303 olds experts?

I have a 303 olds from a 50 olds, it has 13.1 pistons, and a really stout cam, sorry I dont know its specs, has 324 heads, was built in 62 by a guy in AZ and ran in a model a g***er, now is going in my henry j g***er project, however the guy I got it from said they had soft cranks, is this a problem in them? Is there a new solution? Jim

 

Never heard of that, maybe goatroper02 has some insight on that.

 

I never heard of that either, I had several 303 Olds, all bored to 324, and never had a poblem with cranks. I seem to remember that all of mine were .010 under when I built the engines .

 

All 303 and 324s had soft cranks. You would run the silver babbit bearings in them. We have been runnig yours with normal bearings and have had no problems for over 20 yes. The guys at EGGY can give you the real lodown if you wish.

 

OK, I was told by Gary my buddy that has had this engine and trans since the 50's that this is a problem with them, so I wanted to know if there was a cure for it before I put it in the car. Jim

 

Buy a **** I suppose. I can't imagine that if the crank was going to go that it wouldn't have already gone.

 

Well he just putted around in the car, never really ran it hard because he was told this and always worried about breaking the car as it was his only car to drive, it is a thumper of an engine and a hell of a trans! He had a really nice setup and I am sure it would have ran hard but he was always scared to hurt it and he has p***ed that fear on to me now I guess.....Jim

 

Run it if it breaks build it better.

 

I have run both the 324 and the later 371/394 Olds motors..... Way back... anyway, All these cranks were in need of a treatment to harden the surface of the journals. The "first cure" I tried was "Hard chrome"... Worked, not many places do it anymore (Hank the Crank did, I used a company called Specalized Hard Chrome in Fresno) But a better solution is to have them Nitrided.... You need a REAL Crankshaft Craftsman that understands these old beasts..... That's my opinion/experience....

 

49-64 Oldsmobile crankshafts are high carbon, drop forged heat treated steel. Oldsmobile did a exceptional job on the crankshafts, no production GM crankshaft was ever better, absolutely nothing "soft" in the material or finish. Stroker jobs got tufftrided and possibly hard chrome plated on journals after normalizing and reheat treatment after welding or metal spraying and finishing to size, and the quality of that work would depend on the shop doing the job. The only one which could be called odd was some 1953 production used a four counterweight crankshaft, but they are so scarce you might never see one, and they should not be used for high output engines anyway. Tip of the hat to Gary for running a real man's compression ratio, but the stock soft crank thing is a crazy unfounded rumor.

 

The "soft" crank story is probably an aftereffect of old oil and filter technology, allowing much more grit in than we currently expect to see. As Drum Brakes said, the cranks are fine and any car guy with gray hair knows that Olds was the GM division for wild engine designs.

 

I have been around a lot of leaned on Oldsmobile's, and never heard of soft cranks being a problem. But High RPM oiling failure has led to some rod and crank bearing failures. There are two schools of thought on that also, some say the oil doesn't return to the pan fast enough and others say the pump ****s the pan dry under hard launch or extended high RPM.

 

100% CORRECT, in both my opinion and in experience also.... That's why Nitriding works so well on them!!

 

Soft? BS......The forged cranks in these engines are some of the stoutest of the era.... We have used many in reground form all the way to offset ground and reheat treated form..... Haven't failed one yet.....What we do to them depends on build style of course.
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Pictured here .....Art's 550 coupe with a 371 that doesn't have a heat treated crank..... It was in for freshen this spring after being raced for 4 years.... A lite polish and right back in..... Dont get me wrong... Had I had the option to put a nitrided crank in when we built originally( in something we are thrashing), I would have... But there wasn't time to wait at that time....goes to show with good maintenance stock can hold up.....next are our stage 1&2 Olds cranks in heat treated and lightened versions..... Both 324's .... Just makes an already stout stock piece tougher yet.
But in mild performance builds stock cranks are just fine.

 

Or if your really serious....we offer the billet strokers for your 49-64 Olds

 

I also believe in nitriding. Sort of a casehardening for cranks and such. On any engine that has had the crank ground it's a good idea if not always necessary.