Olds 350

[Ole Blue 68]

Has anybody dropped an Olds 350 (1971) in their truck or know if it's a fairly straight swap? I know back in the day the different GM divisions made their own engines so they weren't always interchangeable.

[crazy longhorn]

I did a 455 in my longhorn 1 time......man did that "rock"! the 350 will drop about the same as the BB Olds, its just a little shorter , & narrower. She is not a bolt in, but if you use the 73-up truck stands, & deisel brackets, you will find the olds car motor mounts are the same as the late 70's deseil trucks. the pcs are a little scarce on the deisel, so you can sub some of the car (G body) pcs to drop em on the 73 -up truck frame stands.....or better yet, dig up a set of 72 BB stands to weld the pcs to(that will get the nose of the eng down a bit). there is 1 shot of the 455 in my 69... http://community.webshots.com/user/hotrodhorn best of luck, L

[1972ChevyCheyenne]

I know the chevy motor mounts won't work, but a find a chevy truck with a 350 Olds diesel in (80's) and that should have the motor mounts looked after. I am looking at putting a 455 in which is the same block with and extra inch of deck height. Anybody who has done this please chime in.

[Ole Blue 68]

Thanks for the info fellas. Crazy L, that is one nice looking Stroker by the way.

[crazy longhorn]

The 455 Olds ran sooo much harder than that 383......can you say rubber smoke @ 65mph (pass gear), no biggie......when she flat smokes em shiftin high on a 400 turbo @ 100+.....well, that really rocks if you get a good "taste" of a BB, that sb will NEVER stack up L

[72LongHorn402]

I too put an olds 455 in my longhorn. I used a bare olds 350 block with an empty olds turbo 400 tranny case to get it lined up. the olds 350 block lower end is exactly the same as the 455. the good thing about the olds engine was that it had two positions for the motor mounts. I used the forward position. so I lowered the block and tranny case in and mounted the transmission, (I used the output shaft from my original transmission) to make sure no mods to the driveshaft were necessary. My truck was a big block originally. I used standard olds 350 motor mounts. Then I modified my chevy mounts that go to the frame by welding on a 1/8" plate to those so I could bolt on the olds 350 motor mount Pad about 1" to 2" farther forward. I should have taken pics of those but I didn't. So after that it was easy other than relocating the battery to the opposite side because of the olds starter mounts opposite of the chevy. But my truck came from the factory with the duel batt setup so that was easy as well. I also went with an HEI distibutor. I was able to use my chevy alternator, power steering pump, and the fan shroud did not need to modified either. You must use the olds alternator mounts and the chevy power steering bracket. The 455 was a little tight to the upper firewall but you shouldn't have a problem since the olds 350 is a lot narrower on the top end. If you click on my avatar you can see a pic of the motor in the truck. hope this helps. If I think of anything else I'll post it later.

[davidh]

I've thought of this swap too one. My brother sold his oldsmobile cutlass with a great running 350 and now the car is trashed. If I could get it cheap I'd do it. That motor has ran 9 years and was a junkyard motor. The Junkyard said "You're getting a great deal on this motor" . I thought yeah, right. For $325 and it lasted all this time! I think it came out of a low mileage 76 cutlass. We had a mechanic tell us that 350 olds will outlast any chevy 350. dunno.

[Ole Blue 68]

Originally Posted by davidh

I've thought of this swap too one. My brother sold his oldsmobile cutlass with a great running 350 and now the car is trashed. If I could get it cheap I'd do it. That motor has ran 9 years and was a junkyard motor. The Junkyard said "You're getting a great deal on this motor" . I thought yeah, right. For $325 and it lasted all this time! I think it came out of a low mileage 76 cutlass. We had a mechanic tell us that 350 olds will outlast any chevy 350. dunno.

Well, I've got a lot of respect for the Olds 350. My dad bought a Cutlass new back in the 70's and put @250,000 miles on it before the insurance company refused to insure it any longer. I'm considering doing the swap 'cause I can get the engine at a pretty sweet price.

[ed455]

Oldsmobile use a VERY high nickel content in thier blocks. For that reason, they wear very slowly in the cylinders. It's not unusual to find used Olds motors with virtually no ridge at the top of the cylinders. When it comes to torque, the BBO is a monster. You don't need to wind them either.

[davidh]

I say go for it. I maybe asking for tips on this swap right after you do it. I assume the transmission would be mounted in the factory autrans spot. I knew of a decent GMC truck I was thinking of that would be great for this.

[Ole Blue 68]

Thanks David. If I can work out the shipping, I'll probably go for it.

[davidh]

where's the 350olds at you are wanting to get?

[67-72chevyman]

Dont know much on the 350, but I do know a few people around thats into 455s. Theres this guy up here and all he fulls with is olds and mopars, he had a 70 98 convertable he pulled the motor out of and tore it down he said it had close to 300,000 miles on it and the cylander bores looked almost brand new I know because I seen it. I believe cadillacs were made of the same nicel content from what this guy told me, he also said olds, and cad rods were the same. 455 is a good motor for a woods buggy to because of all the low end. My buddy bought a 455 from this same guy it was a 70 455 to, and he put it in his jeep, and he said I just put around all day at 500 rpms, and never had it past 3200.

[Longhorn Man]

If you want dead nuts low end torque, in stock form, nothing (gasoline) out twists a caddy 500. (not to down play the 455 monsters)
I find it amusing, GM made butt loads of awsome truck motors, then never installed them in trucks.
425 from both caddy and olds
472 caddy
455 Buick, olds, and Pontiac
500 cad

[Ole Blue 68]

Davidh,

The motor's in NYC. I'm trying to see if I can find reasonable shipping to Texas. If not, there's a couple of board members here in Texas who are selling engines too.

Longhorn Man,

I've heard nothing bad about the 455's other than they're hard to find.

[67-72chevyman]

I know what you mean about the 500 caddy. In 70 caddy made 550 ft pd of tourque and 400 horsepower. Thats 10 more ft pd then my buddies diesel. A guy around here used to race the 500 cad on the circle track and cleaned up. I heard another advantage cad had was it was a shade lighter then a big block. I dont know about a 425 cad, my buddy had one and I have an older 1965 cad with the older 429 caddy motor block in it. They are not the best running things, I had a monte with a worn out 400 that was on its last leg that would run rings around both of them. My 429 runs alright but I sort of feel it bog down going up a hill. With 340 hp and 480 FT PD of torque it ought not do that a little better. Dont know much on the 425 olds. The only cads I know that scream are the 472 and 500s.

[Longhorn Man]

The 429 caddy is a dog, even when running right.
The 425 is in the same family as the 472/500. Think of it as the 327 and 350/400 The 425 is actually a little snapier reving up, but they are all 3 awsome performers.

Nothing at all wrong with the 455's...all 3 brands are quite awsome performers.

[davidh]

I know where a few 455 buicks are here in OK. Now, back to the caddy motors which years were these available
425
429
472
500
Sounds like the 429 is the 305 of caddy motors.

[67-72chevyman]

Yeah I've did almost eveything to tune that motor up, I even used accel plug wires, accel coil, splitfire plugs, new carb, and I put a big K&N air filter on it, the K&N helped it run better. I've studied caddy motors there for a couple of years I was thinking about putting a 472 or 500 in my car, but I always wanted a truck so I'm probably gonna sell the car now. The bad thing about the 425 is the heads, I know they are 94ccs but they dont breath to well. Actually I think the 368 would be the worst of the caddys. I'll give you a caddy history lesson from 59, cad had a 390 real old block (distributer in the back, 3 dueces on some I believe. Then in 63 they still had 390, but in diferent block, (distributer in front) and valve covers different 429 style block. In 64 the 429 came out and it was in the cars till 67. In 68 the 472 came out. Then in 70 the 500 came out "Eldos only" in 74 I think some of the RWD cads had the 500 75-6 all cads had 500s. 77-79 all big cads had 425s sevilles had 350 somethings and then the 368s after that I dont know.

[davidh]

Thanks. I needed to know some of that. I know a guy who has a 64 and it's all stock, the car is nice but I know he's rebuilt that 4292x now. All stock. Think I'd step up to the 472.

[67-72chevyman]

My 65 is mint only 2 places where theres filler that I could find, one place on the bottom in the back there was a pin hole and another where the old man had it and run up again something and made a crease about 3 inches on the left rear fender. And theres another pin hole that needs it by the fender skirt. The odometer shows 60,xxx miles dont quote me but as good of shape as the cars in I think its original miles. Burns alittle oil I think thats from valve seals.
I thought about 472/500 or hoping up the 429, but I thought about it and I want a truck, and have wanted on since high school.

[mblackburnjr]

We used to run 500's in our imperials for demolition derby...You wouldnt believe some of the things ive seen out of them. Literally push a roundback wagon onto truck tires sticking 4 ft out of the ground......monster torque!

[ChevLoRay]

Originally Posted by Ole Blue 68

Has anybody dropped an Olds 350 (1971) in their truck or know if it's a fairly straight swap? I know back in the day the different GM divisions made their own engines so they weren't always interchangeable.

"Back in the day", there was a lot of allegiance that went with a vehicle family. Engines were specific to a given manufacturer, as in the case of Olds, Buick, Pontiac, Cadillac and Chevy. Ford Motor Company, and Chrysler, both utilized a like family of engines through out their line up, at least from the early 50's on.

In the late 70's/early 80's, GM got into some hot water when it substituted Chevy engines in place of some Olds engines, particularly. Let's see...Olds and Chevy each had a 307....; Both had a 350.....hmmm. But, they were'nt a "drop-in" replacement, without the right mounts. Hmmm, same family of bodies, i.e, an A, or a G, or C or even an E body had some commmon characteristics, so......putting the Chevy engine in place of the Olds engine, wasn't too difficult....until an Olds afficianado figured out his "Olds" was a Chevy. Then, it was "on".

However, back in the day, it was also well known that there was no substitute for cubic inches.....just like today. Yeah, I know that Honda has its' S2000, with a 2-liter engine that produces 200 horsepower, but the torque is what moves us, right? With that said, any thing that has 500 ft/lbs of torque is gonna move something. With less weight, it's like having 200 watts RMS driving a 10-inch speaker rated at 100 watts "music power". There's a whole lot of difference in RMS vs. Music Power.

I'd love to have a big block (Chevy/Pontiac/Caddy/Olds) in my '69. The Chevy engine is the "drop in" of choice. The others are icing on the cake.

I have a nephew who put an Olds 455, in place of the Olds 403, in his '79 T/A Firebird. Then, he rigged it up with electronic fuel injection, using Ford injectors and a homebuilt computer program. Sweeeeeet!!!

[Ole Blue 68]

Yeah, I even read somewhere that the Olds 350 had more displacement than the Chevy's even though they were both called 350s.

He rigged his own fuel injection?!?! That is awesome!

[w314speed]

I have a set of GM NOS Stands that I bought YEARS ago to make a swap like you are talking about. They are the ones that put the OLDS 350 Diesel in the 78 truck frame. Let me know $50 plus shipping from Atlanta. Thanks, Dan