my buddy is looking at this 1950 olds 4 door with a bad 303. body is in near perfect condition inside and out. so the issue is hes on a small budget and were trying to see whatbthe cheapest option to get this sweet ride back on the road is going to be. obvious answer was a 350/350 combo. now my concern, since ill be heavily involved in gettin this car on the road, what are the obstacle to be faced when doing a v8 350 swap? are motor mount in diff spots? are headers gonna be a tight fit? trans cross members different? can i keep the stock rear? etc, etc.. oh and is there any olds parts website? im having trouble finding any info on v8 swaps so some advice would be appreciated. the hamb is a wealth of information. on other news, i became a dad this past wed for the first time. so awesome to have this little girl in our home! cant wait to p*** down the love of rodding!
Front mount on Olds is a single mount at dead center, right behind the crank pulley...not like SBC Rear mounts and it's crossmember on Olds is at the sides of the bell housing, not like TH350. So you will be making new mounts. Sometimes, all the new parts needed for a 350 swap will be a lot more than just fixing the 303 if it is not totally junk. Find out what is wrong first. IMO I never did that swap, but I would think it should be simple. The rear end is fine as is.
I had a friend in high school who had a '50 Olds 88 4 door with 303. Those are nice looking, nice sounding, pretty good running little engines. There are several sellers on eBay who sell re-ring kits. Kanter and Egge have pistons, etc if you need those. I think F&J gave some good advice. You have to pull the 303 anyway, so yank it and tear it down and see what you have.
Talk to Tony at Ross Racing in Ohio. He is up on all the Olds stuff. IMO I would fix the Olds or find a running 303/324 engine and use that. Much easier and it will look original. Search CL. There are always Olds engines for sale. There is an original 303 (1950 )just north of you that was taken out back in the day and has been kept in a garage. It is spotless. I have his number somewhere if you want to pursue it.
headers won't fit due to steering box, will have to make your own trans X member, will have to make front engine mounts onto the front X member too. Doable, but you will get a lot here say don't. Or. 1. redo origninal olds motor 2. put later olds motor in lots of extra $$ go into swapping a non olds in that if you do the math the origninal motor might be cheaper to do a basic rebuild on.
well the issue is thst my buddy has a limited budget and alls he wants is a 50 olds. so we figured that either finding the missing parts for the 303 on the car we found plus rebuilding the engine would exceed his budget. also, ive seen that 303 in north jersey but they want $2300 for it. that would put him over his budget, especially since the car will need other things replaced before its road ready. i know throwin in a sbc isnt the ideal thing to do, but i think for my buddy its def the cheaper option. to be clear, the guy is asking $4000 for the car, and we have a $6500 budget currently. i know its chump change but, its all we got to work with. my buddybhas it set in his heart to own this car, im just the one trying to figure out how this is gonna work. hah. its how it goes when u have friends who love hotrods but arent mechanically enclined, that have friends who are mechanics(me).
ok, so it seems perhaps doin a sbc swap might not infact be somewhat cheaper than rebuilding the 303, ey? gosh, hate to burst my friends bubble! haha
Please don't butcher it up , so fix the 303 or find a good one and go back stock. And back in the early '60's, I saw a '49/'50 or so Coupe that had a RARE 3-speed stick in it. Don't remember if it had O/D on it or not?? pdq67
It's just that a lot of people don't really sit down and make a complete list of things that need buying, to swap a different motor in. Like a new radiator, because Olds has the lower hose on the driver side, SBC is p***enger. Make a list after looking under the hood. Hard to say which will be cheapest.
$2,300 sounds pricey for an Olds with a bad engine. I bought my 53 for $1,800 and had it running within the weekend.
$2300 is an ad on craiglist for a unrebuilt 303 and auto trans. the car itself is $4000 but there is ZERO rust on the vehicle. its an older restoration but the motor is apart and the rocker arm ***embly, and all the top end is missing. just heads with valves and block. but it looks pretty rusty. either way to rebuild the engine and to find all the missing top end pieces i think would be very expensive and parts are hard to come across.
I am a fan of Olds engines, however if I was on a budget, I would swap in a Chevy. If your buddy did it like Rocket 88, he could always reinstall an Olds. This is a couple of shots for size comparison, the next time you see Olds valve covers on a Chevy, have a good laugh.
My 53 is also rust free garage kept its entire life and came with all original paperwork. Mines a 98 and parts are a little harder to find around here, especially if your on a budget.
no ones saying 100% that it isn't, but look at the info you provided originally, not a lot to work on. Like anything, it depends on whats wrong with the motor, I see now say that the motor looks like a parts deal only. I have , late last year swapped a later Olds motor and BOP trans into my 55 so I do have an idea on costs and what trips you up on these things. if you want some photos of what I did , which included fitting a new booster and MC and swinging pedal ***embly, pm me your email and I will send them on to you as it might just help you out on planning what your going to do. so heres a bit of a list. Radiator, either you will need to take it to a guy to have the outlets moved or a new one ?? new speedo cable. ?? reverse lock out switch engine mounts trans mount exhaust radiator hoses fluids trans cooler as the hydramatics didn't have one into the radiator Hooking up the accelerator hooking up the gear selector driveshaft Its a decent job all in all and a lot of things end up costing $$ and adding up, just the small stuff, even fluids add up, hoses etc. its amazing how much you spend on this stuff. good luck with it which ever way you go. good to hear he wants an olds.
im the buddy with the dreams of haveing the olds thease are pics of the engine bay View attachment 1931408 View attachment 1931408 http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=1931418&stc=1&d=13680768641931419[/ATTACH]
That motor does not look like most high mileage engines, because I don't see much sludge build-up. If It were mine, I would pull the heads off because stuff probably fell down the intake ports. And then you can check the bores...if that looks good, then drop the pan and valley cover to see more. I would try to save it. If it is not rusted pistons, or other major damage, I bet you can fix it way cheaper than a motor swap to SBC. If the parts are missing, you can find them easy. I might have all of it, if you are travelling through CT for a show or a trip.
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