here again you can see the 2 better

DSC01997.jpg

 

There is no gap in the blocks, just on that cast #. Here is the info from 443.

http://www.442.com/oldsfaq/ofblk.htm#Blocks

 

so if its not a 1 or 5 is that bad?

 

okay i see whats up here

2 '68-'70 350 395558

so its a 68-70 block. lol damn how did this end up in a 77 cutlass?
this is great, i have been wanting to know everything i can about this motor!

 

There you go. Now you got it. Its a 68-70 350 block. Which from what little I know, in my opinion would be one of the preffered blocks if you had a 350. So yours is a good one. I currently have a 3B '77-'80 350 557752 in my GMC pick up that was originally an Olds Diesel, but owner coverted to gas. Mine, I consider junk for any heavy duty or street/strip modifications. Its OK to get the groceries and go pick up the mail at the post office but not much more. The windowed main caps on the 77-80 are said to be weaker and makes sense since iron is missing that would normally be there. Not sure what the pupose of that was by Olds engineering. Not that I can complain, I got the truck for $200 and spent $125 in all new front brakes, pads, rotors, calipers, master cylinder and a rubber line, most of whiich is lifetime warrranty, and then did a little carb work and its a driver now if I wanted it to be.
BTW, it is my understanding a 330 crank will fit your block. Same stroke as 350. It would not add any cubes, but it you needed a strong crank, all 330 cranks are forged. Also keep in mind, if you do this, 330 is early motor, so you would need to go with early flywheel/flexpalte and balancer and have your rotating assembly balanced. Just letting you know in case. Seems what you have in a Caddy is good enough. I am funny like that though. I like sleepers and the unexpected. It would be cool to see a 4 door Caddy spanking the mufflers off a Mustang or Camaro at the track.

 

well i am happy to know that i have a good motor, because i love oldsmobiles, i used to own a 81 and a 85 cutlass supreme, and the only reason why i got the cadi was because my lincoln got totaled, and i was looking at 4 door olds' and saw the rear windows dont go down, so when i found out this cadi had an olds motor in it, i was in like flynn, sadly the motor died after like 230,xxx, but that motor carried me my dad and all my **** from hartford to los angeles, so i cant complain, and when i originally thought the block was a 77 i had heard they were crappier then their predecessors but when i found out it was older, i was estatic!!! i plan on getting a lot of miles out of this motor, and knowing that its an oldsmobile, i know my plans are pretty set

 

hey guys, instead of starting a new topic ill post this here.

i have a vacuum diagram for my motor and it says i require a VRV for the trans modulator and for the vacuum advance. well, untill today i had no idea what that was, and i found out its the Vacuum Reducer Valve.

well the car seems to run okay with out it, but i want to put it on anyway, i checked rockauto.com and they do not list it, where can i get this VRV from? google hasnt helped me at all!!!

 

I say avoid that thing. Just bypass it. Its probably some form of smog device not letting your vac advance operate in a certain gear. Just take your vac advance directly to ported vacuum of the carb and you are good to go there, and run direct form your intake manifold to vac modulator on the trans and you are set there.

 

BTW, probably should explain what ported vacuum is, many don't know what it is. You shuold have a port on your carb that, when the motor is idiling you do not feel any vacuum at all. Zero to none vacuum. The second you touch the throttle and come off idle, you should then feel that vac port come to life and have vacuum. It keeps your timing from advancing while idiling.

 

X2

 

http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:...&ct=clnk&gl=us

 

cool, okay it is currently hooked to ported vacuum, i didnt know weather or not i needed this stupid little vacuum item or not, glad i didnt waste the money on it!

thanks again guys!

 

wow, i feel bad for that guy, i always had serious vac problems with the 307 that came originally in my 88 fleetwood. it always ran like crap, and how it passed emissions i will never know, when the motor finally kicked the busket i was sad, but relieved, because when i put that 350 in i reduced the vacuum system to a few pieces of hose that were easily traceable to their components. that freakin 307 was a damn snake pit of all kinds of **** that i never even heard of. i wish i kept the intake manifold though just to remind me of what i could still be dealing with.

who says downgrading a decade and a half was a bad thing??

 

I wish 442.com would update their information, but they won't. That casting number is from 1968-1976.
Stronger block than the 1977-1980. What number is stamped on your heads? That CAN be an indicator, but is not definitive as to what year the block is. Look for the machined pad on the block below the large cast number on the drivers side head in front of #1 spark plug. Post up the stamped numbers and we can tell you what year the block is.

 

If you have not figured out, there is some contradicting info and also some wrong info on 442. I do agree, to bad noone is updating the site or working it. Even with the wrong conrtradicting info, in you can make head or tails out of the wrong stuff, which usually you can by other research, someone spent alot of time to set that up and did a hell of a good job to compile and put all the info together. I guess no webmaster anymore or what? Hate to see that site go un maintained. Its awesome. Personally I think its good enough, to have sponsors and some advertising and could someone could make a few bucks for their time.

 

they are 7a heads, note the little "a" not the 7A heads. these are the early ones.

 

7A vs 7A. Yep I get ya. The 7A heads are from 1972. It's a good bet the block is as well, but again the numbers stamped into the block need to be read to confirm this.

 

????? Block casting has nothing to do with compression.

And how come not ONE person mentioned to check and see if the installed cam was degreed properly on install?

Is it still running like a bag of rocks?

John

 

You're kiddin? I have had it wrong all these years? The question had nothing to do with the statement of the pistons. I was asking Cast & Letter to see if he for certain had a 350 block. I was trying to figure out where the black spot came from, and thought if maybe it was a 403 siamesed block, it may have gotten very hot in that section of the cylinder and caused it. Also noticed the dished pistons which 403 also has. At any rate, I think we got all that figured about a month ago and he happens to have a good 350 block for certain.

 

No, I'm not kidding. The way I read your statement led me to believe that you were asking if the block was a low compression motor based on casting numbers. Cool thing about the internet, no one knows exactly what the poster was THINKING when they posted and not everything is translated as intended. No big deal...

Sadly I cannot see the pics from my work computer... Uncle Sam won't let me. But I can understand about the possible siamesed "hot spot" you were looking at, if it were to be a 403.

Regardless if this was fixed a month ago or a year ago.... or yesterday....I'm just saying you guys may very well have had him put a band aid on an ill degreed cam. Sure it will run if you crank the timing and adjust the carb to compensate.

I'm sure Captjim will attest to the necessity of a properly installed cam

John

 

Ported vacuum is most any vacuum measured above the throttle plate, and manfold vacuum is anything under the throttle plate. Usually converse in their measurements. Manifold vacuum is highest at idle while ported vacuum is highest at WOT.

in case anyone wants additional information that is....

John

 

Need to make sure that the 12v source for the electric choke is 12 volts when key is on and 0 volts when key off. 12 volts from coil or ignition only gives about 9 or 10 true volts and thats not enough for it to work the way it was designed. I know this to be fact because I just bought 670 cfm Holley Street Avenger w/elec. choke and the 12v source is quoted verbatim in the instructions. Your video showed the electric choke to barely close. If it did at all it was not enough to easily start a cold engine thats where the rag on top of carb came in to play to make sure the choke was closing enough to start the motor cold. If elec. choke volts ok then try towel on top of carb w/out air cleaner. If it does not help or improve look for fuel to carb. problems. Fuel pressure should be around 7 psi. through stock fuel lines and another possibility is the sock around the fuel pick up inside of gas tank could be stopped up. A strong possibility if the car sat very long with little or no fuel. Hope this was able to help you somewhat because a few small adjustments here or there will make you pull your hair out some times.....Good luck

 

I get it eightupman. Makes sense. You're right to a degree, I was asking questions that were off topic. You ever get a chance to see a computer not supplied by the gubment, check out the pics of that spot. Very interesting to say the least. Good addition to the ported vacuum explanation too. I only mentioned that because many times I see Vac Advance connected to manifold vaccum, and it totally defeats the purpose if its connected to manifold vacuum. Sure you disconnect it to set your timing, then when you hook it up to manifold vac, you just advanced your timing at idle, then you romp on it, and your timing retards because as your additional info suggests, the manifold vac goes away. Kinda like maybe the person who hooked it up that way, "A retard". Ok just kidding about that part. Many people do not understand that theory and did not even realize there was a differance and why I pointed it out. This guy is getting all kinds of good info and will have this running better than new in notime.

 

Right. More information is always good as long as its sound information. I understand that the car could be running just fine at the moment, and if the original poster is happy with it, then so be it. BUT as I was reading through the text I felt the need to tag on the cam possibility, just in case he was OK, and not totally satisfied. YOu know you have been in a position were you were Ok with a repair but you just knew something wasn't quite right about it.

I too have seen (and inadvertantly done it myself) the vacuum advance hooked up wrong. Fun to chase for a little while....

John

 

True enough. Probably the best thing about forums, is the BS'er get weeded out quick. If the info is not true, correct or sound, you can be assured there will be a few that will correct it quickly. Not like going to neighbor next door and he give you bad info, but you don't know that, so you take it as the gospel and thats that. I wish the internet were around in my younger days. I sure would have taken on some bigger projects when I was able.
I did notice your cam dialing in suggestion. I had never heard of dialing in a stock cam. On stock motors, I always lined up the dots and called it good enough. I guess by doing that, you are putting all your faith and trust into the guy who ground your cam and decided what lobe center were going to be and hope they were the best. I understand why you dial in a performance cam, but have never do that either. I just studied cam card specs and found the cam grind I liked, on the lobe centers I liked, with advertised lift and duration I liked, and trusted that the advertisment was correct as far as what the mfr recommended as far as power band range, stall, which is another loaded questionable item since gear ratio and weight can affect that too, and also gear ratio. So if the mfr said rough idle 2000-6000, needs 4.10 gear or lower with 2500 stall or manual trans, and higher compression then thats what I pretty much did.

 

I just read this entire thread, haven't been following it before. I must say your most recent video shows a car that starts and idles well and probably drives well too. Congratulations on persevering and finding your problems, then correcting them. For people that have grown up with fuel injected engines to be able to understand carburetors and how they work is commendable, good work. Your Caddy looks pretty cool, I noticed the hydraulics on it, did you do that too? It really hugs the ground when it is parked. You might still find some room for fine tuning to improve drive-ability but probably not much. If you car passed emissions test then the EGR is probably working correctly. Would like to see a video of the entire car driving down the street, maybe you could have a buddy film it for you. Nice work.

 

i have been trying to get a friend help me video it for awhile now, i have a video of my car passing him driving in his car, but the wind is too loud... i want to do it at night to lessen the doppler effect and maybe get the real sound of this motor on tape. the car runs i guess as well as it can considering its in a 4 door cadillac that is at least 1200 lbs over its original mfg weight. i have noticed that for some reason sometimes i hear whistling and it sounds like a vacuum leak, but i have checked it many times now and still have not discovered a leak. i hope it is not a manifold gasket leak, because that valley pan is a bitch to deal with...

i have been driving the car every day ( or at least everytime i need to drive somewhere ) and it starts right up in the morning no problem, i cured that haneous belt squeek finally. i drive it on the highway i drive it around town, no problems, i have to retard the timing like just a pinch because sometimes when the motor is hot it cranks slow for a second and then starts, and sometimes when i shut it off it will diesel for like 1/4 second... but other than that and the fuel economy i get, i really have no complaints, it is a well thought out motor mechanical wise, and i am proud its pushin my boat around

 

its about 13 seconds in...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THTlL5cP2Mg