Tedd Thompson

Pardon my ignorance but were there any second generation stock Olds engines interference engines? I would think not but what do I know..... Tedd

cherokeepeople

define 2nd generation?

Sugar Bear

Second generation 64-90 V8's seem to be "hit or miss on that "...guess it depends on the camshaft lift and piston dish. Have seen chains jump and valves be fine and sometimes not. It seemed as though the chains that jumped due to compression kickback when shut down didn't bend valves but chains that jumped while running were a coin toss.

matt69olds

Same here. My sister had a 80 cutlass that had a timing chain so stretched I was able to remove it with the gears still bolt in place. Replace the chain, cleaned out the oil pan, she and her husband drove it for years after. I have also torn down engines with bent exhaust valves, other than a sloppy timing chain the cores looked great.

69HO43

This thread brings back a great memory I had with my father when I was growing up when I first got my hands dirty working on an Olds engine. I learned how to change a timing chain when my dad's 69 Cutlass S with the 350 4bbl bent a valve and stopped the engine while he was driving down the highway. Circa summer of 1973. I was around 13 back then. Had it towed home. Car had around a little over 50k on it when the nylon went bye bye. The timing chain jumped and bam!

I guess my dad was hoping it wasn't an interference engine when he tried to rotate the engine by hand and it would move only so far before it stopped. He removed the valve covers and one of the valve stems was down further than the rest. My dad used some curse words after finding that, and I wasn't sure exactly why at that time. Now I do. Tore that joker down to the shortblock while in place to clean out the pan/screen, check and go through the valvetrain and heads for damage and repair, and reassemble. I remember looking at the dink in the top of the piston on the passenger side and my dad said it wasn't bad enough to replace it. I recall he did remove the cap and check the bearing on it. He went with it as it was. Forget if it was #2 or #4. It was the first time I've ever removed an Olds V8 cast iron intake. OMFG that thing was heavy. My dad still had to go to work during the week, so it took us over a week to get the heads back and put it all back together and running again working on it here and there. Put an all steel cam gear/chain set on it and it ran great for the rest of the time he had it. I also learned for the first time what happens when you (in this case me) put the distributor in 180 out and how to use a timing light to set the timing. The local NAPA stocked everything we needed and had a machine shop in back to go through the heads and get them right again.

That was also the car that I learned about the 69/70 "hood tooth in the back of the head" issue that you have to keep watch of. You 69 and 70 owners know what I'm talking about.

I agree with Sugar Bear and say "yes, at least some of them are" to answer the question.

Greg Rogers

I bought many of the low compression, 73-80 cars with Olds 350's with skipped timing chains. This was in the 80's when guys around here were looking for Gas Olds V-8's to swap into failed diesels. I had a guy who would buy any gas Olds 350 for $200.00 if I said it ran good. I never had one hit. I counted on them being ok except for the chain/gears and they always were. I would buy the whole rusty non-running car for $30--50. buy a cheap chain/set ( or once I used a used one out of another grenaded engine) get engine running and remove it and he would come get it. $200 was a lot for me then.. Anyway I suppose the older high compression engines maybe would hit, but I never saw it.

olds 307 and 403

Yah the hood tooth is a PIA, had to think for a minute. I only had a 307 skip a tooth. It turned over fine, just could tell it had skipped, cranked faster if anything, 450,000+ km. Even the two 76 350's with original nylon timing sets were in surprisingly good shape, one with 120,000 Miles, the other around 100,000. I still think the later ones had better nylon on the teeth. Still didn't make it a good idea and other manufacturers did it as well.

joe_padavano

^^^THIS. It depends on the cam and the dish on the piston. I've had a 1972 350 and a 1984 307 both throw the timing chain with no damage to the valves. An earlier motor with flattop pistons and a higher lift cam would likely have a problem.