MichaelDodge

I had a question, my father purchased a 1969 Olds Vista Cruiser brand new, and today I still have the engine in my garage, the engine number is 396026G and has C heads. My wife wants me to sell the engine, what do you think something like that would sell for being that I am the original owner since 1969. Its been out of the car for 20 years, was rebuilt and then sat again for 10 years. I was going to put it into a 1968 convertible 442 but ended up restoring a 454 stingray instead.
Regards
Michael

2blu442

Since you had a 1968 you probably already know the late 400's don't have the demand the early ones do. But if someone wants to make a 68-69 442 period correct that's the motor they need. How complete is it? Oil pan to air cleaner, fan to flex plate? Or just the long block with intake and the tin? Do you have the ability to make it run? If not, potential buyers would have to consider it a core or risk paying for something unknown.

That's a lot of questions, but let me throw out a few numbers. If you were within driving distance from me so I could pick it up I'd say $250 for a core without carb, distributor, brackets, exhaust manifolds & other bolt on's. If it was fully complete (4bbl engine) and I could hear it run, saw good compression and oil pressure. I might consider upward of $1,000 to put into a 1968 442 for a non-matching number but period correct car.

So... more details and even photos if you would post them might get you more accurate numbers. John

MichaelDodge

The engine is compete with oil pan, distributor, it was modified meaning new manifold, crowder cam and lifters, the heads were taken down to Newport Beach to increase the HP in the mid 80's it was a very fast engine after my father and brother worked on it. We put the engine into a 1966 GTO and it was able to pull the wheels of the ground. However it's been sitting in my garage for many years. I am in Northern CA

joe_padavano

Good luck with the sale.

As for "pullling the wheels", that's unlikely at best and a claim like that isn't helping you sell the motor, since anyone who's ever built a motor with that capability knows how difficult it is. Even on the remote chance that the motor made enough HP, the A-body cars don't have enough traction to put that much power to the ground without extensive suspension mods and wide slicks. Suffice to say that a G-block Olds motor that could really get daylight under the front wheels would have somewhere well north of $20K into it in custom parts and machine work.

Oldsmaniac

The thing here as said is to find a buyer that needs it for a correct engine for their 442. I have seen complete engines, G block 400's core engines for sale in the 800 dollar range with a seemingly no sale because the ad seems to run and run on craigs. If I were wanting your engine I would be in the 5-600 dollar range for purchase.