Kidcutty

Hey guys I dont see alot of 70's around here ,let alone the project section so for those who might want to pretty up that classic and go pro-touring with it,here is mine

Little background-My first classic,sold my 86 clean G body regal in order to buy an 01 deville and then selling the cadi to buy this machine.Found it on craigslist after looking around for a chevelle.Could not find a 70 chevelle for cheap so I looked at a cutlass,no idea there was a chevelle equivalent at the time.I liked the back end quarters more than I did the chevelle's so I got it for $1300 bucks

Specs:
1970 Cutlass Supreme Holiday Coupe
Engine:350 4BB original Engine
Chassis: Coupe with 65k Original miles
Body: Original paint and body panels,never been repaired or painted in good condition with some dents and a little rust on the fenders and behind the rear bottom glass.

Plan:
Slowly Build it upgrading all the suspension,chassis,reconditioning and modifying the car with aftermarket parts. No paint or major engine work untill I have the space and money for an ls engine swap.

Pictures:This is what I started with
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After many problems with the egr I decided to strip the engine,paint it and upgrade it with edelbrock goodies and pretty it up.started the tear down
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Took the intake and everything that went with it,ports look good
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Valley looks good,no major build up except for some hardened oil flakes
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will reuse some of my stuff,no sense in buying new,before
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after
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started painting the top of my heads,black
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then took the covers off and wire wheeled them,nice and clean
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If you are installing an edelbrock carb and dont have the coin to get an expensive bracket,do yourself a favor,cut your original and weld on a strip of home depot bracket
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after a little chrome paint(home depot again)and holes drilled looks like an aftermarket bracket
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Installed a 2711 intake with spacer
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Dropped the carb in #1406 electrick choke no egr and this is where I am now
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svnt442

You said you had problems with the EGR? There isn't an EGR on that engine so I'm a bit confused.
That said nice progress.

Bluevista

Looks good, nice work.
I just do amateur touring, I tried but never made it into the pro ranks.

Is that blood on the valve cover?
If it is you have to be more careful, if it was finished it could mess up the paint.

Kidcutty

No egr,but it is is CA car so it came with all the emissions crap.

Bluevista- No blood was drawn during tear down,that was some red liquid gasket i used on exhaust port(no leaks hopefully)

Kidcutty

Hey guys,finally have an update:

I finished buttoning up the engine,looks great,I still have to tuck in a few lines and install my new distributor,wires and coil.heres a pic
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I started installing my headers and ran into a big problem. So I have these hooker headers that i got for cheap and painted silver. I installed the driver side header without the starter so it would fit.So I finally got it installed and then I realized there wasnt enough to fit the stock replacement starter with the header already in place,this is the starter:
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Here is my header
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My question is: I cannot install the starter with the header on and i cannot drop in the header from the bottom with the starter on because its too thick,so my question is ,do you guys know of a small starter for a 350 olds? or what do i need to do to make it fit?

???????????

rcdynamic88

RobbMC has a mini-starter for Oldsmobiles that is great. I had a Powermaster mini-starter that still was too close to the headers for my liking, but the RobbMC unit fits much better.

dhoff

I used a replacement starter for a 307 from the 80's. It was fairly inexpensive, 1/2 the size and works well. I can't remember the exact year, but have the parts store look up one that uses the same flywheel as your engine so you don't have issues. Also you have to leave the left header bolts loose at the head to let the pipe swing out to clear as you slide up the starter. DHOFF

Kidcutty

RCdynamic- thanks rc,I was looking at robbs mini starter and it might be too expensive for me right now.

dhoff- im interested in that smaller starter,do you recall what car it was for or at least for what engine? maybe someone here knows what flywheel i have ?

clean82cutlass

Engine looks good so far, much better then before! Can't wait to see it all done

Olds64

Lookin' good!

BIGJERR

That starter should fit...........I ran a stock starter with headers just like that,You just need to have everything either go together at the same time or figure out the best order to get it up there,As I remember put one bolt in the header to hold it up then stick the starter up as the headers leans down,Start starter bolts and then finish up with the header bolts,Dont pout the gasket in till your all lined up...............did any of that make sense?

Kidcutty

Bigjerr yeah that did make sense,however these headers are made by flowtech and not hooker my mistake and the problem is that I literally have no play even with the bolts fitted loosly.I actually had to remove the engine mount shield in order for the header to go in. It looks like even with the header loose and installing the starter at the same time Im still about half an inch short of managing to drop the starter in.

Kidcutty

Little update,just got my new after market HEI from ebay(hopefully its good) I need help,how do I wire this thing? it has the coil built in to the cap.

Here is the coil:
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Then i need to know what wires go where, on my original cylinder coil the positive terminal has a yellow and black wire going ot the + terminal and a black wire going from the points ignition to the - terminal on the coil.

On this HEI I have this:
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So what goes where?and also can I use an msd6a box with this coil on the HEI?

extreme1

BAT goes to a good solid ignition source. You cannot use the stock coil wire. the tach is just a tach signal output.

Kidcutty

So what source would that be? I have an MSD6A box as well that I want to install, thanks for the help

extreme1

http://www.msdignition.com/uploadedF...structions.pdf

page 16 shows how to hook up your MSD box to an HEI distributor.

Kidcutty

heres an update guys, So I decided not to wire my HEI with the msd box untill i can get the car running by just using the HEI by itself. heres the problem:

I installed the HEI from Top Speed Performance(ebay) and installed some 8.5mm bbc chevy wires(what the box said) along with some replacement AC delco spark plugs(no gap required?) The HEI has a coil built into the cap. I just installed it like this:
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Then I connected the Batt+ terminal on the HEI cap to the terminals in the middle of the fuse box one at a time of course which you can see in the pic to see which one was the 12v source and never had any luck firing up the car :
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So my questions is wtf am i doing wrong? I have the mark on the engine pulley lined up with the 0 degrees at the block so that #1 is at TDC and the distributor pointer facing cylinder 1 with the cap on and #1 wire directly above it following the sequence in the right order.Still it does not want to start

help me out,Ive buttoned everything up and im ready to go:heres a pic of the engine finshed,just need to button it once i get it started.
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svnt442

This is IMPORTANT........all standard type spark plugs need to be gapped. There are manufacturing tollerances, bouncing durring shipping and the ever possible dropped plug. Never assume the plugs are "pre-gapped". Not only that but different applications can use the same plug and require a different gap.

Now on to the distributor.

Are you sure there is power at the terminal you are using? Verify it with a VOM to be sure.
Do you have to firing order 1-8-4-3-6-5-7-2 counter clockwise?
Do you have a timing light? If so are you getting any spark?

Kidcutty

Ill check the gap tomorow but with this new HEI who knows what it is,as far as the firing order I do have it right and I don't have a timing light,I am not sure about having a good volt source on any of those leads so I will perform a spark test tomoro with a test light.would I be able to use the points power wire form the canister coil to power the HEI? also is there a pink thick wire I can tap into for power or directly to the battery?

svnt442

You don't want the BAT source in the fuse box. It needs to be ACCY so the car will shut off when you kill the key.
You can't use the points wire because it's a resistor wire and the HEI needs a full 12V to opperate.

Kidcutty

Alright guys so I put the stock points ignition back on the car and it fired up so what am i missing? oviously there is a problem with the HEI,i cheked continuity at the Hei cap terminal with igniton in on position.I aslo checked continuity at the accy. terminal at the fuse box and it cheked okay,is there something else im missing?

svnt442

It could have a bad module right out of the box.

Kidcutty

Thank you very much guys for the help,I figured it out,everything was fine except for the timing.I set the timing to TDC and then advanced the cap 5 degrees,that setting fired the car right up and I must say it is a beast,amazing what a few bolt ons can do.Highly recommend going HEI.Will post pics of current setup