A couple of years ago I bought a 1960 or 61 261 from a Buick guy. He had bought a pile of old Buick engines and this lone 261 was in the pile. It was an odd engine, but he knew what it was. No grease was evident on the outside of the block and no paint--only rust. But not heavy rust--it was rusted like it just sat in an unheated shop for 40+ years. It had the normal truck bellhousing on it, and I couldn't turn it over no matter how hard I pried against the flywheel. I pulled the head and oilpan, and the inside of the engine was pristine. If you've ever pulled the oilpan off of an old 235 or 261 that has gone 100,000+ miles you will know how odd that is. He wanted $400 for it, and I couldn't get him to come down a nickle, no matter how much I protested about the engine being locked-up. But I took a chance and hauled it home. It was locked-up because all the oil had long ago turned to varnish and the varnish had long ago hardened into dried glue. I had one heck of a time. I finally cut the bellhousing off with a sawzall because I couldn't rotate the flywheel to get to the upper p.p. bolts. I put the engine on a stand and soaked the crank and cam and pistons with carb cleaner and diesel and WD-40, and anything else I could think of, and finally... finally... I got it apart. Cylinders checked out perfect. Crank checked out good--just needed a polishing. Cam looked brand new--no wear on the lobes at all. Lifters looked brand new. I re-used the original armoured pistons and just put new rings on them. This engine is the closest to NOS I've ever seen in a used, 40+ year old engine. Bargains are still to be had out there.
By the way, the teeth on the ring gear on that flywheel were also not even rounded over. So this engine is a mystery--for some reason it sat in someone's shop or warehouse for many, many years until a couple of years ago. [img]http://www.pbase.com/robere210/image/74359117[/img]
