Hot Rods Olds Rocket engine with crazy work done

Anybody ever seen this done to an olds rocket block??? Just picked up this engine that came out of an old hard top that raced Kearney bowl then was installed into a retired 70 Pontiac gto Nascar but never finished.

i pulled the head tonight and the block and heads have been cut and ground every where!! No more extended bell housing, cut all the way around the top of block below valley pan and push rods, exhaust ports cut off, ported, 4” bore, drilled into side of the block coolant lines, etc. Check it out and the intake. I’ve never seen one cut like this. I’ve added photos of my red stock 303 olds block for comparison.

 

Looks like it's all taken from low-stress areas... light weighting?

 

Looks like they shaved a little too much around the top rear head bolt boss in the valley & had to weld it. Pretty cool find. The valves look much bigger than stock & the intake ports are definitely opened way up. I bet it was a screamer.

 

Someone spent a lotta time whittling away on that engine !


What are your plans for it ?
Curious as to how it performed .

 

After all that work on it years ago, it deserves to be freshened up and put in a hot rod so you can drive it around and let folks see it.

I wonder how wild the cam is? probably either 7/8 or full race!

 

Talk to Tony at Ross Racing engines. He knows all things Olds.

 

I don't really get the opening up the valley but I bet all that carving cut more than 50 pounds.

 

I don't know them well enough to recognize the changes.

Very Cool. I love seeing where someone went all out on an engine back then, used every trick they had available. If they went crazy with a grinder, pay attention to the oiling and oil pump for the rebuild if they made major mods there. Interested in the crank and rotating assy, may be offset ground. Deck / heads may be shaved.

Keep posting up as you learn more about the changes and modifications.

 

Keep the performance mild, Nasty habit of splitting the mains down thru the valley due to lack of material in those areas

 

That intake mod is something else!

 

that is the only aluminum four barrel intake for an early Olds I've seen, probably saved 25 pounds right there.

 

Interesting, it looks like the builder went into the valley with a 7” 36 grit disc on an angle grinder but I’m not sure what he was trying to achieve. The homemade valley cover looks like it may be aluminum and may have saved a couple of ounces but was it worth the effort?
I’m not up on flathead Fords but I think that’s a pressed steel late flatty bell housing, a hydraulic clutch cylinder and a Top Loader 4 spd. that has a cheesy shifter with a missing lever and separate lever for reverse.
There is not enough shown but I think the water pump is routing coolant to a core plug hole on each side of the block and AN fittings screwed into the oil filter ports are for a remote filter.
The coolest thing is the Edelbrock OL496 adapted to a Holley carb. I don’t know how well that flowed but he sure gets an A for effort.

 

Those heads look like some posted here last week that were ported by Jocko Johnson

 

I’m not disagreeing with you but Safford, Gaide & Ratican did pretty good with the Olds on nitro. Would street use and an occasional run down the strip hurt?

 

Porter Reis ran pretty well also !

 

Larry, I don't think that's a 49-51 Flathead bellhousing, notice the louver in the middle and the pressed in ribs, along with the upper perimeter is not the same. That looks more like a Lakewood to me.

 

all kinds of crazy stuff there

 

While it is interesting, I fail to see where any of these block modifications would really add much benefit? Maybe needed a steel bellhousing instead of the extended cast iron for safety. The shorter exhaust ports are not that much less than stock, and look like Olds pattern on the flanges. Just not really able to figure it out as to the why all this was done. It still has drivers left side starter which usually is a tight spot already, why not move that to right side?

 

Poor old Edelbrock 4x2 manifold, but neat to see the work done on modifying this motor. I wonder how much benefit was gained, but neat regardless.

 

It's a work of art....just enjoy looking at it!

 

Every picture shows more crazy stuff, amazing.
Some I get, most is curious to say the least.

 

With both heads off now you can really see how much material was cut away. Bell housing has angle brackets bolted to block And then housing with an aluminum plate spacer.

The guy that built the hardtop with this engine lightened everything thru out the car with holes every where frame and suspension . His son told me he beat every one at the track till Al Pombo made a comment about the car being unsafe and the officials outlawed the car. Next season pombo showed up with holes every where also!!

 

Wow thank you for sharing.