Valve installation on our Buick Straight 8 | Redline Update - Hagerty Media

The nature of project cars is one of overcoming setbacks just to ram straight into other obstacles. This week’s Redline Update offers up one way to deal with such inconveniences, and the method is rather on-brand for our friend Davin.

The first issue at hand is the Buick straight-eight’s cylinder head. When first assembling the head, Davin learned in the last episode that there are two designs for the Buick 400 V-8 valves he was planning to source for the straight-eight. The first set that arrived did not work for his attempted retrofit due, to a step machined just below the notch for the keeper which in a prime location to tear up a valve seal. A second set of valves arrived, this time confirmed to not have the offending step, and assembly could then begin.

Unfortunately, just as fast that process got going it ground to a halt yet again. The new piston design Davin tried out out at the end of the last episode is off to JE Pistons, which will ship back aluminum pistons ready for installation. For now, the Buick project is a bit stalled out.

Davin isn’t one to sit on his hands and wait, though. How about using the lull in this build to dive into yet another project? In this case, Davin turns his attention to Hagerty’s Swap to Street 1946 Ford pickup. This pickup has logged a lot of miles in the five years since it was built, and the plan is to tack on a lot more in the coming years. To log those miles more smoothly, Davin is going to swap in a T5 five-speed transmission to replace the three-speed currently linked up to the flathead V-8.

Of course, there’s also Snowball’s Ford race car with the Chrysler 440 and a few other projects hanging around the shop—never a dull time in the Redline Rebuild garage. To keep track of it all, be sure to subscribe to the Hagerty YouTube channel where new videos come out weekly.