They look great, Terry!

Was the head in #3 only machined on one end? You can still see the combustion chamber outline on one cylinder.

- Eric

 

Its was a solid job, yes Eric I also noticed that too and looked at it very closely and ran my hand down the resurfaced sides....

Although I have never seen a set of milled heads before, if this counts for anything I did work in a sheet metal manufacturing and worked closely with the machine shop department...

But from what I can see it looked great...felt even better

I asked for the day off tomorrow so I can put her back together

 

Great! It's definitely worth a day off.

If I may make a (time consuming) suggestion:
If you can, get a level, a piece of glass, a tub of Vaseline, a syringe or other accurate measurement tool, and some alcohol, washer fluid, or something similar, install the valves and spark plugs, set the heads level with the combustion chambers facing upward, wipe a smear of Vaseline on the head gasket sealing surface, smoosh the glass down on it nice and firmly (a piece of broken glass with a bit of a divot inward is ideal, but any glass that covers almost all of the combustion chamber, leaving only a strip exposed, is good), then fill the combustion chamber with alcohol or whatever until it is just perfectly full, record the amount, and move on to the next cylinder (smoosh glass, add fluid, record, etc.).

Afterward, wipe off the Vaseline, clean with thinner, and put your engine together.
(Ideally, it would be great if you had a depth micrometer to check the "deck height" of the pistons on the four corners of the engine, but you can't fudge it and I know you don't have one, so that's okay).
You will have measurements of the combustion chamber volumes, which may prove useful to you later in deciding on other modifications, and you won't be able to get them once the heads are installed.

Also, be sure to clean the head gasket sealing surfaces of the block and intake manifold completely, ideally with a gasket scraper, followed by a ScotchLoc pad on a drill or die grinder, followed by thinner.

- Eric

... and, notice, not a single "good head" joke...

 

Eric, not to jump a thread, but do you check the deck height by bringing the piston to TDC, and then measure the distance from the top of the piston to the blocks machined surface? Would it be to the outer edge of the piston, or to the center of the dish? Thanks, Dan.

 

Yes.

Bring each of the four corner pistons to TDC (not as easy as it sounds), then measure from the clean head sealing surface to the non-dished (or, in other brands, the non-domed) part of the clean piston.

Stock Olds engines are usually in the 0.020-0.025" range.

- Eric

 

come on slap those heads on!

 

What happened to the blue paint?

 

"A girl has a right to change her mind..."

... or so I would suspect.

- Eric

 

Ain't it the truth!

 

So this is the way the conversation went when I drop off the heads
Ric - machine shop - he says what color do u want them
Me - I said gold most of it is gold already
Ric - hmmm whats ur favorite color or what color u going to paint the cutlass
Me - midnight metallic blue
Ric- ok I will do them blue
Me I said ok kool
When I went to pick then up Shinning in my face Gold Gold Gold, I was like OMG they look freakin bad azz, I giggled and just kept touching them lol
now I need my intake done to match

So far everything went pretty good, no dead ends or obstacles
first thing I did was Clean off the old gaskets, blow it out, then I said I will be right back I was also doing laundry, then he checked a few things, measured, then when I got back he gave me the ok I put the gaskets & heads, gaskets & intake manifolds, pushrods & rocker arms hooked & i think the transmission throttle....

David from the shop helped when lifting the heads and intake my very own personal assistance lol

Still need
exhaust manifolds and pipe
alternator
a/c and brackets

and I really need a cable throttle cable????
anyways Im freaking beat cooking dinner then picking up kiddo then I can relax....
broke but happy total so far still under 500.00 hmmm

 

Looks great!

We want to hear it run.

- Eric

 

Nice work. Your almost there.

 

I hope that you got that socket out of the valley before you put the intake on!

 

Looking good

 

Don't gold look purty? Nice job, looking forward to hearing it run too!

 

I might have a throttle cable, measure from mount to mount, Mine measures 10in.
Let me know.

Johnny

 

Thanks alot Eric, I just spit coffee all over my keyboard

 

Glad to be of service.

- Eric

 

Dang it Bobby, she didnt start, NO SPARK

swapped out coil still no spark

mmm, mmmmm,mmmmm

gona go read up on this no spark see if I can make sense

Missing something, it had spark before

so shoot me some ideas if u have a few mins

Im home cooking and researching

heres a cute story and want to share how kooky I really am
today as I finished up I was putting on the thermostat and gasket, I stopped walked over to Daniel with the gasket in my hand and asked where the silicon was for the thermostat gasket so he pointed and I walked over to get it and walked back to the cutlass and lean over to put the silicon on, then all the sudden I cant find the gasket, Im LOOKING everywhere Im like WTF so I walk back over to Daniel and say I cant find the gasket I lost it, he begins to smile really big and then giggles and points to me I look down...really really I didnt see it, I looked left right leaned over looked around the engine nada man nada....

 

Goober...Check and make sure the braided ground wire that was on the back of the right head was reattached to the fire wall.

 

Check that you have power to the coil+ with the key in the on and start positions.

 

true blue 442 - yes the ground is connected I remember seeing that

Eric I did use an unfamiliar meter and touched neg and got a reading then i touched the pos....and didnt know what it should read so I ended that

 

Was the distributor removed during your repair?

 

Terry, if you can't find an obvious disconnected wire (or ground strap), then revert to standard troubleshooting from scratch, before you drive yourself crazy(er).

Here is the definitive thread:
https://classicoldsmobile.com/forums...-ignition.html

Just take it a step at a time, and you'll find it.

- Eric

ps: I'm proud of how far you've gotten on this - nice work.

 

I did see a broken wire and not sure where it's coming from or leading to yet
but I do member when I soldered up wires I taped up and other wires, sure it something simple

But maybe something happened to the distributor cap rotor during the rebuilt, there was a lot going on in there
Eric I believe at one time maybe yes I know its been moved from left to right

1. How to u check for power to the coil
2. Replaced coil
3. ground is connected to the engine
4. The ground lead in the distributor reading up on that

 

Terry - seriously, read the troubleshooting procedure in the link I posted.

First thing: Put a test light between the (+) coil terminal and ground, turn on the ignition, see if the light lights up.

Second thing: move the test light from the (+) to the (-) coil terminal and crank the engine - the light should flash.

- Eric

 

If you cannot figure it out post a pic of the engine maybe we will noticw whats wrong?

 

Tomorw taking the morning off, I read the troubleshooting good stuff,

I will go try and figure this out

And I will post new pics see if uall see anything out of place

I was comparing a older pic and did notice something different about the coil

I printed out what u posted Eric so Ima take those with me

 

What happened with this project? Did you get it running right? Inquiring minds want to know!

 

I was thinking the same this morning but Dennis beat me to the question. Hope all is well.

 

Ok well since you asked, I took the next day off which was my birthday I went to the shop the next morning to fig with the information Eric gave me
Sooooooo I get to the shop and they must of messed with it on Wednesday cz when I got there Thursday morning the car was DEAD
I was very disappointed only had 4 hrs off so I actually said FK it....

Went back home picked up my dog and we went to a park and hung out there till it was time for me to go into work...

So I only have 24 more hrs of vacation and want to save it for xmas

So friday the 13th I went by the shop and asked Chris to finish it up cz I didnt have anymore time to take off and really needed the cutlass back, and my daughter is really tired of getting a ride to school, he said yeah yeah I finish it up and bleed the brakes for me....so monday tuesday passed I called him he said I will get right on it, wed, thrsday friday I went over to the shop and said Look dude I need the cutlass back if u dont have time I can tow it somewhere else and let them finish it up..He looked at me and said NO Terry I promise to have it by saturday no later then monday....So TUESDAY I called him and said whats up!!!! he tells me at that time he wouldnt have time to fix it after all......
Arrggg So I called road side and had it towed to another shop the guy that did my heads - then of course the thanksgiving holidays...blah blah blah

So here I am Monday mmm mmm mmm SMH

 

So sorry, hope it gets sorted out soon.

 

I agree, sorry this happened to you . Hopefully it will be back on the road soon.

 

I got her back today at 6:35pm they even had a beer waiting for me, b it was an occasion for a cheers mate!!!!! YES

these guys finished up the work for me but had to redo the intake manifold gaskets, I didnt use silicon around manifold can I claim Im just a girl

anyways shes sounds good 225. 00 but the bright side is I finally found some guys worthy to work on my cutlass if u know what I mean....

But I forgot to ask what the issue was with the NO SPARK, I will ask tmrw
I was to excited and sort of disbelief that he finished it up in 1 day

Anyways I will be back gotta clean her out and get her ready for the week...

yahooooooo....yippiieeeeeee....yabba ...dabba.....doooooo.......

I will take a few pics tmrw of the motor

 

Alright, Terry! Get rolling!

- Eric

 

Glad your back in the saddle again.

 

Meeeeeeeeeeeeeeee....

 

Sweet! Happy you're back on the road

 

Great!!

- Eric

 

Scotchlok is a bad idea unless you can be 1000% sure you won't get any of it in the motor.