So my wife & I started our rebuild this past weekend. 72 Cutlass S with original 350 Rocket, 3 speed transmission, & 204000 original miles. Pulled both at the same time while deciding how to clean up the engine compartment as well. A little armor all worked well on the right fender skirt so the rest should clean up pretty good. We pulled the engine apart & found a few surprises. When we pulled the oil pan we found the oil pump pickup full of what was left of the nylon covering that was on the camshaft gear. Then we pulled the timing cover. Keeping in mind this engine ran good, no noises at all, always started good. With the amount of slop that was in the timing chain it's amazing it did not skip a few teeth all this past summer. This is one rebuild that is way overdue.

 

1. Armor all will not last. You'd be far ahead of the game to take out the inner liners, sand with 600-800 wet, then use adhesion promoter and shoot with SEM black.

2. That nylon stuff you're looking at is from the timing chain gears. The incredible slop you have is partly due to stretch, and partly due to the nylon gear teeth not being there. Looking at that oil pump, it's amazing you were getting any oil flow at all. Did you ever notice the car running hot?

3. With the motor/tranny out - if you pull the inner liners you will have a huge area to work without any problems sanding down the frame and refreshing the engine bay. And, you could jack up the car and clean the bottom of the pans too! Lots to do on those cold AB winters. (I see you guys got hit with a huge dump of snow couple days ago. We just have the freezing temps up here so far)

Good to see the progress so far. Keep on pluggin. BTW, that is the wrong WW jug on the DS fender.

 

1. Armor All was just to test & see what it looks like. I was going to inquire about what paint to use. Especially at the firewall where the surface rust is now where the exhaust runs beside it. I'm guessing a high heat paint should be used? Any suggestions?

2. She never ran hot. Didn't make a sound, no ticking, knocking, banging, or anything. Ran like a top. I have no idea how it kept oil flowing through all the crap in the pickup.

3. Will probably take the fender liners out this weekend & start scrubbing. And yeah i kinda fighured the washer bottle was wrong. I'm hoping to find the right one & a coolant reservoir before next spring.

 

The firewall doesn't need high heat paint. Even down by the exhausts. If you're going to respray, use a semi gloss black finish to look correct from the factory. If you're not a painter, you can use Dupli Color high heat engine semi gloss available at Crappy Tire. It gives a nice finish and dries fast.

Probably ran nice because it's a Rocket 350. Timing and TCS must have been bang on.

I have 2 OEM coolant reservoirs. The better one I'm putting in my car. I'm open to discussion via PM about the other one.

BTW, I keep seeing other cars like yours coming up for sale fairly often lately - even same color. Did you find anyone who would do the rust repairs for you?

 

Quote: Did you find anyone who would do the rust repairs for you

Not yet. Been concentrating on engine this side of spring. Hoping to find someone by end of next summer. If I can get someone who can bend the metal properly & weld, I can take care of the painting part.

 

Well the engine finally went to the machine shop. Should be back in about 2 -3 weeks.

 

yeah, pull those fenderwells out! What A difference! you can get at EVERYTHING! I basically refurbished replaced evrything below the floor, (cleaned the floor pans too!)
also refurbished the Radiator core support and prepping it for a 4 core radiator....
want to keep the engine and tranny COOL! Stainless steel fuel and brake lines, went to posi rear 2004r... new fuel tank... 4 wheel disk brakes... Now is the time to do it!

 

Yeah we want to replace everything as well with new brake lines, etc. We are concentrating on getting the engine compartment "back in the black" right now. Will be painting brake booster gold same as the engine.

 

Have you purchased your brake line kit yet?
If you haven't already painted the booster, Canadian Tire sells a cad gold spray paint that matches OEM pretty darn close. Don't remember the brand, but I used it on my booster and it came out really nice. (even holds up to brake fluid - that's the MC blowout on the trip to the Olds show in 2011).

 

Good save with the timing chain and oil pump Not a second too soon none the less. Looks like you two are making great progress Keep up the good work and keep us posted Allan here can help tremendously

 

Haven't purchased a brake line kit yet. Didn't know about them. Usually in the past I've grabbed some bulk line & bent it up myself with a brake line bender. The lines on the car are in good shape, just look old. We picked up a couple of cans of the Duplicolor Gold high heat engine paint for when the engine is back. I was going to use some for the booster as well.

 

I put it down to that good ol' Oldsmobile reliability that it stayed running & didn't make a sound.

 

What is a good place to get replacement engine bay decals/labels from?

 

http://www.fusickautomotiveproducts....s.asp?dept=143


http://inlinetube.com/Detail%20stick...ail%20Tags.htm

 

Machining done, all parts finally in, engine is now back together (forgot to take pics along the way). Another coat of gold & she will be ready to drop in hopefully tomorrow.

 

Finally in and running again. Still need to do exhaust. Also want to get rid of the aluminum water pump pulley. Having a heck of a time trying to find one though.

 

Here is what I used in my build w/part numbers. All of the valvetrain parts came from Comp Cams...

Comp Cams Magnum 280H Camshaft 42-231-4
High Energy Hydraulic Lifters 852-16
Dual Valve Springs 995-16
Magnum Roller Rocker Arms 1442-16
Comp Cams Magnum Rocker Studs 4542-16
Guide Plates 4842-8
High Energy Pushrods 7843-16
Hi-tech Roller Timing Set 3113
Felpro Engine Gasket Kit KS 2613
Felpro Intake Gasket Kit MS 96009
Transgo Reprogramming Kit 350-1&2
B&M Tork Master 2400 Converter 20404
High Volume Oil pump & pickup (supplied by machine shop)

Engine bored .030 over. Went with stock dished pistons (flat tops a bit pricey this time around), & of course new rings, bearings, frost plugs, etc. Once the exhaust is done we can get things tuned up properly & then have the car dyno'ed to see where it's at for performance.

 

Which "stock dished pistons" were used? (hopefully not the low compression dish pistons).

 

It looks like new!

 

Didn't know there were different ones. Machine shop ordered them.

 

Had the "Cutty" out for one of her first shows since the engine was re-done. She wasn't the prettiest bell at the ball but we were happy with it. My neighbor brought his 1952 Pontiac Fleetleader Deluxe that was to the left of us. Not an Oldsmobile but a nice car anyways. Behind us was really nice '68 Delta 88 'vert'. It had a "fuel economy" gauge in the dash. Didn't think they had things like that back in the day.

 

John, I checked my water pump pulley you asked about and it's exactly the same as the one you took out. Sorry, that's not what you needed to hear. Saw this thread come up and it reminded me to touch base on that.

 

No worries. That Cutlass we were looking at during the Rocket Roundup that had the pulley i need, I forgot to look and see what the code was on the front of it (mine was KN).

 

Beautiful car man it is so good to see another 4 Door Cutty!!!

 

Thanks! Headers & exhaust are the next "parts" purchase along with an advance kit & adjustable vacuum advance for the distributor & a vacuum canister for the brakes. She still needs rear quarters to be done & some other body work. Wish body panels for 4 doors was as abundant as 2 door panels. Next year we will start looking around for someone that can do the metal work. The painting part we can do with the help of a neighbor that has his garage setup as a paint booth.

 

So the car budget went to the exhaust this year. New headers (thanks Allan for the good deal) & a Magnaflow 2 1/2" catback system. What a difference. Also installed an advance kit & adjustable vacuum can in the distributor. Will post pics & maybe a sound clip if I can make it work.