My friend was gona scrap a 61 olds 394 with 4 barrel intake. said it ran when he pulled it out of his parts car. missing valve covers but other wise complete. do you think its worth grabing for future projects? what kind of trannys work with these? thanks
Well, they sure as hell aren't going to make any more of them, so.....'61 was the year that Olds redesigned the exhaust ports, and they're quite large. As said, if you've got a place to store them where they won't deteriorate, get 'em.
Yep I would grab it they are getting hard to come by and while they are not the prettiest engine that are pretty stout and ad a little pizzaz to your rod. By the way it will have a forged lower end and if it is a 4 bbl car it will be about 10.5:1 from the factory.
They are getting harder to find. Check the cast number on the heads above the back exhaust port and whether the middle port has 2 or 3 bolts. Olds heads are rather unique because they all inter change bolt hole wise, not necessarily advantageous (394 #23 on a 303) Save the 4 brl manifold for sure, nobody is currently making a alum 4 brl for any of the 3 deck height blocks far as I know. The crank can be turned down to fit a earlier block, as previously stated all the Olds stuff was forged. The cam was unique in the 371/394's it's slightly longer.Worth not scraping IMHO.
My 2 cents. Had a 63 Olds 88 394 "Ultra Hi Compression" back in 72 Incredible torque, at incredibly low RPM. Perfect for lite hot rods. Always good to have!
bolt on transmissions: dual range hydro, dual coupling hydro, roto 10 (slim jim), manual transmission. Others will need adapter.
Unfortunately, they don't have a ton of transmission options available, and some of what are available aren't "well loved". The engine more than makes up for that problem though. I have a 394 in my '64 model 98 convertible, and it is surprisingly fast. It will easily hang with the 327 in my SS Impala, a much smaller car.
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