I'm just a newbie, so please take it easy on me. I just bought a '64 Olds for my wife. The engine has been replaced with an Olds 350 engine, but the person I bought the car from has no idea what year the engine is from. All he told me was that it was an '80 something engine.

Can someone point me in the right direction to find out what year of Olds it was out of? The Olds I bought is a '64 Cutlass Convertible F85 with an automatic trans in it. The trans is also not period correct.

I have explained to others that the car is a 2', 10 minute car. By that I mean that from 2' away it looks great, but if you look at it for 10 minutes, anyone familiar with an Olds of that year will see what is wrong. Sadly on my end, I found out after I gave the guy the check and got the car home and tucked away in the garage.

It did have some jaked up exhaust on it and I got that fixed today. Now it's just finding what engine is in it.

 

We would need the number on the block located here:

 

A picture or two wouldn't hurt either.

- Eric

 

I'm sorry. Here is a couple of pics of what I bought

 

Nice car!

Looks like a post-1975 350 from the little I can see, so that agrees with what you've been told.
The heads probably have a big number 8 cast into them.
Take a look at that engine number when you get a chance, or tell us the number stamped into the oil fill tube.

- Eric

 

The engine is a drawback, but the color ,wheels and top look nice. Most of these cars need something when they are bought. Have fun with it!

 

MD....when I gt out into the shop in just a short, I'll check out the numbers and let you know.

Sweet......I'm not too worried about the engine being a drawback. With the way we are with cars anyways, I don't intend to keep it stock or have period correct this or that. We will change things to personalize it to suit our taste.

I do have a lot of under hood stuff to clean up. As you can see, it looks rather grubby under there. All of that will be this winters project though. I'll have it up on stands and the wife and I will work on it to get it ready for next Spring. I do want to put little larger wheels on it and will probably go with 17" TTII's. I also have to replace the steering column as I am almost positive that this one has been replaced. It looks like it is setting too far back towards the driver.

All of the trim around the beltline needs replaces as it is either really scratched up, or whoever put it on has hammer dents all in them. Again, just nitpicky little stuff that will need to be fixed to make it cosmetically better looking.

Here are the wheels I think I am going to go with

 

I used a glob of modeling clay after cleaning most of the gunk off the serial number surface of the block... after trying to read it in a mirror.... Press the modeling clay with a bit of pressure then carefully peel off.

 

I took a wire brush to the oil filler tube and didn't find any numbers. I looked at the area shown above that OldCutlass posted and do not see anything in that location either. But direct behind the water pump is a flat surface and it has some raised numbers that are 557752-3B. Would this happen to be it? If not, I'll do some more searching. Thanks to all for your help. I have some learning to do when it comes to an Olds for sure.

 

1977-80 350 with windowed main webs. Usually born with 3A heads.

 

It's NOT A CH$VY ENGINE
Good start.
Nothing that can't be fixed
Not a bad 350 actually.

 

So as far as engines go, is that a pretty good engine or not???? I don't know if it has a slightly mild cam in it as it sort of sounds like it, or it may need a tune-up I know that probably down the road some, I will probably find another engine to build up to drop in it. If I could find a halfway decent 455, then I would go that route. But for right now, this one starts great, sounds like it may need the starter shimmed, but no smoke whatsoever out of the pipes either on startup or stepping on it. That makes me wonder if it hasn't been rebuilt before. I know a 350 can put out power on a Chevy, but can one do the same with an Olds 350 and is it worth the cost, or better to find a big block?

Like I said, I have a lot to learn when it comes to Olds, as I have never owned on, nor have I ever driven one in my life until now. That sounds sort of pathetic doesn't it? Lol!!!!

 

Kevin, that's a good looking car! The fact the engine is not original is not a deal breaker with me. If it runs good. I'd be rock'n that with top down ASAP.

Like the wheel choice too. Sounds like fun.

 

Hi Don.....no the engine is not a deal breaker with me either. If it was, it wouldn't be setting in out garage right now. I've always been sort of a gearhead though, although not a real hardcore gearhead. But I want a car that has some muscle under the hood. My last toy was a .060 over 359 in a '93 Silverado that I completely redid after a girl ran a stop sign and hit me. I just got it running the day before. This gave me the chance to change the color from silver and teal to Prowler Orange and it turned out real sweet and ran great. My dad wrecked their car and needed another, so I ended up trading my truck in on a Blazer XTreme for them so they'd have something to drive. The shortbed truck was a blast to drive. When I traded it for the XTreme, it set on the lot all of 1 day. Some guy bought it for his 16 year old son who totally trashed it within a couple months.

I'm just throwing it in. but the scalloped truck was what I had before the shortbed truck.

 

Sweet looking car. I'm on the lookout for a convert for the future. Best thing about not being an original engine is you can do whatever you want. My 66 has 74 350 that I will be rebuilding and swapping heads to bring up the compression. Does your car have 14 or 15" rimson there now?

 

Magna......right now they have 14" rims with 235/60 tires. If they will fit, I'd like to bump the rim size up to 17", but I may have to go with 16's. It's going to be a hard decision. If I can find someone that has 17's, I'd like to put a set on to see how they actually look, or find someone that has 17's and talk to them about any problems with rubbing and find what size of tire they are running.

If need be, I may only be able to step up to a 15" rim, which will be fine as long as the wheel/tire combo fills up the wheel opening. And then again, I may be able to go larger on the back and small on the front, like maybe a 17"/16" or a 16"/15" combination. Then of course, isn't it a mandatory ruling among car people that the rear tires have to be significantly wider than the front tire?

And as I said before, I'm not so much a person for originality, but I'm more "old school". Shiny chrome or polished rims, a more of a radical engine, wide tires/skinnier tires combo, and whatever else went on back in '70. And possibly whatever tire I get, whether it be a solid white lettered tire, or the outlined white letter, chances are they will be showing instead of hidden inside.

Plus I have to have tunes and speakers. I'm not a huge fan of a stereo system where it almost shatters peoples windows, but if out cruising, I need to be able to hear some oldies. And my "oldies" are Alice Cooper, Marvin Gay, The Who, Black Sabbath, Three Dog Night, Jethro Tull, ELO, and just about any Motown

 

Once again, the 17" WHEELS fit fine. It's only when you put tires on them that you might have a problem...

The A-body cars want tires in the 26.5" to 27.5" OD range. Your current 235/60-14s are Honda-sized at just over 25" diameter.

If you must have 17" tires, use either 235/55-17s (27.2" dia) or the slightly wider but shorter 245/50-17s (26.7" dia).

And as always, be careful with your selection of wheel offset. Your wheels should have near zero offset. Most aftermarket 17" wheels have a lot of positive offset.

 

Joe....thanks for the advice, or at least the reminder. I know that I have to watch out for the offset. I'm not for certain what the backspacing is now on the wheels that are on it. I'm not as worried about the back as I am the front. Turning the wheel without rubbing is one major concern that I worry about. Hopefully the tire place that I have used for years is up on the older cars. (fingers crossed)