Well I did it again. I bought something not because I needed it but it struck me as a cool item at a good price. It's a 1973 Olds 350 engine that has probably never seen the road. Here's the story told to me by the guy I bought it from. Years ago a new car fell off a train load of cars. Somehow it got donated to a high school for their auto shop class. Along the way they scrapped out the car but kept the engine and trannie. Recently they were cleaning house and decided to get rid of the engine and trannie but kept the carb and some of the other bolt on items. It went to a scrap yard and a buddy of mine who knows I live and breath Oldsmobile tells me about it. Yep. Now it's in my garage! Parts of it have been repainted, poorly and I can tell the intake, heads, oil pan, water pump, etc. have been off the motor. But the cylinder bores look pretty good and parts of the engine such as the valve train and exhaust manifolds look new. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it yet, but if someone needs the manifolds or something else for a restoration project let me know. Check out the pictures and see if you understand me dragging this home John

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WOW great find. I think its awesome that you saved it from the bone yard.

 

Please sell me those motor mounts. I'd love to have them for my restoration. Thanks. jeff.

 

I'm interested in the valve covers. Let me know f your willing to part with them. awsome find!

 

Very nice! Congrats on the find!

 

Z3d PM sent on the valve covers. John

 

Just have to ask. Did someone paint the valve covers to say "Oldsmopile" , or was it just dirt or something?

 

I hadn't noticed! Kids these days, ain't got no respect

 

You lucky dog you. Congrats on the find.

 

Didn't catch that

 

2blu442 as one oregonian to another (lol) great find man i wish i could have scored something like that for my one owner olds(my grandmas car) she willed me,i have every thing but a block and am in the market for one let me know if ya run across one preferably a late 60s 350 also is that a turbo 350 or 400 i cant tell

 

It's a 350. No terminal on the drivers side for the kick down and there is a cable on the passenger side for it.

 

thanks for the info im about half asleep and have an olds 350 tranny thats new and clean to look at but didnt engines are my forte and kinda lame on the trans

 

84 rocket, are you close enough to pick one up? I have several 1968's, a couple 1970's and one 1971. Most are complete motors but if you just want a block we could probably work something out. Although I could give you a good price on the shortblock of this engine. You could use your heads/intake then change the cam if you want. But pistons, crank, etc. are all in near new condition with this motor. John

I also have some TH400's if you wanted one of those too.

 

Shop motors are great finds. A lot of them spend their time just being taken apart and put back together then see if it will work. All the internals should be in great shape and you could part it out or sell it whole if someone needed a good 350 block. either way good for you John

 

I think your right Bruce, it looks like they've had it apart but not done anything to damage it.... except mis-spell Oldsmobile! I may use the heads on another engine, but other than that I don't have plans for the motor. I was especially surprised at the exhaust manifolds and am thinking someone wanting to restore their car to original may be interested in them or other parts just because they're so clean. John

 

It seems like this cool stuff finds you John.

That's an A body exhaust pipe number, amazing it's so pristine. I guess one of those "fell off a train"? never heard that one before.

In about '69 I did see a transporter of brand new Chebbies wedged under a steel railroad bridge at the base of the big hill in Little Italy here. The ones on top were crunched down to the top of the doors.
The poor driver was just standing there looking at them and he probably just noticed the no trucks low clearance signs and flashers everywhere too.
I doubt he could of made it up the hill, it was really steep, in fact it still is.

I don't think letting air out of the truck's tires for clearance would have helped in that situation.

That engine probably has been apart and back together a few times to see what they could see.
Those manifolds look brand new, I doubt that thing was ever run or not much.
There were a few of those but in much worse shape at school in auto shop. My buddy completely rebuilt an automatic transmission off of one and we put it in the project car and it actually worked, he was considered a god after that.

 

I wish we'd had an auto shop when I was growing up. I was 17 before I really knew the difference between a pair of pliers and a crescent wrench! But that was the year I needed a car to get a job, and a job to get a car. So I bought a $100 1964 chebby Impaler and tinkered on it every other weekend to keep it running. I still remember the day the harmonic balancer and crank pully fell off going down the road! I checked out a Chiltons repair manual at the library to try and figure out what kept it on! But I'm thankful for that old boat as it's what gave me the car bug and eventually led to all that clutter in and around the garage

 

John,

You sure have a nose for finding this stuff. You have to make more room in your engine storage facility for the new addition. When you gonna finish one of your project cars? Like you have the time right.

 

John- As I always thought, good things happen to good people! To those of you who probably wouldn't otherwise know, John bailed me out by shipping out a detent switch (Jetaway tranny "kick-down" sw.) and never asked for a penny until I determined whether it worked or not. It did pan out great, and I hold 2Blu442 in high regards because of this! Great find, John!!! Jim

 

Thank you for the kind words Jim. My experience has been guys and gals on this site are a cut above the average people you may run into or do business with. That does make the hobby more fun!

Pat, I do feel the struggle of how much time I spend doing the buy/sell/trade thing vs actually working on my "keepers". Although through the process I'm collecting a lot of nice parts for the project cars. One of these days I hope to surprize you and the others with a thread in the Build section! The challange for me will be staying focused enough to complete one car rather than putter with several at one time

 

Congrats on the find. I know if I was in your shoes, I probably would have bought it too. There's just no cure for the Olds sickness!

 

Yes Darrel, thankfully there is no cure

 

Only problem that I see with that motor is that dreadful "8" on those cylinder heads. But otherwise looks like a solid buy . I know firsthand that there is no cure for that oldsmobile syndrome . Sold my last Cutlass 5 years ago and tried doing the VW scene for awhile (nice little cars, but the keyword is little). sold that in the spring and picked up my '85 because I knew the last time I was truely happy driving a car was behind the wheel of my Olds . Great find again!

 

Way to go, John! Slap some 330 heads on it with a thin gasket, one of your old Toro cams with the bigger lobes, and you'll have a nice little 9:1 street motor.

 

That might be just the ticket Jeremy! Also, a couple years ago I bought a pickup load of Olds parts from a guy who had lost interest in the hobby (if you can imagine that!). Included in the batch was a fresh 1969 350 shortblock with flat top pistons. I remember an old thread saying that #8's with flat top pistons create a decent compression ratio. What do you think about that? I might be able to come up with two new 350 motors and not know what to do with them John

 

Fresh set of #8s off of 1 time capsule, and onto the other. Sounds like a plan.

#8's aren't that bad. Everybody has such a hatred for them, but it's their fault for having crappy pistons. #8's never hurt anybody

 

Cars do fall off of trains( or trucks)! Last winter on I-80 a car hauler loaded with new Subarus hit another truck, during the accident one of the cars actualy flew off the top and slid down the road upside down. Of the 7 brand new cars on the trailer they made us crush 4 of them because where they were chained on had put dimples in the frame. They couldn't let them get to the public for liability issues. Seemed like a waste.