my '74 88 w/350 has a q-jet 4 barrel..when it started today. i heard a funny noise that sounded an elephant under my hood...has anyone experienced this before or knows anything about this?

 

I am sorry that I can't offer any advice. Now I must get to cleaning the mouthful of liquid substance I spit all over the place after reading of your pachyderm predicament.

Hopefully someone here has heard elephants before so stay tuned.

 

i couldnt think of anything but an elephant...it runs fine...its just the whistling noise

 

I understand it just hit me funny, have you looked for a belt slipping or anything rubbing. You say it runs fine so I would discount the carburetor or a vacuum leak.

 

Why does this post have a thumbs down?

 

its not the belts..you can hear it around the carb...i checked my vac lines...

 

I don't know if this will be much help. I dubble stacked air cleaners on my 350 a while back. Now it makes a weird whistling noise. When I floor it, it sounds like a water fall. That's just from twice as much air going through the carb. Maybe your air cleaner is messed up or somthing. Hopefully that helps some.

 

There's not a thing wrong with it. The only way to make it stop making that noise is to adjust your jets. Rich them up just a little maybe 1/8 of a turn.

 

This thread defies logic.
Jetting will not affect the sound (as stated), you can not "turn" the jets to rich them up. That would be idle mixture screws, not even near jetting.
I know of no Oldsmobile built in the last 30 years that will clear 2 air cleaners unless it was headed for the demolition derby, or has a good size scoop.
The noise was probably a sqealing, dying cat. It could have been a slipping belt as his tail was dragged into the power steering pump pulley, a cat noise none the less. Evidence of shredded cat hienie would be easy to smell, and locate.
I do not think an elephant would fit under the hood, and if his tail was pulled into the power steering pump, he would have caused the belt to jump...possibly.
Good luck guys!

 

The Idle mixture screws are what I meant. The people around where I live call it adjusting the jets yes its wrong and but there is a sound a carb. will make if it is a little lean to be honest I wouldn't adjust them, but he could adjust if wouldn't to stop the noise. The temp in Ky goes up and down so much. That it is common to have to adjust your mixture screws several times. Plus we have different gas for the winter time. Carb has to be adjusted or it will be running lean. Maybe in AZ the weather doesn't change as much and you haven't run in to this problem so doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

 

If you think that cat would have smelt...

Have you changed your air cleaner to an aftermarket one? Reason I ask is on the 55 Buick I had, it whistled like crazy with air cleaner off, but was nice and quiet with it on. It had a 'silencer' built into the air horn part. Kinda reminded me of a water jacket on an old Vickers 303 machine gun.
My 57 Olds has a noticable change in pitch with the top off the cleaner also. It has the stock oil bath cleaner on it but with a paper filter installed.
Would a stuck exhaust valve make that kind of noise?