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Hoping for some advice besides "take it out behind the garage and shoot it."
If you follow Bring a Trailer, you may have seen, a couple months ago, a green '78 Delta 88 sedan that has the Royale interior but base everything else -- no A/C, no power anything, and the 260 V8. The listing also said it had a non-stock intake and carb but gave no details. There were no pix with the air cleaner housing off.
I am the idiot who bought that car.
It's got some sort of four barrel intake, and sitting atop it is a completely bodged up Holley four barrel. There is no choke; the air horn was cut down so no choke can be installed. The PCV, evap canister, and lord knows what else were not hooked up. There are who knows how many open vacuum ports.
It ran, unbelievably, the day I got it, and once thereafter, but now it won't run at all. It's got a fuel problem. Could just need a fuel pump, but I don't even want to get into that (looks like it requires removing the alternator to get at it), until I have the ability to remove this cluster**** from the engine and put it back to stock. So where in the world do I find a correct 260 intake and carb? I've looked in all the easy places. Anyone have any suggestions? Anyone have a 260 they are dismantling?
My understanding is that an engine swap is not an easy solution because it involves a trans swap too so as not to blow up the weak trans put behind the 260.
Are there any number or letters in front of the carb on the intake? I see a number 8 on the runner, tells me it is a stock Olds intake of some description. I would look at calibrating a Qjet for your 260. Who in the hell would think a no choke Holley is good on a 260? Get some numbers off it, who knows what they might have tried.
The carb looks like the Holley Q-jet replacement. I freshened one up for a customer recently. They really are a pretty decent carburetor. Depending on where yoou live the missing choke may or may not be an issue. Is the manifold aluminum or cast iron ? Magnet will tell. Cast iron is most likely a stock manifold.
Are there any number or letters in front of the carb on the intake? I see a number 8 on the runner, tells me it is a stock Olds intake of some description. I would look at calibrating a Qjet for your 260. Who in the hell would think a no choke Holley is good on a 260? Get some numbers off it, who knows what they might have tried.
I think someone told me it's a Holley 1165.
I'll have to check if it's an iron or aluminum intake.
I would rather go back to stock, but I suppose a Q jet is an option.
Look at the transmission pan. Does it have METRIC stamped in the pan?
The weakness of 260's was lack of power. When tuned properly they ran well so keeping in mind not much power no matter what, I'd also be chasing originality.
While any Olds motor will bolt in place of a 260, the TH200 metric trans will be the weak link. Of course, the TH200 internal parts are pretty much the same ones used in a 200-4R. An Olds 307 would be a better choice, especially a 1980-84 version with the 5A heads. 260 heads have the tiny ports and any aftermarket intake like the one you have will have a massive port mismatch and flow disruption. Ironically, the 260 is the one Olds motor that is made for the defunct E-brock SP2-P gas mileage intake. These had tiny runners for economy during the deep, dark days of the 1970s that are nearly a perfect match for the 260 heads. Add a 500 CFM E-brock carb and that 260 might actually rise to adequate. Used versions of the SP2-P show up on ebay periodically.
July 17th, 2021, 06:00 PM
