Well, not too far north, only MN. But at any rate, my name is Mike. I wish I had a cool Old's of my own, but I am currently being tasked with working on a friend of mines 66' 442 Tri-Power. So I'll probably be over in the engine forum most of the time. Not really a newbie to engine work, just to Oldsmobile's. And I picked a real unique one it seems like compared to the LS's I'm used to. Seems you guys have a real treasure trove of information about them here.

 

Welcome to the site, please post pictures,

 

Welcome to ClassicOldsmobile. Where are you located ? We have several here from Minnesota. What are you doing to the 442 ?

 

Welcome. Hope you can get your friend's Olds running right. Do you have a classic car? We like all makes & models. WELL, except for those one guys...

 

I'm in East Bethel, and I've been tasked with making the 400 that was in the 442 a little less ornery for street driving. Apparently it pings unless he ran AV gas in it, and I actually witnessed the fact that it idled poorly. The engine had already been yanked when I got roped into this project, so I'm just going through it looking for things that don't add up. Car is in really nice shape and owner want's it to stay stock appearing.

 

Where did he buy the car from ? How long has he owned the car ? Whats the engine casting number and letter ? Was the engine originally a "Tri carb" engine or added later ? Whats been done to the engine ? Are the carbs needing kits ? What initial and total timing is the distributor set at ? Idled poorly how ? Big cam ? Vacuum leaks ?

I think it would have been easier to diagnose the problems if the engine was installed and running. Pulling the engine was a bad idea, in my opinion.

One tip: DON'T "Crowd source" information from "locals" unless they actually KNOW Oldsmobile's. THIS site has knowledgeable people, I am NOT impressed with Fakebook experts.

 

Bought the car from his uncle, I don't know how long ago, but far as I understand it, this car has been in the family for almost it's entire life. Said uncle owned it back when it was new, then sold it and it spent some years in the 80s in someone else's hands, then bought back. Then sold to the guy that I'm now working on this for.

I was gonna save the engine specifics for the big block thread but since you asked, the casting number is 390925 E. Was originally a tri-carb car. What I know so far is, it's .040" Over, had a comp cams XE274H-10 (230/236) camshaft in it, and Comp cams rockers (the same # they recommend for this camshaft). Has .921" Lifter bores on a 42Deg angle. I did verify that the timing marks were lined up before removal, but I haven't yet put a degree wheel and indicator to anything yet. I also checked Cyl leakdown before disassembly had anywhere from 6%-13% depending on the cyl.

The carbs likely need help, since I'm sure the last person that touched them sprayed carb cleaner inside and said yep their clean, can't be that. Not sure what the timing was at, also not yet sure if any advance mechanism in the distributor is functioning even. Was for sure not my idea to pull the engine before doing a multitude of simpler tests prior. And by idling poorly, I mean it makes my 248/260 camshaft in a 429 cu in LS sound small, that much I have witnessed first hand. and all the typical big cam like side effects. Of course when I was handed this project, I was told it had a "huge" cam and raised compression and required 98+ octane and liked to overheat, and that he'd like me to make it better. And so here we are.

 

Now you have some general answers when you start a thread in the "Big Block" section. We have a guy on here (66 3X2) or something close to this, that I consider a "Tri-Carb" Guru. Start a thread and away we go.