Oddly enough that was the only year the block was entirely made out of Twinkie. What are you looking to find out?
this site has a ton of info on olds motors. http://www.442.com/oldsfaq/oldsfaq.htm as far as the'69 350, iirc, its one of the better ones.
My car came with a non-running Olds 350 approx 1979. I don't have any experience running an Olds 350 but did talk with a lot of people. The general consensus is that the engine is junk. Im working at swapping in a 264 Nailhead the Olds is going to the scrapper Unless anyone wants it.
Well "twinkie" does not sound so good. I was just wondering about basic hp, reliability, if there's much for speed parts, etc. Haven't been able to find much. There's a "rebuilt" one for sale so before calling the guy just wanted to get some opinions/info. Not a whole lot of info I could find on the web.
I've run several and never had any trouble. Good HP and torque, some aftermarket parts available, a little larger than a SBC. The 330/350/403 are all the same size physically. They were in Cadillac Eldo's for years, too. I 'm planning on using one in my 57 98 too.
I had a 72 Cutlass with a 350 2-bbl way back when. Heavy car, but it was a strong runner for an old crapper. Late 60s to early 70s spec engines would be the best of them. cheers Ed N.
I had a 71. Beat the everloving piss out of it for 6 months and sold it to a buddy who beat it further. When I got it there were 51,000 on the odometer. The old lady said it had reset once. So I figure at least 151,000. The guy I sold it to put a cam in it and said the valley area was packed with sludge. He burned through more right side rear tires than anyone I ever saw. It would have run for ever if the thing didnt fall apart due to rust. Very good engines.... for sure.
Have ran many late model Olds engines, 330 all the way up to 455. They will run forever with very little maintenance. Just keep the RPM below 5000 unless you modify the oiling system. The best small blocks (307, 330, 350, or 403) are the early ones with non windowed main webs. You can build cheaper engines, but if you are wanting a stock, long lasting engine, build the Olds.
They are good, my mom used to drive a 72' cutlass convert and it was fast and reliable even with a shitload of miles on it. Internals are higher quality than Chevys.
Great motors....plenty of torque out of the box. They sound beautiful with a cam and open headers......
Love'em. I'd take one over a Chevy 350 any day in a daily driver. (I like Buick and Pontiac 350s too, though, so maybe I'm just a BOP man!) As a teenager I beat on all three and never broke one.
bottom line... more power than a chevy with the same mods, really aren't much more to build than a chev, that '69 block is a GREAT one to get due to the quality of the steel and the non windowed mains, very reliable, much bigger aftermarket than people know, sound better than a chevy, don't have spark plugs under the damn exhaust manifold, have 10 bolts aroung the valve covers so they don't leak like a chevy, more forgiving to higher compression than a chevy. couple places to get info... www.oldspower.com real olds power www.442.com look up terry fritsch on realoldspower.com for some VERY potent short deck olds and designs a mean cam andy miller of olds performance products is another good resource and both of these guys are great to talk to. if you couldn't find much info searching the web, try turning your chair back around so it FACES the computer screem
Thanks for all the info guys. Skajaquada lots of links and info for sure. Thanks. Anyone know how hard to find a manual trans for the '69 or adapt plate?
it's pretty easy, just need a BOP bellhousing for a manual trans...fairly available. you do need to have the crank machined for the pilot bushing if it's not a manual crank but that's not too difficult. i'm a pretty hardcore olds guy (if you couldn't tell ) and can help you find plenty of goodies for it no prob.
There's one for sale thats been "rebuilt" and I'm thinking it would be a good fit for the '29 Sedan. I don't want a SBC but would like something thats not going to be impossible to find parts for. By the way whats "BOP" stand for?
Two of my friends had '68 Cutlasses with 350's back in the mid-70's. One was a factory 4 Bbl., 4 speed with a 3.90 posi, kind of a "baby" 4-4-2. It ran damn good and took a lot of abuse. The other started life as a 2 Bbl. backed by the BOP version of a PG. He bought it off his parents and went through the engine with 11 to 1's, Fireball cam, headers, high rise, etc. and swapped in a 3.90 posi out of a 4-4-2. It had lots of torque and pulled strong even with the 2 speed. The Rocket 350's get far too little love and respect. Same for the Buick and Pontiac versions. The earlier 330 crank has the same stoke and journal sizes but is forged and IIRC the 403's had better rods. If I had a good core and wanted something different I'd build one in a heartbeat.
Are manual transmissions or adaptors hard to find? I've done a little looking but all the adaptors I've found for Olds seem to end in '64.
What are you trying to adapt to it? The 350 Olds uses a standard B-O-P ( and Cadillac ) bellhousing and B-O-P and Chevy all used the same manual transmissions and clutches. The lower 4 of the 6 bellhousing bolts are in the same position as a Chevy. GM finally got smart in later years and made the 200-4R and some later TH350's with a "corporate" bolt pattern, meaning it had both sets of top holes for either a B-O-P or Chevy. There are adpater plates available to go from one to the other as well. Whatever trans you have I bet they make a Chevy adapter for it and with a little creative thinking and crafsmanship you should be able to make a Chevy adapter work if you can't find one for a B-O-P. On a manual trans swap the Chevy adapter should work pretty much as is, just read "Chevy" as "GM" when looking.
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