Reviving a 63 Superior Ambulance

[TJ Hopland]

I'm helping a friend revive his 63 Superior Ambulance.  He bought it about 15 years ago not running.   Back then he fixed the brakes and got it started but that was about it.  Only drove it back and fourth in the garage.   Among other things power steering never worked. 

Today we got it started fairly easily and out of the barn.  Seems to be running decent but as soon as it warms up it started making a what seems to be cam speed chirping noise.  It seems to come and go too quickly to be a mechanical issue and it seems like its coming from the carb.    Is this an engine that has the special metal gaskets to block the exhaust passage in the intake?   It almost sounds like it could be a gasket turning into a reed except for at the carb I would not expect it to be that pulsed. 

Are the rockers pushrod oiled or shaft oiled?   I really don't think that would come and go like it seems to be doing but was curious.  The water pump seems to not be happy it sat so much so that also makes an intermittent noise.

How does PCV system work on this?   Its got what appears to be a spacer with the port on it under the carb.   Is the actual PCV valve just a few inches in front of the carb and is kinda the adapter to go between the 3/8 hose on the carb and the more heater hose size hose that snakes under the intake?   What kind of fitting does that hose use to get into the engine?  I can't really tell where it goes.  Could that be making some noise?

Last question is the power steering.  We for sure have hoses that need replaced.   Put fluid in and it seemed to take it but no signs that its providing any power.    We jacked the front wheels off the ground and cycled it back and fourth.  When we did that we got bubbles but it never seemed to give any power.   Another odd thing is the level seems to drop when we turn the wheel one way then raise when it goes the other way.   Is the pump maybe just not working or is there an issue in the box?     

[James Landi]

Could very well be a lack of oil to the rockers causing the intermittment  squeak. Try squirting some Marvel oil on the assemble.    THe oil is pushed up through the bolts that hold down the rocker assembly, and from there oil passes through openings to the rocker arms.  YOu should see oil appearing at each rocker/pushrod/ valve stem assembly. (sort of mysterious appears as there are no obvious visible passages)  If the passages are clogged in the rocker shaft and oiler holes at each or any rocker  station you'll get squeaks  Hope this helps, James

[russ austin]

The Carter carb has the metal shim under the carb.  The 1/2 inch spacer under the carb is the PCV hook up. The hose runs under the intake to the port in the valley pan.

The rocker shaft gets oil from the special shaft mount bolts. Oil passes up on the outside of the bolts to the shaft. Then the shaft distributes oil to the rockers.  The push rods are solid.

Power steering system is like any other GM car. Fill with fluid, start up and cycle the steering. Fil and repeat till the level stays the same and bubbles stop.
Pump or gear box could be bad.

[TJ Hopland]

So the 'shim' goes between the carb and the spacer?   Where are there gaskets?  Both sides of the shim?   How about between the spacer and intake?  I don't see any listings for gaskets for that.  Places that sell the spacer as a kit look to include gaskets but maybe those are just to cover rocherster vs carter? 

What sort of material is the hose to intake connection?  I assume some sort of rubber that could have aged out at this point?   Is it available or fabracobblable?  Valley pan and intake are separate parts so intake has to come off to access that connenction?     

If it was a rocker chirping you would you expect it to be quiet when cold then be intermittent when hot?   There was no change after we changed the oil and filter which all things considered didn't seem like it was in terrible shape. 

We ran the steering lock to lock maybe 50 times with the wheels off the ground and not even a hit of assist.  Actually it seemed like it got harder to turn if anything.   I don't remember which direction but say with the wheels turned all the way to the left the level would be right at the cap then with the wheels all the way to the right it would be at the bottom of the neck.   After the first cycle that is pretty much where it stayed.     I'm kinda wondering if maybe the pump is just doing nothing so its just vacuum/gravity sucking fluid in and pushing it out like a syringe or hydraulic cylinder?   It looks like the hoses and pump could have leaked enough that it was run on low or no fluid at some point in its life.   

[Daryl Chesterman]

TJ, this is a thread about the carburetor, gasket, spacer, shim situation that should be helpful to you.

     http://forums.cadillaclasalleclub.org/index.php?topic=161062.msg470220#msg470220

Daryl Chesterman

[TJ Hopland]

Cool info.   I knew I had seen it but didn't expect to be working on one of those cars this soon.    Do the spacers often end up damaged and need replaced?      And the gasket between the manifold and spacer can apparently be either the rochester or carter one? 

[dadscad]

The pcv hose port is held to the valley pan with the last bolt at the rear of the engine. It's a 7/16 head. You can remove it from the valley pan without removing the manifold. The hose from the pcv port is 1/2 inch. It should have a spiral wire inside to keep it from pinching where it bends up to the pcv valve. The 1/2 inch hose attaches to the port pipe just in front of the exhaust crossover in the manifold. The port pipe runs along next to the left head under the mnifold.

As to the squeak,  check the carbon button in the distributor cap. I had one that was loose and it squeaked as you describe what you are hearing. The button would spin in its socket and produce the squeak. Took a while to figure it out.

[TJ Hopland]

Is that valley pan port thing metal or some sort of plastic/rubber?   Or is it metal with some sort of grommet? 

[Daryl Chesterman]

TJ, another thread that may apply to your carburetor spacer, depending on what the configuration of the PCV connection is on the spacer.

     http://forums.cadillaclasalleclub.org/index.php?topic=131348.msg271417#msg271417

Daryl Chesterman

[dadscad]

The pcv port is metal. The body is a round can, closed top and open bottom, with a curved metal tube attached to the side for the pcv hose to slide onto. The rear valley pan bolt is long and goes through a hole in the pcv port top center to hold it all together. The pcv port is sealed to the valley pan with a roud paper gasket.

[Jason Edge]

I just cleaned up a top engine lifter compartment cover and the PCV Connector (round can at back) and pipe.  The original PCV Pipe Connector was cork but seems hard to find and I us a thick wide rubber grommet and cut in half and works perfect to sell the connector at to top engine cover at back. Here is a picture oriented as it would appear with the intake off viewing from the front with the connector at the rear:

[TJ Hopland]

Cool,  thanks for the picture.   Helps to know what is going on down there and knowing that its mostly metal gets it on the less critical list.   

We do have a shop manual on the way and plan on pulling the carb next weekend for a trip to the carb shop at which point we can evaluate the spacer shim situation.

We also have a water pump and rebuilt power steering pump on the way.  Hope that the new PS pump gets working PS so we can actually take a bit of a test drive, with no PS that thing is darn near impossible to go anywhere other than a straight line.   Even my compact sporty Eldo was impossible when my belt broke one time.   IF that doesn't fix it we are only out the $50 and will likely order a Lares pump and steering box.

[TJ Hopland]

Wow a lot of time as gone by on this project.   We did get it running and have driven it some.  One odd thing its doing is at times its burning a lot of oil.  It will start up fine and warm up with no unusual smoke or issues and it seems to run decent all things considered.   

Once its warmed up at idle it will more often than not smoke like crazy and it smells like engine oil.   Very thick nasty smoke.  To get it to the event it drove over 100 miles on the highway and at highway speeds it seemed to be running well and there was no visible smoke.    Any thoughts?    We were going to try and pull a valve cover and make sure the drain holes were not blocked but ran out of time and also were thinking it would have been worse on the highway if it was a drainback issue.

Any thoughts?     

[russ austin]

Do a compression test, and look into the valve stem seals.

[TJ Hopland]

It certainly could have issues what is puzzling is how its only sometimes at idle that it smokes.  I'm not talking a little smoke, its bad.  Car could disappear in maybe 3 minutes.    Going down the road you can barely see anything coming out the tail pipe.   

[dn010]

I'd start easy by checking the PCV valve and hooking up a vacuum gauge. Won't tell you anything about the seals but it might indicate something else down the line is wrong, then you can dig deeper. Otherwise, I'd say there is a bad valve seal somewhere.

[James Landi]

Yes, oil accumulating above the valve seals... and burning off during combustion is a possibility... you may also have an unresolve issue with a bent push rod. (the squeak)..  if a push rod is not rotating, that's a tell tail for a bent push rod or uneven wear that is "shorting" the opening of one of the valves--- the result can be piston vacuum pulling crank case oil past the rings, because the valve is not opening sufficently. James   

[TJ Hopland]

The noises all went away after an oil change, water pump, power steering pump, and being able to drive it a bit and get it good and warmed up.