Hi folks, hoping for some recommendation help. I have a 68 442 convertible 400 auto car with 70K miles on it. The engine is original and is leaking from everywhere. It is also smoking out the exhaust more or less all the time now. It is extremely tired and old, and desperately needs a complete rebuilt. I live in the Boston, MA area, and Olds specialty shops are not plentiful here, from what I can determine. My goal would be to find the best place to have this engine rebuilt by an experienced Olds shop that knows these engines and how best to get the best out of them.

I would also be very interested in improving this engine as invisibly as possible - by that meaning, making changes that could increase its horsepower at least to the 350 level of the manual trans cars. I don't know if simply using a MT cam in the rebuild would make a difference or if there were other factors in the MT cars which affected the horsepower. My car has power drum brakes, no AC FYI. Any thoughts or suggestions about increasing the output of this motor as a byproduct of a complete rebuild would be much appreciated. I don't want to try to make this into a W30 tribute car, with the OAI system, D heads, etc. This is a convertible cruiser car, but if I can tweak it a bit to improve its performance without sacrificing at least its visual originality, that would be great. Really appreciate the input of the Olds experts!

Thanks so much, David Ogletree
Needham, MA

 

I'm sure the experts will chime in maybe?
I'm not one of them but I would guess a .030 bore with a roller cam of some sort along with some tuning would be a moderate gain without changing the appearance. Maybe a stroker?
I live in MA too. PM me if you want some contacts.

 

Estimated Budget?

 

One thing to keep in mind is that you are actually looking for two different businesses. You need to find someone who will pull the engine and then reinstall it and tune it after it is rebuilt. Then you need to find n engine builder. Very few places that do both.

As far as the build goes it probably does not need to be very crazy to run a lot better than what you have now.

Like Mark asked, what is your total budget ?

 

Thanks guys. I really don’t know how to establish a budget. I know anything done well costs real money, and I’m capable of making a real investment. Any help with budget expectations you could offer would actually be really helpful. Thanks! David O

 

Yes it is important to find a shop that knows Oldsmobile engines. Typically they leave out oil galley plugs or replace with incorrect ones. Machine shops in general are going away here in NJ.

 

Very, very rough estimate to do a complete mostly stock build with a mild cam is close to $6000 - $6500 That is just the engine and includes breaking it in on the dyno.

I have a couple of customers who do the R & R type work and I would guess they would be in the $3000 range to remove the engine and strip it to a long block and then reinstall it and getting it running correctly when it was done.

I have family in your area and prices up there are generally a little more than here, if you can find someone that does that type of work.

I would bet when all is said and done you will be into it for at least $10-11k