I've been working on this car pereparing it for the 455 transplant for a few days now so thought id start this thread if anyone was interested.we pulled the 307 and th200 over the weekend and ive been cleaning and painting in the engine bay .this cars body and frame are beautiful ! i just ordered a lares 972 quick ratio steering box that will work with my power steering pump with the flared hoses (1980 has the oring version )once that install is complete we will drop the 455 we built it in mated to a turbo 400 with 2500 stall converter.and in the coming months build a 3:08 posi for it .the interior wasn't so great from the florida sun ,but a friend over at the gbody forum hooked me up with all the panels i needed, which were very nice! ill try to post some pics as i progress.

 

i wanted to add that in pic 2 that tag looks as though it were jb welded on and there was no id number on the pad .i had mentioned this in another thread .since this is not the original motor to this car could it be a factory replacement or is this just the norm for 82 and up 307s?

 

got my engine bay cleaned and painted and finally got my steering box situation figure out .the lares 974 is a quick ratio three bolt rebuild that takes the old school flared fittings, and the 30 spline 3/4 output shaft so the factory gbody or jeep upgrade steering knuckle slides right on. i can now use all my brackets ,pulleys, and power steering pump from the 1974 olds toronado 455.There were several others routes i could have taken with this but this is the way i wanted it.will receive my new jeep shaft tomorrow and install and hopefully the motor goes in after that.also should be seeing all the upgrades to build my posi reared soon (thanks Jim "monzaz"for your help).

 

steering done!

 

Looks good.

 

after 4 hours of muscling and grunting we got the 455 in the hole .my big red engine hoist was useless as it didnt have enough boom length to do the job.even with my extension and 200 pounds of ballast on the back end the 455 with attached turbo 400 wanted to tip it forward. my tractor bucket didnt have the oomph it needed either, so we went old school as you can see in the pic.used the anchor 2328 motor mounts sat down nicely on the frame pads with some coaxing.having valve cover clearance issues at the ac housing .these valve covers i got from mondello are about 3/4 of an inch taller than stock.had i used factory valve covers they may have given me the room i need to get the oil breather on.Im not sure if my comp cam roller rockers would have the clearance they need under stock valve covers (anyway ill have to sort that out).looking back i would have hooked up farther to the front of the engine so the tail shaft of the transmission could dive into the tunnel better ,we struggled with that. tomorrow hook up the g-force cross member and start bolting on accessories

 

got more done over the last couple days.my summit 4 row radiator and 19.5 fan is a tight fit,

but it does fit

 

had a custom length driveshaft built and now painted ready to install, also got the exhaust all hooked up. simple ,cheap ,and with any luck obnoxiously loud

 

Very nice! Quite a few of us have the same engine stand. So nice to break them in outside the car, just in case.

 

Looking great! what is that engine stand that few on here have? I am interested in buying or building 1, that's gonna be a fun machine when you are done, good luck!

 

Getting close to a test drive now . That engine test stand came from Walmart for about 300 bucks . Had to tinker with a few things on it but all in all it’s a good stand and definitely handy for break in and general tuning .

 

I also extended my engine hoist. I found 2 cracked Magnum heads, a 4A and #8 head was just enough for the 350. The extra weight of the BBO and trans adds up. You may notice a slight torque upgrade. Is the 7.5" rear stock? If so buy the Yukon spider gears even if you are leaving the rear stock for now. The stock ones are very soft. I exploded a set, took out my pinion and saw quite a few near death from the V6 van's I got my replacement gears from.

 

thank you sir

 

Here's a thread on the engine stand.

https://classicoldsmobile.com/forums...-stand-114995/

 

thanks everyone I ordered my stand, kinda hard to beat for the price looking forward to putting it to use.

 

Took the car for a test ride today and without any tuning or messing with adjustments the car ran awesome !has great power ran right at 170 degrees the whole time (only a twenty minute cruise but got in it a little) .very happy so far .got back and notice tranny fluid dripping but looks to be from one the lines ill look at that tomorrow. Time to build a posi for this thing !

 

ordered new tranny lines last night should have done them in the first place .this car is truly a frankenolds! started as a florida car i bought in new paltz ny,the motor is a 76 455 out of a 74 toronado that i bought off a guy from binghamton ny. trans is a turbo 400 out of a 70 gto that i bought from a guy in old forge ny i hope i can spend as much time enjoying it as i have building it hope to post pics of the finished product soon.

 

Rear is finished going to take it for a run !

 

locked into winter here and bored .decided to post finished product of the olds 455 in the 80.lots of ups and downs along the way but am real happy with the end results.Of course theres always room for improvement

 

 

Love it

 

Way to go Jeff! Thanks for updating us.

 

Nice job, sounds real strong... Thought maybe I heard it down my way -

 

I do miss mine. I had SOO much fun with that car. Over the time that I had it there were 4 engines in it...the stock 260, a 75 350, a 455 (for one month and it spun a rod bearing) and then the 350 from my 70 Cutlass because that is where the 455 went after I built it.

I swapped out the split bench for buckets, installed a quicksilver floor shifter and swapped out the dash for a rally gauge set.
I blew the 2.28 rear 3 times and finally got a hold of a 3.23 posi from a camaro and swapped it into my housing. And that is how the car finally left my possession.
Ahh...I miss those days.

 

Cool, i love the 80 cutlass. I had a gold medal edition. Car sounds very good and i bet is a blast to drive!

 

Thanks everyone for the kind words .This is a fun car to drive.