1919 Buick First start since 1952

This is the first startup of this 1919 buick six roadster that had been sitting in a barn in ohio since 1952. It was parked there with a bad differential. My boss bought it on Ebay and i gently disassembled the engine, cleaned out the 50+ year old oil, freed up the piston rings and put it back together. I had to substitute a newer coil to get a strong spark and had manually filled the float bowl of the carburetor. No fuel pump was hooked up or water in the engine hence the short run time. This is a very cool early overhead valve engine with an aluminum crankcase,cast iron cylinder block, roller tappets, exposed valvetrain, zero gap piston rings, and electric start. This car had about 14,000 miles on the odometer. Enjoy the video! Check out my other video/slide show for engine disassembly pictures.

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• Antique
• Engine
• six
• cylinder
• buick
• roadster
• startup
• cool

[brapboys503]

How cool is that; external pushrods and old school inline-6 that sounds like a beefed-up small block Chevy!

[TheSpazModic]

It's funny how a straight six sounds so much better than a v-6.

[aodox]

Sounds like a WW2 fighter plane.....

[925dude]

beautiful

[akkudakkupl]

@TheSpazModic firing order ;-)

[SUPERDAVIDLEVINE]

that real neet the ld one with no valve covers the wa it was built I understand one strike against buick was the dynaflow stranmition was there any adnantage?? there was an impoveement a2 spped anul for pasing and going down long steep grades I know the ealy bus atuomatic trans was torqu convertr that had an over riding clutch that would cutit out at a certain speed and power go duirectly to the wheels then they adid gears more andmoer speeds

[kendigjl]

@TheSpazModic You're not kidding. I had an 300ci F-150 with just a straight exhaust (no muffler). It sounded BETTER than my 350ci K5 Blazer. Kind of a mean, angry snarl vs a bellowing V-8.

[douro20]

One option on these cars you never see anymore: a built-in air compressor which was driven by the engine. Engage a clutch on the distributor drive shaft and you have instant air to fill up your tires. Of course you had to remember to stop the thing before you left; it won't stand running any faster than engine idle speed.

[yamahonkawazuki]

@mciceteade damn right. so would i. low rpms etc, with maintenance these things wouldNOT die

[mhtfixit]

Sounds like a piper cub ready for takeoff. Great Job.

[mciceteade]

if they still built them like this they would not have to fear bankruptcy LOL

i would buy one like this anyday

[proofbox]

To answer the question on valve lubrication, on top of the engine you see three what are called rocker boxes that you fill up with oil pretty much every time you drive the car the oil caps are those silver things that look like golf tees sticking straight up on top of the engine, so you carry a squirt can of oil every where you go. You had to be bit of a mechanic to even drive a car in 1919