd-firing four-bangers... |
 I
bought a DIY headers buildup kit from Martelius
Exhaust, comprising a set of mandrel-bent 1-1/2" U-pipes and
2.5"collectors.
I made the flanges from 10 mm thick steel billet to avoid
warping.
I turned the ports in a lathe, so at least they line up perfectly. I
only
wish I had a plasma cutter at hand, but didn't. On the right side
collector,
you see a welded-on bung for an oxygen sensor (for an A/F ratio
gauge).
Before welding on the collectors, I welded an "eiffel tower" -shaped
cone
where the primaries meet, to facilitate smooth transfer to the
collector,
maximizing the scavenging effect. The other alternative would have been
to torch the pipes red hot, and form the four round exits into a
four-leaf
clover shape (see Header's by Ed).
For the same reason, I heated up the collector tapers, and hammered
those
deep creases. The header is still under work in this picture, but on
the
left collector, you can see a brass part that's been brazed on the
steel
tube. It features a tapered seat and a male thread, which will accept a
stainless flex member. |
|
I don't remember if I have mentioned this before, but I there has been a risk that I could not get my Buick registered. Nowadays, the original foreign title is required to get an imported car registered here in Finland. It wasn't required when my Buick was imported from New York state back in 1988. It was just cleared thru customs in 1988, not registered, and the declaration document is the only official paper that followed the car. |
 The
original Finnish buyer didn't have any papers left, and didn't recall
if
he ever got the title. Since the Finnish customs only keep the
documents
for 5 years, as well as the NYDMV, I wasn't able to trace back anything
on this specific car. I even tried carfax.com
and discreetresearch.com
to find any info on the car's history, to no avail. I considered
writing
a letter to the seller, Joseph P. McCormick of Berne, NY, but since the
address on the declaration document seemed incomplete with no street
address,
and 14 years had passed, I didn't write a letter. |
| One day I was
bidding on
a set of 1952 Buick "sombrero" wheelcovers on Ebay. Then I entered
"1952
Buick" on Google to see some car pics. I found a buy/sell page, and an
interesting ad - Mr. Joseph P. McCormick from Berne, NY, was selling 47
Buick skirts. Geee, I thought, if he's not the man I'm looking for, he
might be a relative or something!!!
So I sent him e-mail, and got back more than I could dream of - pictures of the title, Bill of Sale, instructions for the freight company, and these photos! He was even kind enough to post me hard copies of the documents. I am extremely grateful (and reliefed). THANK YOU VERY MUCH ! |
| Mr. McCormick
told me he
has been collecting cars for 50 years, has kept documents of all his
cars,
and this was the first time in 50 years that somebody asked to see the
documents...
The internet really makes the world a small place. |