Anyone else running a Olds Rocket?

[Longhorn Man]

Awsome. I love seeing off brand engines installed into mainsteam vehicles.

[86k10]

Yeh me too, I've always liked to be different, it's just kind of nice to build something on your own and make it work. Here is the other side.

[Longhorn Man]

I love torque limiter you have there.
I painted the chain on mine black and put it closer o the firewall.

[86k10]

I know I should have put it a little more out of sight but it is a good conversation piece. And without it, LH engine mount doesn't last very long. It seems to me that after changing from 1/2 ton axle to the one pictured, it's got a lot more low end pulling power but it's a little slower on the highway, go figure huh.

[iluvmy72]

Engine was on the dyno again yesterday to test the newly machined stock heads and these were the results but I'm having trouble believeing them....and we checked for calibration and everything with two different dyno units for tests and the same results from the Dynos and the computer came out.......Is this possible? The engine is a 69 Olds Rocket 350......The block was honed and not bored so it's stock. And the cam, crank, rods and lifters(new) are from a 66 400 Olds engine.....seems kinda high for a 5.7

Horsepower: 360/5000 Torque: 440/3600

[Longhorn Man]

impressive.
Is it all stock parts, or do you have external bolts ons on it? (intake, carb, headers, HEI)

[iluvmy72]

The block is all stock parts from the 66 400 and the actual 69 350....The intake is also stock and it has exhaust manifolds with a stock ignition(points), and a Carter 600 CMF carb with edlelbrock/K&N airfilter. However I will be making a few changes...though I don't expect much to actually change performance wise.....the em's are soon to be changed over to ceramic coated block huggers and I'm leaning twards a Accell or Mallery ignition system......I will admit though......these blocks are real ugly when compared to a chevs....but the weight I'm dropping and the performance is a big plus.

[Longhorn Man]

You may as well just get an HEI for that. Since you don't have mega compression or a power adder, (NOS, turbo ect) the aftermarket ignition is not really needed.
The govenors and auto retard features are nice, but IMP are not worth the price of admission since the hotter set up will only get you a few horses over a good HEI.
Sounds like a kickin combo already though.

[68 Suburban]

I just picked up a 350 olds

[68 Suburban]

.

[68 Suburban]

And the 350 olds

[Longhorn Man]

Call me sick, but I always liked those tanks.
You selling this one too?

[68 Suburban]

Originally posted by Longhorn Man

You selling this one too?

Of Course

[shortymac83]

Originally posted by Longhorn Man
Sweet...an olds from the forgotten years.
The Olds engines (esp rockets) are pretty kick ass in stock form. Put it in your truck, you'll like it, and if you ever get bored with it, a 455 will bolt right in.

Sorry, but Rocket is just a name that olds put on it's motors, there is no difference between a "rocket" 350 and a regular oldsmobile 350.

For those looking for performance, check out this site - www.realoldspower.com. It's got a messageboard very similar to this one and we are running some of the fastest oldsmobiles out there (think 8's and change with a 3500 lb 76 442).

[shortymac83]

O yeah, and correct me if I'm wrong, but that looks like an 80 or 81 model. The 80 model year was the last for the 350's, so make sure that the heads don't have a big 5A on the front of them (next to the #'s 1 and 2 spark plugs) or that the emissions info doesn't say 5.0L. Then ya got a 307. Ya don't want a 307. lol!

Oh, and those Holiday coupes are really relatively rare. If you're going to sell it, try the oldsmobile boards and I bet you could pick up a decent chunk of change.

[bcountry]

I have a slightly built 350 bored 30 over in a 1973 old cutlass supreme painted emerald green. nice eng

[iluvmy72]

the 68 and 69 were the first 350's Olds built.....and they were very different than the last blocks......these blocks had a higher nickel content in the blocks casting......the blocks were made special for the olds hotrods.......in 74, GM wanted to decrease the total cost of engine parts so they started to make the parts interchange to where Pontiac and Buick could use their heads, cranks, and cams in the newer Olds blocks....and Olds quit making the blocks and Buick then made the blocks fro all three lines.....the cranks and cams from a 79 wouldn't even fit in my Olds 69(we tried).....and then there are the differences in the oiling.....you really can't compare th older blocks to the later blocks....they were completly different engines in terms of make and quality.

[68 Suburban]

Originally posted by shortymac83
O yeah, and correct me if I'm wrong, but that looks like an 80 or 81 model. The 80 model year was the last for the 350's, so make sure that the heads don't have a big 5A on the front of them (next to the #'s 1 and 2 spark plugs) or that the emissions info doesn't say 5.0L. Then ya got a 307. Ya don't want a 307. lol!

Oh, and those Holiday coupes are really relatively rare. If you're going to sell it, try the oldsmobile boards and I bet you could pick up a decent chunk of change.

It is an 80 and the emissions sticker says 350. thanks for the heads up on the car

[Maximum Overdrive]

I put a 455 in a 69 GMC I had about 15 years ago. Ran like a raped ape. Had to part it out though because it just tore up trannies and rearends like mad with my heavy foot.

[shortymac83]

iluv, either you are smoking something or I am. If all olds blocks after 1974 are "buicks" why can you get edelbrock parts that fit every SBO from the 330's to 403's, even though the first 403 was in 1977 and thus, according to you, was a "buick" block. Yeah, buick made some motors for the big cars, chevy did too, and ya can't forget the POS 301 that pontiac made, but the 307, 350 and 403 are all olds blocks. I don't know what your problem was, but when I was rebuilding a 70 350, I used parts that I got out of a 1977 olds 98...You SURE that's an Olds motor you had in there?

Oh yeah, and the "rocket" motor was the same motor as the one in the granny cutty supremes with 350's, the only differences were lower compression and a milder cam. And the "Rocket" name was used from the first 303 in 1949 to the last of the 1974 350's, so no, the rocket name wasn't specifically for the 350's from 68 and 69, and in fact, were used on the big blocks as well. I think you might be thinking of the W-30, 31 and 32 motors for the high performance "Rocket" motors.

No, I'm not wrong. If you think I am, try asking the guys on the forum that I posted. Oh yeah, and I read up on what to do and how to do it. Believe me, when it comes to olds, except for the windowed blocks, every part is physically the same and should fit between the two. As a matter of fact, all SBO cranks in the windowed blocks (307, late 350 and 403) were identical, but I can't remember if that held to 76 and before, so I'll just stick to the windowed later OLDSMOBILE (not buick) blocks.


Speaking of just asking them, I just posted what you wrote, and they said that if you're not wearing clown shoes and a big red foam nose, you should be.

[iluvmy72]

I didn't say the rocket was for the 350 only.....I don't want to argue but there was a difference in the blocks themselves......and the cam we tried to use form the 79 caused a loping and didn't run right at all......1968- 1972: Smaller combustion chambers, strong blocks, possibility of Nodular Iron cranks (a close second to the forged cranks that the 330's used). Four-speed 4-bbl engines had pretty decent camshafts. No EGR. Of course, if you get a W-31, you've got a pretty great engine right from the factory. The '68-'69 heads used a smaller exhaust valve than the later units. The high-compression pistons will make any of these a high-compression motor. 7/16 head bolts............1973 - 1976: Larger combustion chambers, small intake and exhaust valves. EGR intakes, but the #8 heads were not too restrictive (compared to later units). Block is still relatively strong, with solid main webs. No more nodular iron crankshafts, but HEI ignitions on the later units are the best street setup. You need earlier heads to get high compression, even with high-compression pistons. 7/16 head bolts.........1977 - 1980: Large combustion chambers, small ports, EGR, low compression. They did, however, have ½ head bolts (in common with the 403's and diesel 350's), though the windowed mains on the block make these the weakest engines to start a performance rebuild from. In reality, however, you're not likely to blow out the bottom end of this motor on the street below 6000 RPM.

There were also the D- and DX-block diesel 350's that are the heaviest duty around, and which had ½ head bolts.

A site to reference for you:

http://www.442.com/oldsfaq/ofeng.htm

Here's a quote from it........"A Olds 350 is not a Buick 350 is not a Pontiac 350 is not a Chevy 350, is not a Cadillac 350, small and big block! This applies to Olds small block and big block engines. The only things in common with other GM division engines are the distributor cap, rotor, carb bolt pattern, and the transmission bolt pattern. Buick, Cadillac, Olds and Pontiac are the same, with five bolts. Chevy is different, with four bolts.

Chevy's are bigger and heavier than comparable CID Olds engines since they used very little nickel in the cast iron. Nickel is a expensive strengthening agent for cast iron. Low quality iron requires mass in order to make it stronger, which is why you will see the physical weight and size difference.

I hope you don't think that 4 bolt mains were put in Chevy engines so that they would be "Ultra-Strong" for the performance enthusiast. This is simply not true, they are there because the iron requires strength to keep the cap in place and 2 bolts in mush is not as good as 4 bolts in mush.

Oldsmobile blocks aren't made of mush, rather, they are made of high quality cast iron with plenty of nickel to make it strong. Olds big block engines were cast with extremely high nickel content until mid 1970. You can easily spot the difference in the shape of the "F" near the oil sending unit. Look at any 1968 1969 and early 1970 block and the F will be different in shape than any late 1970 to 1974 block. In 1975 the nickel content was lowered even more. Some of these later engines will have a mounting hole for a clutch swivel rod ball, some will not. This can always be machined."

Post this one and see if the crack smoking and clown shoe wearing is excellerating....LOL.....

Speaking of laughing, you remember the 301?!....LOL.....that was a pretty bad engine!!!.....now correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't the 301 have the lifters that shaved metal off of the cams after 6000 RPM's?....I know that the heads and compression were constant headaches....but I seem to remember the lifters being made of the wrong type of metal.

[biglou55]

With all this discussion I have a 455 buick (1973) and auto tranny how easy is it to put in a 71 p u. what motor mounts (chevy- buick) exhaust - etc etc . I think it would be an awesome think to do.

[shortymac83]

yes the 301's had weak suck parts and flattened the cams in high RPM use.

As far as I (and all the Olds racers) know, the early 350 and the late 350 are different only in tune (camshaft selection, compression ratio, etc.) and the fact that earlier blocks had solid webs. All internal parts should (and do, from my experience) interchange between all years.

Perhaps you are thinking buick? The last of the buick blocks were, if I'm not mistaken, 1979. That's V-8, I'm meaning.

You really should go over there to that forum and check it out if you're running a 350, they can help you out with tune and hotrodding and the like. One of them (350_Racer AKA Nick Jeffries) is running a gas 350 based 380CI motor running 10's naturally aspirated in a 3500 LB cutlass.

[iluvmy72]

Hey longhorn.....biglou 55 is asking us a question......should I lie to him and tell him it's a bad engine so he'd sell it to me for cheap?.....LOL

[Earl Junior]

Originally posted by Longhorn Man
Actually I have spent about a year and a half on it...but it wasn't from being hard to do, it is from lack of space, lack of time, and lack of cash.
It coulda been done in a weekend easily.

If you have all your parts layed out and rady to go, and have some good help you can do this in about twelve hours. It also helps if you read Andy's website. Helps a lot!