Congrats on the new car!
I have some answers but others will also help correct me!

1. It seems to run awfully hot. Its not losing coolant, but after about 5 miles the temp gauge is all the way over. Radiator has been recored, and block has been flushed. I'm afraid to drive it further for fear of warping the head or otherwise damaging the engine. I have not eyebaled the thermostat to see if there is one there, or if it is correct.
Several things can cause it to run hot...
1. Thermostat (replace it, a cheap insurance policy)
2. Bad water pump, could be spinning the pulley and not the impeller. (a long shot).
3. Timing to far advanced.
4. Water distribution tube plugged/decayed.


2. The overdrive is not functional. It appears to be fully wired, but will not engage. The knob was all the way in. I (unfortunately) decided to mess with the knob. It got it out about half an inch, but no further. I could then hear the overdrive solenoid clicking, so I removed the fuse from the OD relay. This stopped the clicking, but something was still going on, as the battery kept draining and was dead overnight.

The fuse is only part of the OD circuit, it protects the solinoid in the overdrive. The relay should not close when the iginition is off. Which OD do you have R-9 or R-11? I jsut got through working on mine. My cable was bent and I had another one made from a shop in CA. There is a switch in the cable you have and it supplies power from the ignition switch (battery) to the OD relay. The cable I had made didn't have a switch and so I wired a toggle switch in place of the one embedded in the cable you have. (I made a new bracket to hold the cable and the switch.)

I disconnected the ignition side of the overdrive lockout switch, and the battery no longer drains. Could the lockout switch be bad, or stuck in an on position?

This depends on where they took the power for your firewall relay.

Perhaps it is connected backwards? How do I tell if its connected backwards?

The switch cant be connected backwards and it is in series with the downstream relay.

Shouldn't the knob be able to come further out?

Yes.

There is a lot of great information on the OD in Section 7 of the manuals in this website.

3. Where does the ground wire for the heater motor attach? I can't find anything obvious within it s reach.

Don't know sorry, mine works.


4. What is the foglight wiring? Is there a relay somewhere?

I haven't found one but considering the current draw there should be.

5. Can someone explain the oil pressure sending unit? Mine seems to have a rubber tube coming off of it that goes nowhere.


5a. The oil filter is not plumbed. Where does the return line go, and does the oil pressure sending unit have an aperture for the "in" to the oil filter? Its a 288; no hydraulic lifters.

The oil filter is fed from a tee at the bottom center of the block on the drivers side. (This is also where the oil pressure sender goes (the other side of the tee). Directly above this tee there is another fitting for the return oil from the filter.
See Section 5 Engine in the manuals section.




6. What is the deal with the radio? What is a "Control Head?"

Radio for 49-50 was a self contained unit. In other early cars the actual radio looked like a heater mounted inside of the firewall and there were flexible cables from the unit in the dash "control head" that operated the firewall unit. Yours should be a single unit.

7. What's the deal with the starter button? I understand that the gas pedal starter was a nightmare so they went with a dash mounted button. However, the 49 Club Sedan has a dash button, but my 49 parts car does not, and I see no gas pedal starter.

The gas pedal starter was a switch on the engine side of the firewall connected to the starter solenoid through a vacuum switch in the carburetor. Look at the carb on your parts car for wires connected to a small black thingy. These didn't work too well and so a lot of our cars did away with them. (I have a starter button).

I wasn't shouting I was using bold letters to make this easier to read....

Does anyone know if all of the 4 door seat sizes are the same from model to model on the 23rd series? I want to order from LaBarron Bonney and they are asking.
Thanks,

Great advice! My housing end is missing a chunk (a small chunk) and I think that I can use the split clamp method if I can find one. I measured mine at 7/16" O.D. so now it is off to the hardware store to find one. While I have the cable out of the car I'll lube it like you suggest.
Mark

Thanks for the info. It looks like my cable was attached with some sort of JB Weld or Epoxy to the end of the dash bracket. I need to find a way to firmly attach the outer winding to the bracket. Ideas?
I guess I will pull the cable from the dash and see what is left of the clamp end. I like the split clamp idea, if there is anything left of the housing I can add a clamp and be good to go!

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OK, today I ditched the factory fuel filter for a Fram G3 and now the car barely stumbles...in fact I'm going to call it fixed until I can swap the Delco distributor for the original Autolite. I changed out the vacuum advance on the Delco with the closest one I could find and now I suspect that the advance curve on the Delco is off. More to come.
By the way it ran great and smooth.
Now I will be replacing the overdrive cable which is broken with an aftermarket push pull aircraft cable of the proper length, through and threads. I guess I'll have to put a manual switch on the dash to sub for the one built into the dash end of the original cable...
I'v been fixing little things like the courtesy lights in front that needed rewiring and the right turn signal that needs a better ground.

Off and on over the last month the engine is now safe in its home. Wiring the engine bay was done while the engine waited for install. I added an in line fuel filter to the line 1/2 way from the tank to the fuel pump.

Saturday, I actually drove the car for the 1st time (around the block). No over heating and good oil pressure. The engine has a stumble upon acceleration, I reset the timing and the carb using a vacuum gauge.

Today I drove the car after tuning again, still stumbles. Wracking my brain for the cause, and while I was putting the car into the garage i ran out of gas...go figure. I dumped some gas into the tank and what do you think? It started right up. Tomorrow I will change out the inline filter and drive to the gas station and fill it up. The filter doesn't look clogged but I need to have one on hand just in case the tank is full of gunk, I don't think so as I have about 4 hours on the car idling and timing.

More to come, including pictures.
To do list:
Get the dash lights to work.
Pull the trim and get ready for paint.
Clean the trunk and treat the surface rust.
Interior
Carpet
Still lots to do.

Well, my 288 rebuild taught me a lot.

Use copper sealant if you use a copper gasket. I didn't the first time and when I filled the engine with coolant it immediately leaked into the cylinders and ruined my 1st rebuild. Copper sealant will fill the slight imperfections in the head and block.

Make real sure you don't have a crack in the block. Use magnaflux or some other dye to check. My first block didn't reveal its ugly cracks until after my machine shop cleaned the block. We found a crack from an exhaust valve seat all the way into and down the adjoining cylinder. Garbage, so different block.

If you have the engine out run it on a test stand before you install it. This will give you the opportunity to break in the rings and cam (if it is new) then you can tune it and adjust the valves hot. (no crawling under the car to make the adjustments with the engine running).

Good luck!

Well, the engine finally runs!

How did you replace the head gasket? If it was one of the copper gaskets it HAS to be sprayed with copper gasket sealer on both sides. I didn't seal my first go round with my head gasket and what I got for my trouble was an engine full of water. Now my engine is at the machine shop for a total overhaul.

Hi all:
Just a quick and probably silly question. Are the hydraulic lifters interchangeable with the solid lifters on a 288?
Thanks