[hgs_notes]

Tires came last Thursday, got them mounted and on the car Friday. So off we go and about 1.5 miles and ran out of gas. Lol. It was not running great, it was misfiring and not much power. I pulled over to the shoulder near the end of someone's driveway along the highway. I walked to the house, noticing a gas can by a Chevy luv being worked on. Nobody home but the dog. I borrowed the gas can, put a couple gallons in the Riv and head back home.

I add another couple gallons from one of my gas cans and check the timing again. I finally get the timing somewhere close to 8 BTDC. The spec is 4 but come on, nothing is going to run good with that little advance. But I also noticed that the vacuum line to the advance canister didn't have any suction. On a lot of these old GM cars there was a temperature vacuum switch with ported vacuum. Mine was stuck shut. So I ran the vacuum line to another manifold port.

I loaded the gas cans into the trunk and try again. Much better results this time. I actually made it to the gas station. It had a bit more power but was still misfiring. I filled the gas cans and returned the borrowed one fuller than when I took it. It did drive nice though. Good smooth ride, the transmission worked great, the brakes were good. Oh yeah, when I took the wheels off to get the new tires on I inspected the brakes. Everything looked good. The pads and shoes are worn fairly evenly but have a lot of miles left in them. No leaks or broken/loose bits.

I already had a pertronix ignition conversion kit ordered so I didn't mess with the points anymore. I installed that on Sunday and it was a huge improvement. The misfiring is pretty much gone. I considered putting an HEI distributor in but for a buick 455 they are really expensive compared to a Chevy one. Like $300 from summit. I got a good deal on a scratch and dent pertronix kit at Amazon for $70. The Sunday drive went much better. More power, smoother running.

Monday I installed the new PCV and grommet. The rattling noise from the driver side exhaust is some kinda valve thing that is actuated after it warms up. Today I replaced another vacuum line and rerouted the other vacuum lines from the temperature switch. And also found why the vent fan wasn't running. Just a bad ground. Easy fix.

Next up is replacing the belts, and thermostat. Then put more miles on it.