I kind of broke it down with finding a few items on the hamb doing a search and thats not including the machine work, I think it is a step in the right direction for sure!!
I am counting up the change in the change jar, may have to go and donate blood to make up the balance......but I think it would be worth it
How would I know the car is not done....but, with all this Olds talk here, I am tempted to pull the motor, clean/paint and put the old chromed timing cover on...then start it up. I am running out of years I work on other peoples oldies and have been swamped. I have 2 days slack time, so maybe I'll try. I still need to check out the 324 at the wrecking yard in the AM, I got sidetracked today. EDIT: I no sooner said " I have 2 days slack time, so maybe I'll try." and I get a call that a rollback is bringing an oldie, right now, that just died out" oh well.
over $3,000 invested asking $2,500 shows you right there that it's tough to even get your money back in this game $2,500 might sound like a serious piece of change but to find a nice verified core set and choice parts all in one pile is worth thinking about. if you can get lucky you might come across an old hot rod or race motor and save a few bucks but you never know what you're getting I watch the ads and pick up anything that looks a good deal whether I need it or not, 'got at least a dozen early Olds motors laying around, rarely pay more than a few hundred bucks for one. picked this one up a year or so ago for a little more than 10% what that guy is asking, '55 324 high compression, solid cam, 3x2 with 97's, aluminum flywheel, starter switch over and Cad transmission converted to Ford toque tube. block had a cylinder or two that were rusted bad enough to need sleeving but I had enough spare blocks laying around that wasn't a big deal
on the other end is this one, after two cracked blocks, one cracked head, a thrashed crankshaft, and more little h***les than I have time to write about let alone the cost I finaly got this '57 together and run in. I say originaly a J2 but about the only things I used from that original motor are the piston rods and adjustable rockers, kinda like saying "I've had this hammer for years, replaced the handle five times and the head twice"
somewhere in the middle is this example, (I'm only showing these to give you something to look at and think about, don't mean to derail your thread with my ****) started as a good amature stock rebuilt low compression '50 303 for way less than the cost of a rebuild, and dropped a little blower on top with moderate boost, all parts picked up along the way, none bought in a haste or even with a specific plan, it all just came together, not real cheap but not too expensive either
two more examples, 'cause some of us like looking at crusty old junk, picked this '49 303 up a couple months ago for $100, and the guy even delivered it.. and a '63 rebuilt zero miles long block I picked up for $400 a couple years ago, shown here with some goodies d****d over it depending on what you have in mind, you might want to avoid the '49-'50 303 they have the smallest ports and weakest valve train, a head and push rod swap with higher lift rockers would help and I would also think again if looking at the '63-'64 394 as already said the front mounts may be a challenge, but the #23 heads are supposed to be as good as they got
Post # 37; that's a piece of history right there. All the goodies for the day and early headers, too.
Paul.......ALL I CAN SAY IS WOW, what great collection you have.....rust included!!!! By no means are you derailing this thread, That is why I posted on here because of cruising through the posts and seeing the knowledge and experiance that alot of the guys on here have that are on here!! In the intro of all this maybe I should have explained a little more, just getting back into the model A stuff, I had a real clean 31 sedan 15 years back and was moving onward with it and then went through the big "D" and I dont mean dallas.....and sold it. back in the mid eighties during the last year of high school and years after that, was really into the late 60's mopars, 340 darts and a 66 plymouth belvedere and a 70's dart 340 ******* and also 340 duster and 340 parts all over, had all these cars and parts and now its starting back up with the current car and the olds stuff I keep finding......so where does it end, not sure if it ever really does! I know with a few of the pictures you posted of the rockets you have, I was almost drooling on the computer.......you have some nice stuff there and it just takes time and not jumpiness to get some great stuff as you have over the years. I am just keeping my eyes open and watching for things that match up with the direction I plan to head.......I was just telling a friend of mine that a week before I bought the 29 I have, there was a 364 Nailhead around here that had great paint on it and had 70,000 original miles and had a ****** behind it and was a runner out of a guys project and i looked and looked at it wondering hmmmm, for 400 bucks what do ya get......well for that 400, somebody got a great little motor that he could toss a few dress up parts on and run while you work on a really nice rocket like the couple you posted!!! Once again, thanks for your input and replies.....!!!
F&J....your right about that picture on #37, that is a great set up.....looks like Paul has some great finds!!!!
That was a very cool find, not just because of the carbs and whatnot; it was the fact that it was also set up with the modified trans for the old torque tube Ford. Well, I did get to the wreckers this afternoon. I was sleeping the last time I looked as what they said was a "55". I went to put my 3/4 breaker bar on the crank and it was way too small. So Then I saw the carb was not a 55...and finally looked at the head numbers. #10 which is 56 only. So all we had was a cut fanbelt. My son held the two ends, and I did the fan. Got it to turn 5 degrees and we heard compression. Found the valve covers and rocker shaft in the back, and a used up 56 olds gasket set. So, I don't know if they did a teardown right before it got parked way back then, or what. But one rocker shaft and 8 pushrods were out, and the other side rocker shaft is backed off a little. I'm trying to get them down from 1k to 800, but I need to find out if the 56 trans is the "right" one, on another thread. You can't negotiate too much at a yard, in this price range, because s**** is $$. I'm 99% sure the 60,000 miles is correct
Seems like a decent find.....I know what you mean about the s**** prices, just yesterday when I was hauling in town for the day, I was heading back to reload and in front of me was a 65-66 ford pickup cab on it's way to the s**** yard two blocks away, cab had seen better days of course.....but another one gone!!! There is a steel rod mill in Minneapolis we haul out of and you can't even begin to imagine how many trucks are lined up with crushed cars for the shred processor they have.....I always look to see what's headed for never never land, always makes me wonder on my back-haul with 48,000 pounds of steel bars on my trailer, what gems donated their life to end up as a steel bar that will be heated and then pinched into a grinding ball and head for the iron or mines.....when you think about it, it all ends up being kind of a vicious circle!! I have thought about that 394 that I mentioned early on and he's asking 500 for it and was kind of thinking with how it's sat for the last how ever many year, it must be trash....but planning to take a peek just because it's there.....a guy just never knows!
I would. You won't know if it's stuck unless you try. I'd like to find a bigger one someday, but just don't see them here. I was looking at the handy specs chart on carnut.com under "car specs". Click on Olds, then the 1950, and it shows all the 50s Olds on one page to compare HP/Torque and at what rpm. Some of those motors are brutal
If you buy all that stuff and end up with a slip yolk for the hydro I need one for my B&M. So keep me in mind. Looks like you found a small gold mine. If I were flush I would be all over getting the phone number from you for the guy in case you decide to bail.
I made the call on this yesterday and from what the guy was saying is that the block needs another 1000 bucks or so of machine work, the pistons and cam are orig. so not reuseable and other motor is locked up and has been sitting outside with no carb on it......still alot of stuff, but with pistons and cam, that's probably another 650+ and with needing another grand in machine work, price really climbs when you add it up...............still, alought of cool stuff but just a little more than I can pocket right now.
Even with the additional machine work needed and more than likely adding the cost of an overhaul kit at $1600, is this still in the ball park for where a guy mostly winds up when building one of these? I was just looking at some money amounts that guys had stuck in their motors and.......some get up there. I was talking with one of my friends who is a chevy guy and he was telling me that he can put together a SBC that will have between 350 - 400 hp for right around 2100 - 2200 bucks.....I guess its easy to see why some guys take that route. I also have talked with a guy I know that has a 55, 270 super red ram hemi and it turns over, but has one stuck valve....but I can pick thyat up for 600......but I know they cost a bit to build, but then again what doesn't if you want to run something from that era.
I think the value on that deal is all the goodies, and how hard it is to find them all in a hurry. as far as quoted costs on many web forums on older motors: Some of the machining figures are way out there; almost like Nascar prep. well, sort of. I also don't get the big bucks kits. I think I could get nors bearings, rings and even pistons maybe. My preference is start with a low mile to avoid the bore and new pistons. Thousands of motors are just re-ringed and new bearings on a polished crank. If you are beating or racing it, yes it needs doing up in blueprint specs Most rod motors won't see 30,000 miles, or get hammered on too much. I have my own valve/seat grinder, so I can do a low mile motor without outsourcing if it was not stuck/rusted.
If the transmission has a "Park" position then you have the wrong transmission, a Jetaway. No Park: N Dr S Lo R is what you want. It will have a side cover on it if it is a dual range hydro, not that Jetaway thing.
As said before, the 63 and 64 engines (maybe the 62 too) went to a die cast aluminum front engine cover, and you cannot use the Hurst type front side engine mounts with them, as the bolt pattern is significantly different. Using the stock rectangular single center mount that goes at the bottom of the front engine cover, can be a problem with clearance/positioning on the front crossmember (where it usually ends up in early Fords). I dont find it that good of a design for a high horsepower engine. A good fabricator could fabricate hurst style front side engine mounts for the later engines, BUT, with engine movement, the longer bolts needed, can eventually elongate/oval the holes that go through the softer metal front engine cover. You might be able to use some steel inserts in those holes to minimize the problem. I know of this firsthand. I know somone was offering those types of inserts for older aluminum bellhousings, as I saw it in a rod magazine a few years ago. If you have a pretty strong engine and are using the stock Olds rear side engine mounts, you might want to have some spares around. My 40 Ford (with B&M Hydro) had a pretty radical 394 engine in it, and would break a mount (usually drivers side) every now and then. It would start as a crack to the rubber of the mount that just got worse and worse. I maybe should have used some sort of torque straps on the engine sides.
more food for thought, although not exactly the way I'd do it, saw this mount system at B'Proof, may not be up to the abuse a late 394 could dish out, but something like this would fit all years..
I believe that is waht they used. I think that the slant pan was actually built starting in '49 but also from what I understand the '56 was the mainstay for B&M. Paul, Here is a trick that an older friend of mine told me the other week. He's been an olds guys since just a little before dirt. He said when he was younger and pretty basically broke most of the time he couldn't afford to buy hurst mounts for his olds engines. He was telling me that back then Hurst mounts for SBCs were a dime a dozen. What he used to do was take a Hurst mount for an SBC and lay the olds front mount over it and draw a line around it. Then he would torch the arc out bigger in the chebby mount to fit the original olds mount, weld the olds mount in there and bolt it up and go.
My mount is similar to this however instead of just utilizing the 1 hole as above I drilled another hole into the corner of the block at the flat area just under the corner of the head. You can make a much stronger mount this way. I don.t know how to post pictures but if my son comes around I.ll have him post one for you.
That single mount front engine mount is a little problematic on the later engines, especially since the Hurst type won't work. What we did when we had this engine in a different car was to fab up a tubular mount that bolted to the original two holes under the timing cover, and had urethane bushings on the ends. We were planning on using the stock Olds bellhousing mounts on the two sides to complete the system. Here is how we had it done at that point: But after some thought we cut the whole thing up, sold off the front end, but saved the motor for the rpu project. Because the Bendstens adapter will allow us to run a TH350 with it's stock tailshaft mount I am going to build a Hurst style mount for the front. I plan on using the original two holes again, but tying it into a couple of holes on the front of the block. I think it will put less strain on the timing cover that way. I realize it will be a long distance between the front mounts and the trans mount, but I see no other way to do it. I'll just have to do it and see how it works out. Don
Some real interesting ideas for making it all work together.......I guess thats why it's called hot rodding.......great ideas, thanks!
Paul, I was doing some cruising on the past threads and ran across the one where you have the 303 test run.......damn, that is a great set-up!!!
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