edzolz

Also if your machinist that is doing your heads isn't familiar with Olds heads DO NOT LET HIM PUT HARDENED SEATS IN THEM, they are not necessary unless you are going to cruise long distances at high RPM. Olds heads are very prone to hitting water jackets when installing hardened seats. And I have also heard of the seats coming out and destroying heads and block.

jag1886

And if you decide not to use that set of Kooks headers let me know

MDchanic

I believe that some people's experiences with hardened seats came from the machine shops installing Chebby seats, which are wider, and require cutting more deeply than Olds seats, thus risking cutting into the water jacket.

- Eric

rcdynamic88

I put the bolt back in the cam till it had about an 1/8" to move, slid the cam out a little and wedged a 3/8" spacer behind the sprocket, gave the bolt one smack with a 20 oz hammer and it popped loose. Gear puller worked fine for getting off the crank gear. Ordered a Comp Cam #2113 timing set this afternoon.
Installed a Melling oil pump and pick-up. Used a piece of clay to check for clearance from the oil pan. All looks great. Once the timing set arrives I should be able to button the bottom of this thing up.
I've got to call the machine shop. I forgot to mention that I broke off a center exhaust bolt on one of the heads. I would rather they took care of that now rather than me after they have done their work. They've been in business a long time, they probably would notice it themselves, but I might as well fess up to breaking it.
Missed out on a O4BL intake on ebay because I forgot the end time and took my dog for a walk. I liked the way it looked better than the new Performer. I can't imagine much of a performance difference for my application.
I can't wait to get the heads back so I can bolt those Kooks headers on there! I sent them out to a place called NitroBrite rather than Jet-Hot. They came back so beautiful that I bolted them up on my wall above my work bench just to admire them. All coated inside and out, got that little pointy thingy down there in the collector. They sure are the nicest set of headers I've ever had. I know I'm lucky to have found them, I had no idea that 64-67 A body SBO headers were so rare until I read it here on classicoldsmobile.com

rcdynamic88

I have been working diligently on this project, and taking pictures as I go. However I never seem to take the time to download them from the camera into my Photobucket account. I will try to put them in the order it went and end with where I am now. I even found some "before" pictures on the camera that I missed before. They make me feel better about all the dirty work involved to get it as far as it is.

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Here's some front suspension pics from when I installed the Air Ride

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The engine compartment after pulling the motor

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The next ones are as it gets cleaned up, painted and put back together

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I have switched to manual steering, manual brakes with a dual master cylinder and front disc brake upgrade. The tubular upper and lower control arms are part of the Ridetech Shockwave suspension system.

rcdynamic88

These are mostly of the motor and its assorted parts



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rcdynamic88

The #2 cylinder heads where freshened up with valve guides, seals, valve job, etc. I chose a rocker arm and stud kit from Rocket Racing for this particular #2 head. The headers are Kooks that I had coated at NitroBrite . The intake is a 2711 Performer, the carb is a 580 CFM Quick Fuel Technologies vacuum secondary model. Oldsmobile script valve covers are really tall aren't they!

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I have reached a point where I can set back and plan out the rest of the reassembly. I have one new inner fender and a nice radiator support that need to be blasted and painted before I can install the front clip. The blasting is something I will have to farm out to a vendor. The interior needs to come out, but I think that can wait for now. I beat my hands up pretty good during the tear-down and clean up process. I suppose I should get some protective gloves when I clean stuff with a mixture of gas, carb cleaner and whatever else I can find...

DENT

Wow , very nice.

tru-blue 442

Looking good!

Killian_Mörder

Unlike Pontiacs, Oldmobiles were never known for having weak timing chains. At 52,000 miles, I'd only renew the chain, if the new one was of an improved design or if it was available only with the plastic gears.
The hardened seats are a must, if only unleaded gasoline is available.
The valves and guides are more than likely within tolerance. While the valvetrain is disassembled, new seals are never a bad idea, since rubber is not only prone to deterioration through milage.
If you're not going to replace the tappets with solid ones, I'd leave them alone.
As previously mentioned, replace the freeze plugs, since they're resonably-priced and you presently have easy access to their removal

MDchanic

I'm afraid I must disagree with these two suggestions.

The nylon coated cam sprocket was, essentially, designed to fail.
It's been working for over forty years now, and the nylon is probably well on its way to disintegrating.
I would recommend changing both the cam sprocket and the chain, and then the crank sprocket as well (because, why not?).
It would be annoying to change the chain, then have the cam sprocket start to disintegrate in another 10,000 miles.

The utility of hardened valve seats has been discussed a great deal, both here, and on other forums.
It is generally agreed (and borne out by the thousands of engines collectively disassembled by the members of this board) that Olds valves in normal use don't recede, and that, in general, no valves recede, unless the engine is used extensively under high load for long periods of time, such as when racing or towing.

If everything else is fine, I wouldn't mess with the heads.

- Eric

m371961

Totally agree with MD. Plus, never replace any chain on old gears, the gears wear and old gears will not ride correctly on a new chain.

Killian_Mörder

It was designed to be quiet, because metal sprockets are noisey. My suggestion was to replace the chain and sprockets, only if nylon types were available. Of course, metal sprockets would be preferred. A cast aluminum timing chian housing would dampen the noise a bitWhat's the point in having an Olds, if the pedal doesn't hit the metal?
When are you going to get around to making room for new PMs, Sir?

rcdynamic88

Good Grief what a project it turned out to be. The initial idea to just clean up the motor turned into a bunch of MAW's. The clean up and detailing stuff is still something I enjoy. Waiting for parts to arrive was the hardest thing to deal with. I paid for, and was on the waiting list for a new dash pad from OPGI for 10 months. I finally got lucky on won a nice one on eBay, never did find out if anyone else that was waiting got one of the new dash pads. At any rate, here are some pics of the car as is it now. I only got to have two months at the end of the summer to get out and about. The 330 cleaned up real nice, still runs smooth and doesn't leak a drop. The Jet-A-Way trans works as it should, however it does drip a little even with new front and rear seals and a pan gasket change. The interior is from Legendary, I used their Custom Shop to choose the colors and I think it looks awesome. I Plasti-Dipped the roof that was two toned to begin with. If its nice out tomorrow I will take it out side to get some better shots, but here are some for now.

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MDchanic

I usually don't like custom engine colors, but that really does look good, and the interior and exterior look great!

- Eric

don71

My, you have been busy. Nice job...on everything. I bet it will be a great cruiser.

tru-blue 442

Nice job. Looks great.

67 Cutlass

Holy cow!! I better get crackin' on my 67!
Beautiful job on everything!!

oldcutlass

How do you like the suspension? Car looks great.

rustyroger

Great job!. You have a car that is the envy of many, not least members of this forum.
As I recall, you originally simply wanted some hints for getting your engine looking nice. Then the MAWs kicked in.
I'm glad that didn't happen to me with my wife's car this weekend, clutch, cambelt and service. That's what I set out to do, and that's all it got. Mind you, it's a cab and has to go back to work on Monday.......


Roger.

jpc647

Nice Job!

Did you end up keeping the 1406 carb on the car? I only ask becasue I had one on my 72 350, and I had all kinds of hesitation issues with it.

rcdynamic88

Funny you should ask...I put a Quick Fuel Technologies 580 cfm vac sec carb on in its place. I thought it performed really well, and yet, this weekend I put the Edelbrock 1406 back on for something to do (I was bored!). I believe the E-carb actually has a smoother, stronger acceleration feel to it than the QFT carb. I haven't made any changes to the QFT unit, so there is probably more performance to be found with some fine tuning. That dirty old Edelbrock carb works great as it is. I'm thinking of sending off to one of the rebuilding services that make them all shiny and new.

rcdynamic88

I enjoy the heck out of the RideTech air-ride suspension. Of course its always fun to be able to "drop" your car in the weeds at car shows. There's something about a car sitting low that just looks cool. That's not what the whole air-ride thing is about though, its all engineered to improve the handling also. Its nice and tight in corners with out feeling like its rolling over. The ride height is lower so that drops the center of gravity, which once again helps in the corners. Cruising down the highway is smooth like an Oldsmobile should be.

rcdynamic88

Yeah, I'm not much for the some of the crazy colors I've seen on engines either. I've seen some lime green SBC's that make you turn your head away! I work around a lot of "machines" at work, and they are all Grey. For some strange reason I like the simplicity of it. It just looks like its there to work and go about its business. The engine paint I used is called "Cast Iron Coat" so I guess you can't be much more basic than that.