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Hello to all,
I'm from Germany and do not have an Oldsmobile vehicle but I do have an Altered Dragster with an Olds 350 engine. The engine is kind of a project to see what it can handle and have fun testing it.
The engine is currently a 1976 350 with no.8 heads and I build a low buck custom turbo system for it.
Piston rings have been filed open to allow for boost.
Sofar it has been working quite OK and am still improving the engine as it had the stock valve springs which did not like to work with the CL42-222-4 RV cam from Comp Cams and caused valve float.
Currently I am rebuilding the heads to accept stronger springs and closing up the crossovers in the same process.
The no. 8 heads have been milled .051, received a multi angle valve job und removing of the "choke" casting edge/ring on the exhaust ports, no porting work has been done (yet).
The rest of the engine is as "stock" as a 350 can be.
The turbo system is inspired by the builds from Richard Holdener and The Gas Tap (Mopar build) from Youtube on using the infamous EBay GT45.
I just made some log manifolds from mild steel gas tubing, elbows and T pieces, downpipe is a 4 inch with a cherry bomb style muffler, all MIG welded together. The Wastgate is a 50mm.
Induction is a Spectre carb hat with a "Tail style" 50mm China Blow off valve, going into a FiTech 600hp power adder unit on a 3711 Edelbrock manifold. I do not run an intercooler.
Ignition is a locked out HEI with MSD cap, rotor, leads and 6AL.
Sofar the car has run a best off 10.6 with a 1.62 60ft. on a non prep asphalt airfield with the engine sputtering at 5200rpm at 700 ft. till 1320 ft.
This year I hope that all the issues are solved and a lower 10 or even a 9 can be run.
Best regards
Last edited by Altered 1978 350 Olds; Feb 7, 2023 at 07:18 AM.
Thanks to all, . I try to keep the set-up as simple as it can be. Only cheap solutions that work as I do not want to spend $$$'s on it. The KISS motto is being used very much during this build.
Here some more pics of the work done to the head regarding the "choke ring" on the exhaust of the no.8 head
Lapping the valves Choke ring exhaust Before cutting no more choke ring after cutting
Last edited by Altered 1978 350 Olds; Feb 7, 2023 at 07:27 AM.
Got it to melt yesterday. I am a bit afraid to use zinc as the temperatures with the turbocharger and exhaust pressures are a bit higher. heating the can after some clean up
I used an aluminium alloy from an old transmission casing that I broke into smaller pieces.
The "oven" are just some fire stones to keep the temperature high, heat supplied by a propane bruner. The can is a dog food can (washed out), perfect for 1 time use
Awesome build! I like the thick plumbing material for the hot side it should be more durable than expensive stainless! Having a turbo buick 350 I know what it feels like to add boost to a healthy V8 and it’s addictive! Very cool! What’s your mph and weight? That’s the best way to figure HP.
@ Sean, I do not know the weight yet, still need to put it on the scales. Best ET was 10.6@116mph in the traps, The MPH is very low at the moment as the gearing was to short and the engine did only rev till 5200 due to the weak stock valve springs.
As soon as all the winter modifications have been installed I want to put ist on the scales and check for a dyno session Yes, boost is very addictive.
@Jelmoer, Yes, well spotted, that is an 1985 Opel Corsa A Irmscher Spider, 1.2 liter 55hp 4 speed manual. My wife wanted a Cabriolet and I have a soft spot for the corsa A (been playing with those cars for over 25 years).
We found the car near Karlsruhe in 2015, with only 66500 mls, did did some repairs, changed the wheels and had the interior refurbished. https://www.corsa-a.de/viewtopic.php?t=27405
It is great to drive, not fast but fun, a lot of people do not know what it is as only about 1500 units were produced. Perfect for the summer and the dog really likes the rides in the back seat.
I am Dutch as well but living in Germany for almost 20 years. I might plan to visit the American Sunday in Zandvort or Assen this year but have to see if I can find the time.
Is there still a cruise night in The Hague/Scheveningen?
Oldtimer meeting at the German-French Garden in Saarbruecken Germany
Last edited by Altered 1978 350 Olds; Mar 21, 2023 at 01:16 AM.
Thanks.
Last weekend was the first race of this year, time to try out the improvements I made over the winter.
The location in Eisenach was pretty cool, old east german/ex USSR airstrip where the MIG's used to be stationed. That also meant the concrete was from that time and not the best, very bumpy, the track was not prepped in any way!
I did not go crazy with the tuning, only 8 PSI of boost and concervative timing. 60ft times were terrible but managed several consistent 11.0/11.1s.
The longer rear end gear ratio (3.91) worked very good as I could run it to 5800rpm at the finish line and 126mph.
Had a problem wih the oil pressure, this was caused by a blocked oil filter, after replacing it was a solid 40psi at idle and 50 when blipping the throttle.
For the final day I gave it some more ignition timing (4 degrees) and went a 10.6, maxing out the rev-limit and the rear end ratio before the finish line. This rear ratio will be changed again for the next meeting to an even longer 3.73.
Had a lot of fun, met old friends and a lot of new people,
Below is Marc his BMW E28 with a home build twin Turbo BBC, he took a passenger with him at every run, all came out smiling from ear to ear.
Last edited by Altered 1978 350 Olds; May 31, 2023 at 07:58 AM.
Thanks,
@Jelmoers, I have had several 2.0 16V corsa A models as well, was a member of the Corsa Tuning Club. Used to race at Drachten, Assen, Rosmalen, Rotterdam, Six Flags, Bottrop, Luckau and Oscherleben.
Always lots of fun at the meetings in Zoetermeer and Bodegraven back in the days.
Show and go, 2 stages of Nitrous. 9.1 in the 1/8 with both kits on. Former daily driver. 0-60 in 5.5 seconds, lost of fun, 9.2 in the 1/8 mile, 13.8 in the 1/4
Last edited by Altered 1978 350 Olds; Jun 1, 2023 at 05:31 AM.
Back to the engine, during the race I noticed that the front cover/crankshaft seal is pushing some oil, The bolts of the cover were also a bit lose. After tightning and cleaning the seal was still leaking.
The front cover will be taken off and the seal/gaskets will be replaced as soon as the spare parts have arrived from the USA.
I do already have an open ventilation system on both valve covers with AN12 lines to a catchcan.
To be 100% sure I will add a motorbike 44mm airfilter on the oil filler tube instead of the 710 cap . This should eliminate crank case pressure build-up.
I was not able to attend any other races this year, to much going at home on or bad weather. It is what it is
However I did make an improvement on the engine mounting at the front. As it turned out the bolts on the front cover were coming lose due to the 2 engine plates and the twisting of the chassis and engine.
I ended making a new front engine plate out of 1 piece of aluminium that can not twist.
Also the fueltank and 1 of the radiators were leaking deu to some small cracks, the car really took some beatings on this bumpy airstrip. The tank has been welded and I replaced the radiator.
After all was mounted again the waterpump started leaking, replaced it with an aluminium Version, which was the wrong height but a spacer was made quickly.
For the winter some upgrades will be done as well as a check-up of the engine, together with some new safety items like new harness as it will be out of date for 2024.
engine mounts old engineplate new Fueltank welded Waterpump spacer Height difference
Last edited by Altered 1978 350 Olds; Sep 19, 2023 at 05:01 AM.
Small update, over the winter the front engine plate has been installed, rear end ratio has now been lowered to a 3.73 and a new radiator has been installed together with a Street dominatior single plane intake.
Engine has received a "Ford" rear crankshaft seal and all has been sealed up again, hope it finally will stay dry.
Now getting the final pieces together (new Safety Harness) and getting it up and running. Racing is planned for next weekend, no pressure
It was a strange year of racing, please remember we do not have a permanent Dragstrip in Germany only temprary.
First race was at the Lausitzring, an Racetrack for Oval racing with 3 turns and banking.
First day a lot of rain, no racing, second day: made only 1 Run. Waited to do some night racing, then 2 cars had oildowns, so racing was canceled. Last day made 1 run and got covered in oil, the breather filter instead of the oil filler cap was a BAD idea.
There I thought I had blown an Intake or head gasket. Packed everything up and headed home.
Back home, checked the Intake, made a plate to block off the "carb flange", removed all the pushrods and put presure on the intake with with some air. No leaks, then perforemed an leak down test on all cylinders, all within spec.
Result, engine is fine but putting a breather on the oil filler tube instead of the cap does not work, put the oil cap back on and called it good.
Next race Bottrop, this is an airfield without any track preperations.
5 miles before arriving at the track it started to rain very heavily for 30 min, the track dried on the surface but the asphalt was a little bit moist during the day from the water evaporating due to the sun shining on it. Rest of the day pure sunshine.
Everybody had bad 60ft times comparred to 2 years prior. Made 7 passes that day and improved my times from last year to a 10.329 with a 1.9 60ft, I added a bit more wastegate spring, resulting in a solid 10psi of boost. Had to pedal on every run due to the bad traction.
Was rewarded with second place in the US cars category.
Due to the need to pedal before the 60ft mark because of traction issues, I made a kind of time based ignition retard control system with the help of some timers and an MSD 3 step Ignition retard I had lying around.
Final race was at Vilshofen a.d. Donau in Bavaria. arrived the night before, here also heavy rain and wind. Next day everything cleared up really nice, beautiful weather, sunshine and no wind.
The location is really nice, mountains on both sides, river in between, airfiled on one side, the old town on the other side.
Was able to make 3 runs, the ignition retard worked flawlesly improving the ET's from a 10.4 to 10.3 and final 10.201. This was good enough for first place in the US cars category.
One of the fellow racers had his scales with him at the track, finally I know the weight of the car.
1618lbs with out me in it,
1827lbs with me in it race ready (tank full and wearing all my racing gear).
Weight Bias, 45% at the front, 55% at the rear.
Now, for me the racing is done for this season due to having no spare time, New ideas are already made up and the first parts arriving to improve for 2025.
The goal is to geht the car runing a 9,xxx on a no-prep surface without any traction compund/track bite.
Overal a short but really nice season, saw a lot of old friends, made many more friends along the way. In between the runs at every race we allowed a lot of young kids getting into the drivers seat of the car to take a picture by their parents and they all had a big smile from ear to ear. (future generation racers!!!)
All in all, just having fun and enjoying time.
Last edited by Altered 1978 350 Olds; Sep 20, 2024 at 04:52 AM.
Small update on the Altered.
The goal of running a 9 on a no-prep surface has been achieved. Last weekend we ran the car at Bottrop in Germany and made it happen, 9.886 on the first run, backing it up with four more 9 second passes during the day, VHT during the burnouts is NOT permited, only water.
Best ET of the day
60ft: 1.494
660 ET 6.266 @ 116 MPH
1320 ET 9.795 @ 145 MPH
The tricks that made it happen was adding 60lbs of weight to the rear axle, 2 more pounds of boost and raising the launch rpm to 3400.
Current set-up is the 350 olds small block, stock rods-pistons-crank-valves-pushrods-rockers and no. 8 heads with only a 3 angle valve job, removal of the choke ring on the exhaust port and closed cross-overs. Dominator intake, 600 Power Adder TB Fi-Tech efi unit, GT 45 Ebay turbo at 13 PSI, Comp flat-tappet RV Cam + lifters, Crane valve springs and retainers.
Last edited by Altered 1978 350 Olds; Aug 8, 2025 at 01:50 AM.
. I try to keep the set-up as simple as it can be. Only cheap solutions that work as I do not want to spend $$$'s on it. The KISS motto is being used very much during this build.
. This should eliminate crank case pressure build-up.
