Dead Reckon

Well, I"m doomed, if I had money I'd buy every Delta that popped up on craigslist, but, this is the one that really caught my eye, it's a 1979 Oldsmobile Holiday 88, mine for $550, unknown if it runs, 350 olds, 4bbl, AC, rallye package, cruise control, silver, burgundy interior, little rough around the edges but it'll make a nice car. Guy delivered it for free, which was cool. No keys, don't know if it runs, hasn't been on the road since 2011. It's a gamble, maybe it'll pay off, maybe it won't. Cool car though, couldn't pass it up.

Here's a quick video of the '79:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8mt...ature=youtu.be


Oh, as for the '77, I put a summit racing street & strip 600CFM 4bbl on it last night, runs GREAT, holy crap the power it picked up. I need to change the distributor still, but that can wait 'cause uh... I caused the factory original harmonic balancer with 229k miles on it to come apart whilst flogging my Goldsmobile on the highway. Came off the highway, heard a quite loud metallic thunking noise, pulled over, saw the outer of the balancer was doing hula hoops around the back of the pulley. It didn't just break, the whole outer separated from the inner.

I haven't slept since yesterday, I spent the whole night rigging up the install for the carburetor with the adapter plate, linkage, and other things, I'll get pictures when the install is done and not as sloppy. I got one of those Edelbrock triangle air cleaners cheap 'cause it clears the carb quite well and they breath good. Gotta modify the carburetor stud, but other than that it fits good.

Also had a heater hose come apart, not sure if it's the send or return, but it's the one on the top of the water pump, send I guess. It didn't look bad on top, but the bottom had a hole, if the coolant it was spurting was red it would've looked like a horror movie. Need to top off the coolant, my radiator is 1/3rd low, but it's cold out so not a big deal at the moment.

So yeah, that's been my past two days, looking forward to toying with the Holiday tomorrow if my friend gets around to fixing my Delta. I'm too tired, and can't be bothered to replace the harmonic balancer. I think the engine spitting and sputtering from the faulty quadrajet was part of the reason it came apart. The rest was me flooring the car at 40 and shooting off to the bottom of the speedometer.

Much to do, very much to do. Gotta get tires and an alignment for the '77 before I spend ANY money on the '79. Also gotta get tires for the '79 before it can go on the road, it had new tires, but they're dry rotted and one of 'em has three flat spots.

In layman's terms, I'm gonna be broke for a while between these two cars.

joe_padavano

That's the typical failure mode. The outer ring is bonded to the inner with a rubber layer. The rubber goes bad and the two parts separate. Once the balancer is off for replacement, you MIGHTASWELL pull the front cover and install a new timing chain and gears...

Dead Reckon

Would love too, but I'm broke right now, I'm gonna have my friend swap the chain and gears later on, get the timing right, valves adjusted, probably around the time I swap the intake.

Octania

too broke to spend another 20-30 while in there?
Looks like a nice find

Needs some TLC like all old cars

Funny lot of "similar" Delta videos that youtube recommends

Dead Reckon

Hah yeah, saw that too. And yeah, I'm literally going to have to get the $5 for the old battery in the '79 to put gas in my car this week. Was not expecting an added repair on the '77. I mean, the alternator is new, steering pump is fine, water pump is fine, AC unit isn't hooked up, belts are in great shape, so... I really had no expectation that anything would fail on the car after installing the carburetor. But I don't think the car had been wound up like that in a long time, so I guess it isn't a huge surprise.

cherokeepeople

is that a "holiday88" emblem on the drivers side roof side?the reason i ask is i have only seen one and it was on a 2dr a friend tried to buy it.it was also a 79 and it was a 5.7 diesel with the buckets floor shift and full tach and gauges.motor had the typical broken head bolts.
car disappeared never to be seen again,man i would have loved to latch on to that one.

Dead Reckon

Yep it's a Holiday 88, I'll get some pictures here in a little while. Supposed to get up to about 50F today, so I'll be able to toy with the car some if I get my car back today. I really want a battery so I can attempt to start this thing. Mine doesn't have the tach gauge, dunno why.

ThePackRat

No such thing as a factory tach in any 77-90 full size Olds.

Anything appearing as such would have had to been custom.

Octania

1979 Oldsmobile Holiday 88 (Yet to be named)
======================
Some obvious choices are Holly and Billie


Maybe you should not have bought that other car?
Sorry, bit my tongue

have you checked all your resources? I know if one of my friends needed to borrow a battery for a while I would help out. I have two extras right now doing nothing.

Dead Reckon

Could've sworn these cars came with it, guess I'm wrong though.

joe_padavano

There was an optional factory gauge pack. It did not include a tach.

oldcutlass

You are definitely afflicted, however there are far worse things one can waste money on. Looks like a solid car for a project.

Koda

Why would a gauge package not have a tach? Almost as dumb as the Chevelle SS gauge package not having an oil gauge (just a light).

joe_padavano

Yeah, cuz those full size Oldsmobiles with 307s get drag raced a lot...

Seriously, in normal driving, how much time do you spend looking at a tach? The reality is that oil pressure, temp, and volt gauges are FAR more important than a tach, especially for a non-performance, 140 HP, automatic trans luxury car.

Koda

Well, I look at the tach when I shift on my daily driver, but, assuming an automatic for the sake of discussion, I do agree with you. You'll note that I said it was almost as dumb, meaning that not including an oil gauge is worse. I think an amp gauge is also fairly useless, but I have yet to have a bad charging situation to tell.

However, I find the tach to be important enough that it should be included in something called a "gauge package." There should be tach, oil pressure, coolant temp, volts, and fuel. Somewhere around there should be a clock. Other useful gauges are economy (vacuum), boost (for factory turboed cars), ATF temp, outside temp.

I'm spoiled by the 67 rallye pac. That gauge cluster, to me, is the ultimate. The only way it could be better is if the clock were elsewhere and the fuel gauge was on the bottom.

joe_padavano

We don't have to "assume" anything. The cars in question are 1977 and 1979 Olds full size cars. We know with certainty that an AT was the ONLY transmission option. The last time you could get a manual trans in a full size Olds was the 1971 model year.

I don't think that the lack of a tach in the Olds in question is even in the same zip code as the lack of an oil pressure gauge. Amp or volt gauge, either is useful. Frankly I have had situations where the belt flew off and the dropping voltage gave it away. Similarly, when the brand new AC Delco alternator in my truck puked a bearing after two weeks, the dropping voltage tipped me off that there was a problem.

Why? What is the driver of a 1977-79 Olds 88 or 98 going to do with a tach? ATF temp? Really? That doesn't even crack the top 25 things that the driver of a full size Olds needs to be concerned with. If you were towing, that might be a different story, but for normal use it's useless.

Koda

You not get your coffee today, Joe?

You did say "in normal driving", and my normal driver is a stick shift, which is why I said it. I suppose, in retrospect, you meant "as opposed to racing."

I did have a pulley stop on a belt train once and the car had both a BATT light and a voltmeter, both of which got upset, along with the temp gauge, failing power steering, and a loud screeching noise.

Those other things I mentioned are nice to have, but not needed.

I will agree that a tach is not needed in an auto, non performance car, but I think it is something that should come in a gauge package regardless of whether it is needed or not. For what it is worth, I have a 73 Club Wagon with the gauge package that has no tach, manual everything, and you shift that column shifted 3 speed horrible linkage'ed shifter by ear. Fortunately, it's got like a 4:1 rear and a 302, so you can practically take off in top gear.

Professur

I found it really revolting that almost all the automatics I've driven over the last couple of decades had a tach, while most of the manuals didn't. Personally ... I find I look at the tach on an auto today as much as the speedo ... hell, often in place of the speedo. I'm a dead foot driver ... can't really get a sense of my right foot's position while driving .. so I usually manage my speed by the feel of the vibrations through my ****. That's confirmed by the tach, not the speedo.

But on my B-bodies, I really really do miss having actual gauges for the oil pressure and temp.

joe_padavano

Shoot me a PM - I've got a set I can part with.

Professur

It's high on my todo list Joe.

illumined

On the other hand with the Mercedes you wouldn't have any money anyway.





Yeah, that's how it is with mine. But interestingly enough I was able to find an owners manual on Amazon for it and the dash looks so different, complete with all kinds of gauges, like oil pressure, battery, etc, that mine doesn't have.

rustyroger

If you're going to spend the money needed to get a '77-'86 B Body to get a move on then the extra outlay for a tach won't amount to much of that sum.

I deplore the American practice of just having idiot lights on their cars of that time, with gauges an option.
I had a '79 Olds Delta 88 diesel which had the gauge pack, mounted at the bottom of the dash I had to look away from the road to check the gauges.
Contemporary European GM cars all had temperature gauges mounted in an easy to see position. If you wanted oil pressure or voltage gauges you had to buy an upscale or sporty model or fit them yourself though. It's fair to say you often got a tach with the extra gauge pack, maybe almost universally stick shift cars with engines redlining at 6000 rpm had more need for them.

Roger.

Roger.

Dead Reckon

Got the '79 running a few days ago, sort of, bad gas stopped up the carburetor, so... I'm gonna find a way to pump the tank and move on from there. Not in a big hurry to get this car going, but I'd like to have it on the road by May with antique plates so I can do a little running in it to see what it needs. Got a few new videos of the car too, been busy lately, between getting the carburetor installed on my 1977 Olds, getting the 1979 running, and general boring life related stuff, it's been a bit chaotic.


Mechanical once-over of the '79:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHf9nxcBR7I

Got the 79 running:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykRa8vkX2LA


New carb and distributor on the '77:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ui4lb_8FIHg

Busy, busy busy. Oh well, at least I have 16 cylinders with which I can soon terrorize the neighborhood. That shiny new muffler under the '79 looks clamped, clamped mufflers can easily be removed and er, "Improved".

EDIT: Just realized I can make this thing not automatically embed videos. Oops?

russell7088

russell7088

Here a couple pics

oldcutlass

Purtiful...