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With lots of help from my car club we got my Cutlass prepped and to the show. The vendor that did the motor had our car in his booth as they know my car pretty well and were happy to describe to folks the work done on the motor. It was a fun three days with lots of folks coming over for a chat. I cannot believe how many people owned a Cutlass at one time in their lives! The cars were very high quality and showcased many makes and models.
Beautiful car. Can't believe they actually held the show with all the mandates for social distancing. Have you ever showed that car at the Rocket Round Up in Olds AB?
When the show was held there was actually very little talk about the virus in the news in Canada. Folks south of the border started paying attention to the virus well before we did here. The US stopped travel from China the end of Jan where as we Canucks just did it the past week.
I have taken the car to Olds for the Round up. It always seems to be tough to get good weather.
Wow how did this thread not get more love? Yes I know it is a little older than two years old.
Love your 68!! I will have to look for more pictures. Great job. Glad they appreciated too. 👍
I have made some mechanical and cosmetic changes since the WOW. I have upgraded the Alternator to a 160 AMP unit to deal with the electrical load that the electronics is needing. I added a dual USB power point where the ash tray was. The entry / push button start has gotten an upgrade with a new model of ECU that gives me more options. I bought a 65 GTO hood with a scoop and a 68 Cutlass S hood. We grafted the scoop onto the Cutlass hood. This give me a functional scoop and gives my 500 CU in Olds nice cooler air. The welding is amazing. The seams do not show. Where it was grafted underneath looks totally stock.I have some new badging made. Using the Rocket S badges we created a Rocket SS badge. The car is not a 442 clone but it also is much more than a Cutlass S. Why not a Cutlass SS? The badges that I have attached here are early versions. We have since cleaned them up..Mechanically I have installed a Gearvendor unit in order to make the car a better highway star. I also makes a difference in acceleration as now the ratios are tighter.
Thx for the feedback on the car. the grafted underside
Used a modifed GTO base. The scoop fits perfectly. A good perspective showing how well it fits With paint. Truly a hood that GM should have made. 1 of 1 My SS badges
Using the Rocket S badges we created a Rocket SS badge. The car is not a 442 clone but it also is much more than a Cutlass S. Why not a Cutlass SS? The badges that I have attached here are early versions. We have since cleaned them up... My SS badges
I love it. Fake 442's alllll day. Why not an SS Cutlass. That's called honesty and originality. Great job!!👍
The motor is a 455Olds bored and stroked to 500 cu in. The crankshaft is an Eagle unit with DSS forged rods. The bottom end has been strengthened with a DMR girdle. A windage tray is bolted to the girdle that also acts as a wiper for the crank. The pistons are custom forged units from JE. The Heads are aluminum edelbrock and are ported with over size valves. The cam is a custom Comp grind. The valve train is all roller with roller hydraulic lifters. The push rods have a restricted ID. A lot of attention was paid to the block to facilitate oil return to the crankcase. The oil pan has baffles to keep the pickup in oil under acceleration. The oil pump has been modified so it has both a high output as well as good pressure. I run a fast sportsman EFI. On the engine Dyno it made 635 ft/lbs torque with 565 hp. The engine breathes very well and as such the HP holds very well once it reaches max at around 4800 RPM.
Olds was weird in the way they named the cars. Too many numbers! 442 , W30 , W31 . My car is a modified Cutlass S. It is not a 442 tribute car and was never meant to be. I wanted to keep the Rocket GenePool and it is now a Cutlass SS. With all that has been to the car it is well past the 442 in every facet ( suspension , brakes , transmission w/gear vendor , remote entry w/push button start, and motor ) I even have dual USB POWER POINTS. A very rare option in 1968. I figured SuperSport was appropriate.
Very cool car, very unique touches. Yeah, 4800 is awfully low, I assume the cam is very tame to peak so low.
I am sure that we can firm the tune up and run it harder. For what I do with the car there was no need to push it hard. The fact that the HP did not drop off talks to the fact that it was still breathing well. The timing and fuel/air is still pretty conservative. I feel pretty confident if we wanted to squeeze more out of the motor we could. The tune is for driveabilty and reliability.
I love it. Fake 442's alllll day. Why not an SS Cutlass. That's called honesty and originality. Great job!!👍
That's why.
I took the car down to the shop today to get the hood and badges installed on the car. It was a cool morning so the Olds ran great sucking in lots of cool dense air. I should have the car back early next week so pictures of the car with modified hood and custom badges should be posted shortly. The only concern at this point is whether or not the red on the hood matches up 100%. If not it will be a trip to the paint booth later this year for some blending.
I took the car down to the shop today to get the hood and badges installed on the car. It was a cool morning so the Olds ran great sucking in lots of cool dense air. I should have the car back early next week so pictures of the car with modified hood and custom badges should be posted shortly. The only concern at this point is whether or not the red on the hood matches up 100%. If not it will be a trip to the paint booth later this year for some blending.
The hood and badges are finally installed. I just got pictures from the shop. The resolution is pretty low so they get fuzzy when you try to zoom in. The good news is that the paint matches up very well and no further trips to the spray booth will be required. At this point in time I have no further ideas percolating in my head for further mechanical or cosmetic tweaks. There is very little that has not been touched on this car. The interior is original and mostly stock so I really have no desire to mess with it in a major way. The seat covers are in good condition and just recently I redid the foam on the front bench seat so it is quite comfortable.
