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New Oldsmobile Owner, long time car guy-first olds. I picked up this beauty with 70k miles recently and thought I’d join you guys on here. It’s a 1985 Toronado Caliente. Most of my automotive history has been with imports, however pre having children I did build/race a few F body’s in time trials, hillclimb and Autocross.
So far I’ve done an oil change on the Olds, shocks are ordered (still has the originals… she’s verrrrry wallowy). But the powertrain is rock-solid. This car is really just a family summer cruiser or “goin’ to town rig”. Was originally looking for a G body when I found her, but pickin’s were slim and what was available was a bunch of Pep-Boys’d out primered buckets. This thing was just too clean to pass up. Anyways, hello to you all and looking forward to picking your brains.
84 and 85 are the best years of the 79-85 E-body. This one is NICE.
www.toronado.org for like-minded people, and there's a fellow on AACA forums, pfloro, who is very knowledgeable about these years, especially the TH325 transmission.
The 80s G-body is a nice car to have but as you've discovered not easy to find really nice ones anymore. Plenty of donks and other questionably modified cars, but not many nice originals or properly modified ones out there.
Thanks for the kind words. Rear shocks are now on. WOW. What an improvement and truly a pleasure to put in. Beautifully simple car to work on. One of the fronts will be here tomorrow, the other on Wednesday. Don’t ask me why… ask Bezos and his danged jungle website. Also have swaybar endlinks/bushings as well as all control arm bushings waiting to go on. Chassis/Suspension is where I’m super particular. A paint chip doesn’t bother me near as much as a creak/squeak/rattle.
can’t wait to rebuild the front suspension.
Front shocks and beefier not dry-rotted endlinks are on. And wow… it’s not a racecar, but not a bad handling car whatsoever considering what it is. Very compliant, but no longer wanders after a bump. I’m not looking to make it into a hot rod, but can anyone point me in the right direction of some good info on powertrain mods. I’m very much an OEM+ person with cars that are this clean. Maybe if I can help her breathe just a bit better, delete some unnecessary smog equipment etc. (this car is emissions exempt where I live).
Dual exhaust would be the simplest upgrade that a local shop could do for you. If you delete the catalytic converter or remove the smog pump you MAW go all the way and install a 4 pin HEI and Quadrajet without the TPS and mixture control solenoid. It's a pretty quick trip down the rabbit hole.
Dual exhaust would be the simplest upgrade that a local shop could do for you. If you delete the catalytic converter or remove the smog pump you MAW go all the way and install a 4 pin HEI and Quadrajet without the TPS and mixture control solenoid. It's a pretty quick trip down the rabbit hole.
Sounds like it could be. Exhaust will probably be first duals, free it up but keep it mellow to keep in character with the car. I like the idea of a more open air cleaner as well purely for the induction noise. I don’t live in a very warm climate and don’t think that little foot-long snorkel is finding tons of icy cold air under the hood anyway. It looks like various (vacuum/smog/egr?) hoses are hooked up to the factory one. Anyone know of a write up on what to do with those that’s out there?
As nice as that car is, I would do very little if anything to modify it. You are going to notice very little increase in performance. It is just such a nice original car.
While your Oldsmobile might have a small v8; the 307, and a Quadrajet carburetor, the emissions equipment on it make it difficult to do performance upgrades without adversely affecting drivability. Are cars smog tested where your at?
Last edited by Olds64; July 7th, 2023 at 04:42 AM.
While your Oldsmobile might have a small v8; the 307, and a Quadrajet carburetor, the emissions equipment on it make it difficult to do performance upgrades without adversely affecting drivability. Are cars smog tested where your at?
No they are not. And I hear ya on the 307. Just hard to imagine with 5.0L of cubic capacity that mid 100’s in horsepower is as good as it gets. I also wouldn’t do anything to this car that wasn’t reversible. I’m not building a ground up hot rod, I’m realistic in my expectations. Mostly I’d just like to hear something more than the fan when I give it some boot with the windows down. But also don’t want something that will wake the neighbors. Wouldn’t match the cars character.
A nice set of dual exhaust will increase horsepower
The more I read about trying to extract performance from the 307, I think I will probably just go this route again, being honest about what the car is for. Just a family summer cruiser. As stated previously, I am emissions exempt. Can I delete the car and not confuse the car? Or do I need to also delete the air pump? I am, however also tempted by the differential gears at applied GMC. I ran my RPO code and found what I have the tallest gear ratio available. Something in the mid threes would be a lot more fun around town, which is where this car lives.
It is pretty rare that we get somebody on here looking to mod a Toro. I would take it to a good muffler shop and have them put it up on a rack and see what they think. I am not familiar with a Toro but I suspect you may get into problems with crossmembers and other suspension components. Changing the gear ratio is probably going to be a little more involved but would definitely make a difference at the red light.
Was checking the spark plugs/air filter today and noticed this with the front 2 barrels of the carb. (I’m a complete novice on these things as most of my years of experience are on German/Japanese EFI cars so please forgive my potential ignorance). But…. Is this normal, should I be able to smack these things back and fourth?
The valve you actuate at the end of the video is the choke plate. You need to adjust it. When cold, after depressing the accelerator fully to the floor once it should be closed. There is a standard in the FSM which stipulates the measurement between the choke plate and air horn of the carburetor.
June 30th, 2023, 12:58 AM
