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Old 07-20-2009, 10:16 AM   #16
thisnametooktolong
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Re: 86 buick lesabre estate wagon with 70's olds 455 big block engine in need of help

one last thing. Make darn sure of two things.
1.) you are not 180 out on your wires
2.) you actualy make sure that your plugs are in the same rotation as the rotor spins.

I made boath of those mistakes on many engines in my younger days
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Old 07-20-2009, 12:05 PM   #17
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Re: 86 buick lesabre estate wagon with 70's olds 455 big block engine in need of help

no it doesnt want to start, even with the new starter put in it. Thats why I believe the timing might be off. Especially because every so often it will start to fire up but its not burning the gas as quickly as it should. It could be the timing thats off or the idle speed itself could also be my problem, but I still need to wait on a timing light of some sort :P also what do you mean as to those last two things? I know that I kept all the plugs in the same order when i changed them and the wires so they should all be placed accordingly.
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Old 07-20-2009, 01:02 PM   #18
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Talking Re: 86 buick lesabre estate wagon with 70's olds 455 big block engine in need of help

My buddy had the same issue when he did a conversion with the lesabre engine. He called a place called National Parts... I think the website is searchpartsengines.com and he said that they helped him out a great deal and that the price was pretty good too. I hope this helps.
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Old 07-20-2009, 04:53 PM   #19
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Re: 86 buick lesabre estate wagon with 70's olds 455 big block engine in need of help

okay i got tired of waiting so i tampered with the timing just a little bit and got it to fire up, but it does small backfires cause its not exact. But it will only start when i put my foot on the gas, not I think, not sure, but think that its because of my throttle position senor. during the rebuilding of the carb the arm of that sener tht bounces up and down in the car broke but a guy from Oreily's told me that as long as it is in placeit should work, so its still sitting in its place but im not sure if its doing what its supposed to. Any ideas before i spend another 65 wingwang??
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Old 07-20-2009, 10:06 PM   #20
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Re: 86 buick lesabre estate wagon with 70's olds 455 big block engine in need of help

that carb if its that old should not have a throttel position sensor did you set the idle mixture screws out two and half turns those are the screws located on the bottem base plate in the front unless there covered by the tamper plugs if its a newer carb or try turnind up the idle a half turn to get it idleing high till you iron thing out
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Old 07-21-2009, 09:39 AM   #21
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Re: 86 buick lesabre estate wagon with 70's olds 455 big block engine in need of help

I know I thought the same thing but the carb is at least an 86, it doesnt properly match the size of the engine but thats what the car came with originally, but the year that it is i dont see any idle mixture screws. although i got it to run just this morning but i had to adjust the idle screw almost to the point where it would have fallen out of the silinoid. I noticed however that the choke plate stays open when it is running, and when i pushed it shut it would rev the engine up and sound better, so im wondering is the choke plate to be open or closed and how can i fix it with the the choke stat an what not.

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Old 07-21-2009, 05:50 PM   #22
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Re: 86 buick lesabre estate wagon with 70's olds 455 big block engine in need of help

This may have been done but a car that sits for a long period like this just may have dried vacuum hoses even on there own hoses dry up and cause havic and some devices on that engine are controlled by vacuum,its worth a look see,good luck.
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Old 07-21-2009, 07:13 PM   #23
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Re: 86 buick lesabre estate wagon with 70's olds 455 big block engine in need of help

okay ill deffinately take a look see. well i got the engine to run and was able to keep it running, however, as soon as i put into reverse to see if i could give the final test it died!!! so im trying to figure out as to why it died as soon as it went into gear, i cant adjust the idle on the silinoid any higher with out fear of it shaking loose. is there some other idle that i need to adjust? and for the trans its a 400 turbo, think its the same year as the engine so somewhere in the 70's.

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Old 07-21-2009, 09:57 PM   #24
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Re: 86 buick lesabre estate wagon with 70's olds 455 big block engine in need of help

those idle mixture screw with it been a 86 they may have the tamper plugs still in the carb if you see two little circels under there those are the tamper plug you can get those out by drilling a small hole on a angle in the bottem and use a punch to pop them out that idle solinode you are talking about could that be for increasing the idle when the ac is on gm an ford use that back then
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Old 07-22-2009, 09:17 AM   #25
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Re: 86 buick lesabre estate wagon with 70's olds 455 big block engine in need of help

okay yeah sorry, didnt realize they had them blocked off. But if they still have those in the same place would i really need to tamper with them?
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Old 07-22-2009, 12:30 PM   #26
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Re: 86 buick lesabre estate wagon with 70's olds 455 big block engine in need of help

im glad you have it running those screws could realy make a differant on how the car idles and in throttle response that carb is for a smaller eng and may need a little more fuel to idle bacause it larger cubic inch i worked at a carb shop and the person who showed me said the idle screw on the throttle real should not be needed only for fine tune the fine people on this web will get you up and going and let you learn as you go keep us informed
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Old 07-22-2009, 01:12 PM   #27
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Re: 86 buick lesabre estate wagon with 70's olds 455 big block engine in need of help

okay well i will try to look into it, right now my next step is to wait for the rain to stop so i can try another theory of mine. I was told to lower the idle on the choke throttle because seein as how i have it u so high that maybe when i shift gears its too much fuel for the transmission to shift gears, kinda like when you have your foot half way down the peddle it will kill the engine when shifting so, heres hopin!!!
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Old 07-23-2009, 05:32 PM   #28
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Re: 86 buick lesabre estate wagon with 70's olds 455 big block engine in need of help

okay now where im at is I decreased the timing and increased the throttle, well now i get a fire ball out of the carb when it putters so im going to try to decrease the throttle but by doing so every time it sounds like the engine is going to die, so either the timing is too advanced or the idle is too high, cant quite figure it out. the timing still isnt set exact because still waiting on a timing light. Still dies when shifted into gear though so still need some pointers on that

Last edited by kcbuechler; 07-23-2009 at 08:03 PM.
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Old 06-25-2012, 04:13 PM   #29
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Re: 86 buick lesabre estate wagon with 70's olds 455 big block engine in need of help

Hey it's been quite sometime sense I've been on here, and even longer sense I've been able to start the wagon! Been gone for about 2 years and my latest problem is no fuel getting to the carb! Probably because of a clog in the fuel line or in the pump itself, will update with details.
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Old 06-26-2012, 09:21 AM   #30
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Re: 86 buick lesabre estate wagon with 70's olds 455 big block engine in need of help

I know it wasn't a 455, and not a 4-barrel, but I had a 267 and found the choke was extremely fussy. It was supposed to be an automatic choke, but I finally drilled out the rivets and put in 3 screws so I could manually adjust the choke.

From what you've said, though, it sounds like you have more problems than choke.

Also, what kind of fuel are you using? They were high compression engines designed to run with the old leaded fuel. My father had a 71 Olds Detla 88 with the 455. That engine ran with pretty much regular maintenance until he finally sold it in 1993. The only major trouble he had was overheating.
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