So the last few months i have acquiared some parts. My intentions where to build a back up engine for my 72 with big block heads but after talkin with my buddy and member 67cutlassfreak he made some good points that made me think and change that direction . The current 355 is running very well still but going into season 3 of racing 100 passes and 3k street miles im planning an inspection/ freshen up on that since im curious how my work is holding up . Now before that happens im building a back up. Now this is where it gets unique Both cars in the stable are SBO powered. my 77 pontiac bonneville coupe has one of my old 350's very nice cruiser with plenty of pep . My 72 has the 355 with the highly ported heads running 11.60's but still very streetable. The goal is a build that can work for both and not have just an engine that will only be ideal for one car and thats a point my buddy made. I dont want an engine that will exactly power my 72 into the 11's if its a back up but it has to run well enough for the index class i plan on running., and if the pontiac ever needs an engine i dont want an engine that would be like the 355 in my olds in that car so this engine has to be right in the middle. it has to have just enough vacuum for power brakes on the pontiac.

The parts so far...... I scored a 350 block bored .030 over with studs and straps, speed pro flat tops and a moroso 7 qt pan for 300 bucks. then a friend gave me a set of rods he bought from mondellos estate that where already resized and have arp bolts ( freebies) . Im picking up a 71 350 that ran good for the crank , balancer and any other parts i may need. It even has a performer intake on it. That will be 200.

The plan... well i have always wanted to build a w31 engine. Or atleast something that gave the appearance of an OE w31. I plan on making good use of the #7 heads and will be porting them myself . I will be talking to my good friend 67cutlassfreak about where and how much to remove etc. Visit home porting thread on the race side of the forum to see some of his amazing work he did on my #6 heads. He has some 2.07 valves and 1.7 ex. valves that are near new im gonna use. Then i plan on reusing the edelbrock intake and just port matching to the heads as far as i can and, milling the divider off and the logo lol . For a cam .... i have a really soft spot for the 280 H comp it has a great sound and from previous experience it pulls clean to 6k rpm. i want compression around 10 to 1 just good for pump gas. as far as valve train it will get full roller rocker arms from my current engine which are 5/16 - 3/8 studs and ford rocker arms since im doing 7/16 harland sharps now on that . and of course all the wear items will be new bearings , rings , oil pump etc. stuff will go to the machine shop as needed like polishing/ cutting crank , honing , cleaning block ., etc etc. The last time i used the 280h i managed 13.3's with a less than ideal over all combination as far as converter and carb go and my car didnt really have any of the suspension work it has now plus my inexperience didnt help ( 10+ year ago) so i want to revisit that combo so to speak .

The goal..... have cool engine that will appear like a w31 and maybe make 350/370 ish hp by track numbers weight mph ET that stuff . This wont be on a dyno but it will go into my car once its done. If i can run anywhere in the 12's with it i got my index class covered. currently i have to hold the car back to a 12.0 but any where in the 12's is fine that is if i need to use this engine during the time i run the program. Now if it needs to go into my pontiac i know it will be good for the street. Im not trying to spend a ton of money on it so as always i will be scrounging for used parts where needed and where its suitable to use.

let me know what you think or if you have parts i can use let me know.

 

Seems as if a Performer RPM would work a lot better than the regular Performer for this build.

 

Conventional thinking and my own personal experience support that., but not using an RPM because it wouldn't look like the w31 and i already have one with the engine. Now the thing to keep in mind guys in stock eliminator will spin the 350 past 6k with a stock manifold so im sure with a little porting we can at least get this engine to breathe to 6k . It also adds to the fun factor of an unnecessary obstacle that most would clearly say will hold it back that i wanna make work. Thats a theme with lots of things i do keeps it fun. I even plan on having a q jet possibly reworked as i have a really good running core from a 427 ss impala.

 

My friend is doing something similar. I snagged this intake. He's opening it up for a q jet. They also make a speed bore version but has a different choke set up.

 

That's a nice ol4b . I will probably run a 1 to 1.5 spacer along with milling the divider. Im running what ever performer intake comes with the engine regardless of the EGR and what not. That's stuff is easily blockable and I plan on filling the heat risers. None of my cars run a choke if I run a q jet it will get an electric choke.

 

It's funny you mention you are opening it up for a spread bore. My current intake we filled in the intake flange and welded in a spacer to even it out for it to be proper 4150 flange or square bore base vs the spread bore that it came in and I may do the same to the performer. It looks like we have 2 spacers but one is actually part of it. Lots was milled from the flange.

 

I am pretty sure Cutlassefi test the OB4, maybe the BBO version, it didn't do very well, the worst intake I believe. I added a 1" Transdapt, I believe, aluminum open spacer on the Performer intake. I opened up the spacer slightly to better match the Performer carb pad. Also consider getting a 76 and later 800 cfm Qjet. The idle mix is super lean factory, so they need recalibrated. The extra 50 cfm over the carb you plan on using plus the easily adjustable APT with just a couple of tweaks, threading the top plug and notching the APT adjuster. Cliff Ruggles tested them back to back, the later carbs calibrated equally, make more power. The mod makes the carb adjustable on the primary and secondary side without pulling it apart, it can be adjusted in 30 seconds with a little flat screwdriver for both sides. I gained a couple of tenths just adjusting the primary side.

 

Yeah ol4b is ancient but nice intake if you are making a cruiser that's about it. I planned on having my q jet done ( too much crap for me) . I believe my boss had his done by cliff ruggles. If not then a classic 750 lol. Thanks for the heads up on the q jet stuff. I will be running the performer and hopefully a little work will make it breathe to atleast 6k.

 

That's some funny ***** thanks for the laugh 😂😂😂😂. Comparing the OL4B to the O4B, they are not alike.

 

I have never run the 04b or ol4b but some of the old timers have mention the ol4b is a nice intake. That's about as far is it goes for me. I believe one of those intakes was for fuel milage and one was high performance. But again neither here nor there for me.

 

The OL4B is actually a very good intake. It has the modern runner layout as found in current intakes. Also the right plenum is extended (widened) to try and equalize volume. Cross section is bigger than stock. The O4B is the big block intake. It's a stock runner layout with increased cross section. If you want a stock W31 look this can work. The only reason the OL4B was discontinued was due to emissions and mileage. They cane out with the Standard Performer (small cross section and EGR) to try and fix that.

 

So the OL4B SB manifold is better than the BBO version. I thought the 350 version looked like it had bigger runners than the Performer intake, interesting.

 

Yes it does, the regular Performer has very very small
runners. Copper, you may be better off with the stock iron intake.

 

I figured the aluminum is soft enough to port it and not make a ton of work . I got some long azzz carbides. Plus the engine I'm buying already has the performer. I will probably have holley street dominator intake handy in case my dreams are crushed.

 

it seems there are a few builds going on which is a great thing. I also have been buying up used parts to throw a 355 together for when i want some more power than the 330 in my 64. I have .30 over flat tops, ported oil pump, performer rpm intake, 750 Holley, and i will also be home porting some 7a heads. I am leaning towards solid flat tappet cam though, I haven’t nailed that down yet. I have my block bored and the decks squared up. I just bought a die grinder yesterday but i have to order carbides still. I have read the porting thread and i have Bill Trovato’s book on building olds motors. I’m interested in what bearings and clearence’s you are running. I would like to do some “home blueprinting” with my build. I remember reading about people belt sanding the casting lines on stock rods to lose weight and get them all the same weight. And same for the pistons, weigh them all and remove a little material to get them the same weight. I’m curious if this would help make a little more power. Please be as detailed as possible with this build.

 

Some of the things I like to do with productions parts is:

1. Lighten the rods, its nothing to take 40 grams out of a production rod.
2. Bull nose the leading edge of crankshaft counter weight
3. Cut the crankshaft counterweights down

The last 467 I built using these methods it was worth 25-30 HP on a 650 HP engine, well worth doing.

I have videos of these mods if your interested.

 

I will try to be as derailed as possible. I wish I did more documenting and detail when I built my current 355. It's gonna be a fun build. I would love a solid cam but for my needs I need hydraulic. I think anything that will work in a solid can won't produce enough vacuum for power brakes . Which this engine has to be ready to use in any of my 2 cars . One has power brakes one has manual.

 

While sanding the rod beams can lighten them, there were also other considerations.
1. The rough edges could be a place for a crack to form.
2. The sanding is also done in the long direction of the beam.
3. Polishing the outside of the beam also removes any scratches that also could start a crack.
4. Then the rods (except bearing bore and faces and piston pin bore) are shotpeened to about a 10 A intensity to increase fatigue life.
.....Just my two cents worth.

 

For my use I honestly don't think the rod mods are worth it . If I was pushing over 450 perhaps I would do something then. But for my use just realized arp rod bolts and balance the rotating assembly. The last engine I built with the speed pro slugs would happily spin to 6300+ rpm. And that engine had lots of abuse on it.

 

Patiently accumulating parts. I scored a good core engine and I also picked up a backup th350 with an ultrabell. As I aquire parts which I'm doing slowly there may be a plot twist because of a potential deal but not here nor there.

 

So some plans changed and the entire direction of the build changed . Well the 455 i built last summer turned out we spun rod #3 pretty bad ( no rev limiter and it saw 7k rpm) so... in an effort to help my friend who i sold the engine to then he sold it . I bought back the heads , the head studs , the BHJ balancer , and the flex plate along with the big valved ported J heads. I sold the 350 i picked up because i didnt want to tear into an engine just for the crankshaft at this point. Member bob kelso had one and an RPM intake. So at this point all i have to do is pick up the heads and parts from my buddy and the intake and crank from Mr kelso and i have all my big items. 2 weeks ago i bought a parts washer from a freind who is also an olds guy and he had a used crower cam he ran in his bracket car that was in great shape. ( freebie) so on this build the compression will fall in around 9.2 to 1 or 9.7 to 1 appx depending on where the pistons sit in relation to the deck surface, Im shooting for 9.5 +for tis cam. its a crower #56263 flat tappet cam. 485/496 lift with 220\227 duration on a 112 lsa. I think this cam will work for my goals of low 12's in my cutlass. This cam in his 350 in his g body went 12.2's and my set up is a little bit better weight and chassis wise from what his was then. This engine also has to work well in my pontiac with power brakes. This should work out. I think the ported J heads should hopefully be better than the stock sbo heads in the mid lift range to where they will help. Those J heads made 457 HP on the dyno with the 455. when i used the heads on the big block i built it made roughly about 425 ish and our transmission was hurt after 2 passes.

so im into this thing for under 2k so far and have some really nice pieces to work with. the machine shop bill will be around1100 to 1500 pics to come soon. Sorry about the change of plans but money and parts availability along with budgets change my direction and this is a good one lol.

 

Sounds like a good combo, ported J heads eh. You sure are good at wheeling and dealing, as usual it should haul ***. I also learned that the OLB4 is completely different than the OB4 in this thread, go figure. I almost bought an OLB4 a few years back, thought it looked like a good street intake. Of course with the J heads a RPM is necessary and a better intake to tickle 7K anyways.

 

Yeah this should be a fun little engine. Hopefully I won't need to use it this season but will break it in and I can set up the cutlass sometime this year for the index class for 2022 . I plan on running the slug pontiac in street this year just to get into the game and worry about running the number vs chasing E/T . Plus I look forward to enjoying that car vs the olds this year.

 

As always my builds draggggggg on. But for good reason. Getting a cam right now is not easy. I scored a solid flat tappet cam.i decided I may as well go ***** out and try to get as much from the heads as possible. I think this cam will work decent with 10.25 to 1 compression. After next week stuff will go to the machine shop. I still need to order some wear items like bearings and what not but hopefully maybe have this done by june maybe. Any suggestions on valve springs ?. My current solid cam is similar with a 402 rate. I was thinking of going with that.

 

Well this build is still on track. I got a different cam with matched lifters. It's a solid engle grind , I ended up getting new speed pro Pistons because there was one that was too far gone . I dropped everything off at the Machinist . It's getting balanced the block crank and rods are all getting checked , crank is getting ground , the bores are getting opened up to have .005 piston to wall , the deck will be milled .020 . Still need a few parts but all the major things are covered.

 

Do the Speedpro pistons have a coating? Make sure he pin fits the pins.

 

They do have a coating. I ran the speedpros before. Not the greatest but should work for what I'm doing

 

The 517 HP 467 I build use the H426CP piston that is coated, I use an extra .001 clearance with those, theres power in that.

 

Piston to wall will be .005

 

I will say this engine will be my workhorse. I went racing last weekend and ran sportman class. The cutoff is 12.0 I slowed my car down to 12.1 and went into the semis . I had a moment of clarity there. I been wanting to go faster and faster but I can go have fun and be competitive in the 12's and I can run pro as well . Although. I'd rather chase the slow cars down in the bracket class. That's what this engine is destined for and my old engine ( current) will find it's fate as a stroker.

 

Is it a hyperutectic piston?

 

Forged

 

I would use .001 clearance on the pin to piston.
jmo

Gene

 

I love my current machinist. I told him look here is the Mondello book here is the travato book. Put me in the middle of these guys and their suggestions and I have half a chance. He is on board and said let's do it. This build has.lots of surprises. I been stocking up on stuff and lining deals up I'm not gonna spill the beans until I'm assembling

 

Very interested. I am not as fond as my local machine shop.

 

My guy is retired and can do most everything but sonic checking and bake cleaning. But he agreed to everything I wanted to do and also suggested one creative means to an end ( very very minor ) and I was involved at every step.

 

I got everything back today !!!! I got questions lol. Nothing serious but I need to make a list to address a few items and maybe bounce ideas around ., If everyone is still onboard on this thread. And yes all clearances will be shares and what not. My machinist made me a duplicate of his notes. I was actually impressed he files all his notes from every engine he does.

 

Please do, interested in all the specs.

 

For the record-I do remember you posting this machine shop of yours was high end and was good as any out there, which led me to look at their website, honestly their not as good as any and I figured there could be problems, but I do hope it turns out good for you. Buying parts is one thing, tuff enough these days, but finding a competent shop that cares about your project, well that another......

 

Feel free to explain.