I just thought I would give an update. Been driving the Olds as a daily driver all summer, the Classic Auto Air worked great even when it was 105 degrees. Every time I calculated the milage since the new trans install I came up with 24-26 mpg city/hiway driving. That seem kind of unrealistic for a heavy car and non-OD trans, then it occured to me....the speedo is reading high about 10% (The new speedometer drive gear was no longer available in the same tooth count)....doh. Anyway 22 mpg is not too bad, the car is fun to drive, no problems since ironing out the initial glitches.
Cant think of anything I would change on it.

 

Seems like you really enjoyed that swap this summer. I'm going to use the idea you did for the fuel tank in my car, I just have to find a nice filler neck kit.

 

Good to hear. I finally going to get to do an LS conversion myself. Picking up a 5.3 tonight for my future daily driver slammed 78 Suburban.

 

I turn the key and drive. I honestly check fluids a few times a year now. It's like having a new car.
Although I might try a little experiment and see if I can squeeze some more milage out of city driving. New corvettes have CAGS that forces you to shift from 1st to 4th gear for better fuel milage. Think I'll try that, 1st to 3rd gear anyway, for a week and see if it does any better.

 

Picked mine up last night. Crank centerline of the motor will be about 3.5 ft closer to the earth when its in my truck.

 

Very cool. Are you starting a build thread somewhere? There would be a lot of interest over at LS1tech conversion forum.

 

I will but it will be a while. Ive got some things I have to do before I can get to it. The deal on this was too good to pass up. I should be able to end up with all the swap parts and sell off the rest and break even.

 

Just found this thread. That is a rare hood on that car. Looks like the same Home Made Ram Air hood that was on the 71 convertible we used to own almost 10 years ago.

 

Does look like the same hood. Bondo spots are a dead givaway.

 

That's funny, how it got to MO is a mystery.
The hood looks like a glass one that was bonded to a metal frame.

DSCN0132.jpg

 

Alright i am now subscribed to this thread.

Unless i am blind i am not seeing a video posted of this car.... Care to lend some help on this Gary?

 

Never got around to a video.
Feel free to contact me here or message with questions.

 

O i was asking help on a video . But looking at your's and Ace's thread it is more and more tempting to slowly work on one lol.

 

Careful now, talk like that could get you booted to the non-Olds section
Actually, sad day here in MO. Starting to get snow....might be putting both cars away for winter

 

Great looking build. Keep the pics coming. Anxious to see how this comes out. I like the concept of modern tech in our old cars.

 

I'm pretty much done with everything. It's just a nice DD. The only thing I might change is a 5 speed OD trans. But with the T10 and a 2.73 rear, I could only use about a 0.8 OD. There are T5s that would work, but I would have to get one really cheap.
The other option would be a 2.56 rear. I see the chevelle 2.56s every once in a while on craigslist really cheap. The T10s 3.42 1st gear would still work well with that and get the rpms down about 10%.
Getting the rpms down on the highway would get me maybe 1-2mpg more at best, so just weighing the cost vs benefit. Right now it turns about 2500rpm on the hiway, 2000-2100 would be ideal with the 5.3.
Although if GM is releasing this beast next year:
http://www.autoblog.com/2012/10/24/m...mall-block-v8/

 

Well, guess it had to happen. Just had my first breakdown....
Ok not really a breakdown, the trunk lock broke. With a little advice from this board, a screwdriver, broom handle, and duct tape, I was able to get it open. The back of the lock that holds the rod broke off. $7 replacement from Rock Auto is on the way.
DSCN0553_zps7379de05.jpg

 

Great build !!!!
I am almost sad , I decided to go big block after reading your gas mileage and cost!! I have a 5.3 sitting in my garage I got free ! With 80k on it

 

Thanks. Now that the snow is finally gone it's nice to get out and drive it again. Comfortable, reliable, milage.....no complaints here.

 

I built this as a daily driver and I'm generally not an engine HP upgrade kind of guy. But over on another board, someone posted actual rear wheel dyno results with just a stock corvette Z06 cam swap on a stock 5.3. His was an auto, I would expect my 4 speed manual to have less drivetrain loss. I'm impressed and certain you could feel the differenc. I know my next project.
dyno_zps61c4cd65.jpg

 

Another breakdown :-(
I had a rear tire tread separation running down the hiway on the 4th. I discovered the 246/60r14s on the car now are impossible to find in mid-MO on the 4th of July. I know the car sat for several years and that tire had a bad stem, so it was sitting flat quite a while. Don't know if that caused the tread separation, but probably not good.
Anyway, the remaining 245s have quite a bit of tread, so I picked up a pair of 215/70r14s (same diameter as the 245s), put them on the front and the 245s on the rear. It looks pretty good that way.
Btw, I just picked up a space saver spare this spring out of a 3rd gen F body since the car didn't come with one. Those space saver spares work great. Only problem is they come with a single use compressed can inflator, now gotta find a new one.

 

Wow, you sure are lucky that tire didn't cause an incident, glad it didn't! You went ahead and did the LS swap, and know the OE wheels look great, but sure you won't consider switching to like 17" wheels and tires? Selection, safetly, performance, all are light years ahead of 14s.

.

 

A lot of the chevelle guys go with C5 corvette wheels and spacers. Been looking on craigslist for a deal on the wheels with tires.
Damn, first flat I've ever had, while moving anyway.

 

For what you pay for the wheels and spacers, you can buy a new set of 17s. The year one magnums are nice, think they are like $600-$700 a set. The Summit Legend wheels are $600 a set too. If you shop, you can get a decent 17" for about < $150ea., not worth buying used. AR and Summit have 17s that are in the 140-150 ea range, can shop there too.

http://www.popularhotrodding.com/tec...s/viewall.html

http://www.summitracing.com/search/p...n/5-x-4-3-4-in

Tire selection is much better, and most times are less expensive than 14s and 15s. They don't sit in the warehouse for years either, so are safer, and if you get stuck somewhere you can always hit a Sears or NTB for a replacement.

Newstalgia Wheel includes wheel lugs, shipping, and mount and balance for free. Shipped to your door and you can just bolt them on.

http://www.newstalgiawheel.com/

.

 

Yeah, always liked the torque thrust rims, look good in the 17". Another that I thought might look good are the diamond spoke GTA style wheels. But going to wait till I wear out at least 1 set on the ones I've got.

 

Hey man sweet build, I love resto mod builds with modern equipment. I always like to point out the LS series motors are NOT Chevy motors, they are GM Corporate motors. LT series are indeed Chevy, but not LS. Getting flustered about an LS in an Olds makes as much sense as getting bent out of shape over dropping a 351 into a Lincoln or a 5.7 Hemi in a Plymouth lol. It's all corporate

Anyway, this was a really interesting read. I just got my first LS powered car, a 2000 T/A with T56, LS6 swap from a CTSV, headers, intake, cam, throttle body, off road y pipe, 3.73 gears, tune, worked over heads, the whole package. I love it and its fast as sh*t but I can admit it gets about 18 city 22 highway. Funny thing with LS motors is with a performance tune you get almost the same mileage with spirited driving as you do trying to keep your foot out of it and skip gears. I love these modern motors, won't ever look back unless I want a 100% resto or all out drag car

Here's one idea I had for a pro touring 442 i'll share with you that I've yet to see anyone try. I wanted to build a 70-72 with a T56 and LS7 stroker. What's cool about that is with a 4.25" stroker crank you get the exact same bore and stroke as an Olds 455, even the purists would have something to be interested in haha, and it'd be about the torquiest LS motor in history lol. Just thought I'd mention that. Awesome build, keep it up

PS: there is a replacement for displacement, it's called head flow haha :-)

 

I hate to disappoint you Vega, but Jeff Schwartz had that idea over 4yrs ago now. If you'd like to see how it came to life, read it here....

http://www.popularhotrodding.com/features/0909phr_1971_oldsmobile_cutlass/viewall.html

 

Thanks, my 5.3 is just a daily driver. With the 2.73 and 4 speed it's still a comfy car to drive to the lake on the weekends. Although on your "no replacement for displacement" comment, there are some pretty impressive turbo LS motors out there. But then it's upgraded trans, diff, brakes, suspension, etc.

 

Csouth- interesting, I had never seen that before. I feel like there's still a lot of power left on the table in that build too. I'd still love to do one myself just a real pain sourcing an LS7 block that isn't thought of as gold lol. Those extra 48ci are really expensive vs a 408 stroker. And wow haha, that cam must be super mild in that 455, those are almost the exact same specs as the cam in my LS6 with 100 less cubes. Mines a Thunder Racing TruTorq lvl 5

Garys68- haha, well yeah forced induction is always a way around cubic inches. That was kinda the idea I was getting at but decided to take a different approach since I've heard the forced induction argument before. Most people forget that a really well ported set of heads on a smaller combo can run circles around larger displacement motors with stock heads, especially in the case of LS motors vs Olds. I still love both though, Olds are really awesome motors and do make good power when built right. And its awesome having something most people don't have, or know nothing about, or the best of them all, think are complete junk right before they're stuck in your tail lights lol
Speaking of forced induction though you can always try that out if you decide to go a little more track oriented. A lowered 442 with big meaty tires, an LS motor, and a big twin screw blower pullin up to an autocross course would be bad as hell man

 

Then there's always displacement WITH a blower. Best of both worlds. Combined.

There is a practical limit of power on a 'true' street car. I personally believe that's in the 600-700 range, and speak from experience. Once you go over 700hp, you trade too much for the power, like drive-ability, for one. Sure, it's fun to throttle-steer and all, but it gets old, and build costs skyrocket, sucking even more fun out. You get more use out of a car targeting that range of power, since you can do it with mostly off the shelf parts.

Building for big power numbers used to be a sport, for bragging rights, and to a degree it still is. The mark for years was the 1000hp mark, but that these days is even on the lower end of the scale. There's a bunch out there now with over 2000hp. Try to talk corner exit speeds with that, or cruising to the beach, and most will just laugh.

4.25 stroke engines seem to be silver bullet combo these days, it's easy to target 600-700hp, with almost any brand, streetable too.

.

 

C'mon guys, don't start giving me ideas.
I've already got a 400hp 6.0 LS in my 68 corvette. It was going to be upgraded to 500hp with L92 heads and a cam, but I realized with a well geared Richmond 6 speed, it was already overpowering the stock wheel/tire combo.
The Olds will stay with the stock 5.3. We'll wait and see on the vette.

vette1.jpg

 

Gary, I think what you have in the Olds is perfect for a DD. You always have the option of getting out in the Vette when you have a need for speed.

 

love the car man. Awesome job on the seats and door panels. They really look killer. You got me thinking to do something similar on the 72 we got sitting in the backyard.

 

Thanks. I've taken it to a few car shows. Never fails, at least one Olds guy asks what year the door panels are from, or if they're a Chevelle, GTO, etc part.

 

Hey Gary, I was going to get the LS1 Corvette regulator/filter combo. My question is do I still need a regulator at the rail? Do you think I should put a gauge there? I will be running the stock style LS2 fuel rails. Thanks

 

Both of my swaps use the 02 filter/regulator. No need to have 2 pressure regulators.

 

Been putting A LOT of miles on the Olds this summer. It's just plain fun to drive. Although in my old age, I think I'm getting lazy. Possible winter projects.
1) Convert to electric windows. Anyone done this with an aftermarket universal kit? Thinking original Olds parts would cost more.
2) Remote electric door locks. Pretty easy add on.
3) Convert the E brake to a center console hand operated brake lever. This is the first car I've had with a pedal E brake. With a manual trans, I use it all the time. I never thought the pedal would bother me, but I hate it. If I can find a lever that will fit behind the shifter and doesn't cut into the console storage space, it's a done deal.

 

My friend is about to have the Electric Life power window kit put in his 68 Chevelle. I'll let you know how it goes since its the same kit for Cutlass.

Another question: I've change my wp to a LS2 car type and used spacers. Do I need to change anything else besides the tensioner pulley to keep my truck accessory bracket? I already have an idler relocation setup.

 

I actually swapped the truck pulley on an f body water pump on mine. But unless you have something that bolts to the water pump, ie. Kwik AC bracket, you'll be fine.
Just for clarification..... The idler relocation kit is spaced correctly for truck accessories. If you have a GTO LS2 water pump, 3/4" spacers will move it and the GTO tensioner to the correct position. If you have a corvette LS2 water pump, you'll need the 1 1/2" spacers and corvette tensioner.

 

I do have the LS2 GTO pump with the large bell pulley and 3/4" spacers. I have yet to cut the truck bracket for moving the idler pulley. I'm hoping to get that done soon so I can find a belt and mock everything.