1970 Oldsmobile 442ish Cutlass

[Der Bugmeister]

On those old GM cars of that era you can swap the cam with the engine still in the car. I removed the grill and radiator and tied back the condenser and that gave me enough room to swap cams on my old 68 Chevelle years ago. That Cutlass should be no different.

The challenge with the Olds is that the timing cover is very difficult to get back on unless you drop the oil pan.  It can be done, but it's a real PITA.  The two piece cover makes that part of the job a snap.

[Der Bugmeister]

I really like your valve covers. Where did they come from?

Lou Manglass

They were made by GMPP (GM Performance Products).  As far as I know, these have been out of production for some time but you can find NOS and used for sale on the net...I got this pair from someone on the classicoldsmobile.com forum last year.

[Elroy]

that 442 sure aint like my dads olds. that'll be in chevy's face 
looks real good

[goodfellow]

Excellent -- good luck with the startup and the run-in..

[Der Bugmeister]

Excellent -- good luck with the startup and the run-in..

Sounds like they flashed it up and ran it through a break in program late yesterday, have some things to tweak and tighten up I guess.  They're supposed to call me Monday morning and hopefully we'll get some dyno pulls and numbers then :-)

[Der Bugmeister]

I mentioned the swap meet rims needed some work.  That turned into about $400 a wheel, one wheel was marginally less.  Lesson learned about buying used rims with well used tires.  Even with that though, I'm still under what they would have cost me new once taxes and shipping were done.  I never wanted to spend that much on rims though, but these will look good on the car.

A big difference in appearance from when I first got them!

[Der Bugmeister]

Meanwhile at the engine shop...

They called me yesterday needing a new oil fill tube as the old one was puking oil everywhere.  So I pulled one out of my parts engine and went down with the expectation of seeing/hearing the engine run at last.  But, not to be.

Hopefully I'll get the call to come down for dyno pulls tomorrow.  On the up side, I'm a long way from having the car back together anyhow so the engine hasn't been a hold up.  Maybe an excuse to allow scope creep to mess me up, but meh.  MAWs!

[Der Bugmeister]

At long last we got my engine on the dyno and I got to hear and see it's thunder! Specs are below...just for fun, what kind of power do you think it made?

1969 455 bored .030 over using a stock CN crank running 10.1:1 compression.
CP Bullet Pistons
Scat H Beam Rods
Quick Fuel SS 850 Carb
Edelbrock Performer RPM Intake
MSD Ready to run distributor
Harland Sharp 1.6 Rocker Arms
Hydraulic Roller Cam with 4/7 swap Intake .560/278.6 Exhaust .566/284.6
Edelbrock Heads (newest version) blueprinted by Bernard Mondello

It made it's best power at 32 degrees timing. Dropped a couple HP and torque at 34 degrees.

Dyno Pull:

Adjusting Timing (Inside the dyno room for pure engine rumble!):

[Der Bugmeister]

Oh yeah...504 hp at 5300 rpm, 570 torque at 3800 rpm.  I could get more power out of it with 1 7/8" headers instead of the 1 3/4" I have and swapping up to an RPM intake but I'm more than happy with these numbers!

[goodfellow]

Great numbers Clay. Trying to milk the setup for a few more HP is not going to mean a heck of a lot given the intent of the car build.
A very nice Christmas gift for yourself -- congrats.

[pep]

Ready to rock, got the power to haul that hotrod down the road for sure.

[slip knot]

Respectable numbers for a drivable street car for sure. 

[Der Bugmeister]

Great numbers Clay. Trying to milk the setup for a few more HP is not going to mean a heck of a lot given the intent of the car build.
A very nice Christmas gift for yourself -- congrats.

Yes, one helluva Christmas gift :-D

The numbers are already higher than I was aiming for (not a bad thing) but chasing higher results would only be worth the time and money if I was looking to shave tenths of a second off my quarter mile times...which I'm not!  The car will likely never see the track.

Having said that, the new speedometer is a GPS unit and reports things like quarter mile time 

[Der Bugmeister]

I've been seeing it for a while - the best time to order the interior you want in the next couple of months would have been about a year ago.  Sold some stuff that freed up enough cash for me to spring for the Legendary Interiors upholstery and door panels at their Boxing Day sale rates (20% off regular).  Lead time on the door panels is 77 days, so they should be arriving just about when I'll be nearly ready for them.  The seat upholstery is 280 day lead time...so next winter's project I guess.

That's ok.  What I have now is serviceable, but not perfect and will get me through the summer (he says optimistically envisioning running through the gears and letting some smoke out of the tires in 2024!!!)

[Elroy]

50 + years ago---Elroy had a new drivers license, we pulled into a quickie mart. dude pulls in a minute later with this cool ass 67 olds with a bitchen exhaust. 400 minimum on a big cam.
that thing sounded and looked bad ass 
12 Bolt