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Hello everyone and welcome to my 2nd project thread on this forum. On June 24th, I bid on an online auction for many Oldsmobile pieces. I have a thread Here about John Hoppe and his Auction. I Won a 1965 Oldsmobile Dynamic 88 4dr sedan. This car will be the wife's car so her and I can go to shows together.
KNOWN HISTORY ON CAR:
This car was purchase somewhere in or near Glendale, Arizona. All glove box papers (or at least what was left) was for insurance and Discount Tire lifetime tire rotation forms from multiple people. This car for most of its life lived in Arizona. Until when I'm assuming John went out West to pick it up. Last registered in 1996. Last known driven year was 1991.
THE GOOD:
The car is 95% complete with all A/C parts still in place and even the air cleaner was on the carb. When a battery was hooked up, there was no smoke from under the dash or engine bay. Brakes were working good enough to hold the car while it was brought onto the trailer which is definitely a first. The engine was not seized on arrival. We took out the plugs and all the plugs came out with ease. Every plug was clean and had no sign of rust. WD40 was spayed into each plug hole to help lube the cylinders. Engine was turned over with the starter with no plugs in and it cranked over nicely with no hiccups. Plugs were reinserted and we hotwired 12v to the coil since we have no key for the car. As a "Send it" moment without checking spark we filled the float bowl with a 50/50 mix of 2 stroke oil and 91 octane gas. Then to our amazement, it cough over right away. After a few more attempts, she fired right up and actual idled. We could not believe it. We have had way more trouble starting up my 64 dynamic and my 63 rambler for the first time then this. It blew a huge mouse nest out of the tail pipe, Which gave us a good laugh. The fuel pump started to pump old gas out of the tank so we pitched the line. The engine did have some taping initially but after maybe 2 mins it subsided. Tranny went into all gears without hesitation. I'm very happy about how the powertrain is performing after sitting for 3 decades. Frame is good with no rust holes anywhere.
THE BAD:
The car even for being a Arizona car has had some rust attack it. Passenger rear quarter panel at the bottom is bad with a large rust hole. The front floor boards are a little thin with a few small rust holes. The area where the battery sat is toast because I think the battery leaked acid from just sitting for a long time. The worst thing is both windshield sills are bad and are very rusty. Rust has eaten through a portion of the cowl under the front window. This car for a very long time will be driven in sunny weather to prevent more damage and I know the pain of window sill rust repair. Other than these things the car looks very restorable.
WHATS NEXT:
This car will be moved into storage for the winter and storage is a few miles from where its at now so were thinking of driving it over there. We'll put a remaned carb on and a inline fuel filter to get er down to storage. We will do an oil change and the essentials as well. I'm excited for this new adventure with this car and happy to share my story.
Good luck Alex,
At least you may not have to do a "frame off " on this one.
The reason that many Arizona, California, New Mexico, cars have rust is because they started life in the rust belt.
And they were brought to the southwest when their owners retired there.
That appears to be the case here as your cowl tag on a different thread says it was assembled at Lansing Michigan.
Last edited by Charlie Jones; Sep 17, 2024 at 08:14 PM.
Hey guys I'm back with a new update. I installed in inline fuel filter and put a few gallons of gas in her and the fuel filter was actually pretty clean when it was being ran. I did an oil change and was happy to see a old AC filter on it. It was already pretty filled up on coolant and I only added maybe only a gallon to it. The accelerator pump is shot on the carb but I have a rebuilt one at the house ill throw on next time i make it over there. it moved for the first time today in 37 years! The motor definitely needs valve cover gaskets as they leak pretty bad. It also smokes pretty good out of tail pipe when its warmed up. I'm not supper sure I can fix that without disassembly but ill do some research. Motor does not knock or tick at all which I was very surprised about. The next thing that has to be figured out is the key. This car has no key but iv read u can remove the lock cylinder IF you have the key. Which I cant do because I have no key. Iv seen people remove the passenger front door lock and get the number on the cylinder to make a new key, is this the only way to now fix this issue??
Since the last post the engine counited to for some reason run worse. motor would not idle very well at all. I did a compression test and got:
Cylinder #1: 115 PSI
Cylinder #2: 110 PSI
Cylinder #3: 115 PSI
Cylinder #4: 115 PSI
Cylinder #5: 100 PSI
Cylinder #6: 115 PSI
Cylinder #7:105 PSI
Cylinder #8: 60 PSI, Wet Compression test brought it to 80 PSI
There was some metal goop present in the oil return hole near cylinder 8. I decided it was time for a rebuild!
Took only a few hours and the motor came right out! It was much easier to take this powertrain out then my 64 Dynamic. I'm glad GM went to a more standardized motor mount system. Ill do a complete rebuild on this motor. I see a cam and 4bbl in its future!
I am guessing with that 2 barrel, you have low compression pistons and a cam with about .400 to .430" lift and very low duration. They should also know you probably have the 45 degree lifter bank angle.
Hey Guys!
So we got the motor torn apart and found the source for that bad rattle was the nylon timing gear exploded into pieces, resulting in a horrible chain rattle from being so loose. The teeth on the timing gear were razor sharp. Time for a rebuild!
Block, crank and heads are at the machine shop. This motor is getting The Works and more. Everything cleaned, freeze plugs, cam bearings, bore and hone 0.30 over and Magnaflux on all parts. Crank will get polished and heads will get new valves, valve guides, new seats including harded exhaust seats and resurfacing. I've always wanted a 425 car and I want this motor hopefully outlive me! I got new Rebuilders Choice Pistons and stock connecting rods for $200 in a sweet deal from Marketplace. Pistons have about 8 hrs. of wear on them. The guy on Facebook said he had to take the motor back apart due to incorrect pushrod milling, resulting in the pushrods hitting the valley. Rebuilders Choice seems to be working great in the 394 so I have no problem with using them again. Right now I'm tiring hard to find a 66 4 barrel intake manifold for it. Other than that build it going great!
Hello everyone! Life has been busy as usual and it was hard to find the time to get the 65 rolling last year. Last post we sent off the motor to get redone at the shop. The motor came back a few months later looking glorious. Went .30 over on the bore and 10 under on the crank. The hope is this year to finally getting around to getting the motor back together and back into the car. I ended up finding a 4bbl intake from a man who bought a lot from John Hoppes auction in 2024. Cool to see I'm still getting parts from John even after his passing. The car has been sleeping peacefully in storage until her return. Once I can get out of the apartment and into a house hopefully this year, all the projects will come home and then the fun will begin! Stay tuned!
1965 Dynamic 88 Project Thread (64Guy)
Update!
