Fred Kiehl

I have been chasing some issues with my 91 OCC. I finally figured it out last week. I was told by the person who claimed to have originally hotrodded the car, that it had an LO5 (350) in it from a Roadmaster. I have been treating it as a 350, and it has been acting really wierd. Well, I finally decided to check the casting behind the driver's side cylinder head, and sure enough it is not an LO5, but an LO3 (305). Back to the drawing board...I replaced the LO5 plugs, and the LO5 injectors with the correct plugs, and injectors, and I'll be darned if it doesn't run just like it is supposed to. No more missing, or black smoke. It starts right up, and runs fine. Still has a leaking rear main seal...I know plugs and injectors do not fix rear main seals. Now for an engine change to put a little life in the car. I got an LO5, and a performance kit for it, with headers, oversized TBI, adjustable fuel pressure regulator, police injectors, tuned computer, and LT1 cam. I'm going to put dual exhausts on it as well with Flowmasters. I just bought the donor engine, and trans Satruday. Now the work starts.

Fred Kiehl

I finally got everything sorted out after enduring some weird symptoms for a year. I had a major vacuum leak, a TBI that leaked around the butterfly shaft, a poorly preforming fuel pump, and a malfunctioning O2 sensor. I also discovered a profusely leaking oil pressure sender while changing the O2 sensor. I have systematically found each of these (the vacuum leak by chance) and eliminated them as I found them.


I got a trans from the yard where I got the engine, and it had to be rebuilt. I was going to have a kit put in, but the builder made some of his favorite mods, and the thing really slams into second.


Now the car runs as it should. It even idles better than my stock LO5 in the other wagon. Due to my heavy foot, the gas mileage is not too great, but it gets up and goes a lot better. It feels like I have about 250 HP instead of the 160 it came with.


If I were to spend the money again I would put a 5.3 or 6.0 LS series iron block in the car. I could do it for about the same money, and have more HP with no mods to the engine. Hindsight is always 20/20.