Talked with a guy last night that has a 394 out of a 61 starfire, he should have it home in a week he said and will send some pictures my way, but it comes with trans and he said the two are separated and motor came out of a running car, not sure, but thought a couple years ago. The motor has the chrome valve covers and air cleaner also and is complete. So I know this is a pretty wide open question, bit in your eyes, what would you think it's worth if it's free and not froze up? Also, with this being out of a 61 starfire......this should be the 330hp version I think, and with the year, will this have the same motor mounts that were pictured here a couple pages back, or which style.....were they all the same style mounts? Also has stock factory 4bbl and intake also.
From Carnut. This was the only 1961 4 barrel they showed. I don't know anything about these, but look at the low end torque. <TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 border=1><TBODY><TR><TD noWrap>325 H.P.</TD><TD noWrap align=right>V8-394</TD><TD noWrap align=middle>-4 Barrel</TD><TD noWrap align=middle></TD><TD noWrap align=middle> </TD><TD noWrap align=middle> 10.0 CR </TD><TD noWrap align=middle> 325 @ 4600 </TD><TD noWrap align=middle>/435 lbs@ 2800</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
Those are the numbers I saw when I originaly started looking at the 394's for and option, it seems that I have seen numbers all over the place for hp......320, 325, 330 and 345 so maybe they were different years of the motor?
Either way, that 325/435 combo would work just fine. Not getting my hopes up just yet, but hoping something pans out on it.
good point about compression ratios, if I remember correctly the '62-'64 394s had 10.25:1 cr and the '63 starfire had a whopping 10.5:1 cr something to consider if you have one of those ultra high compression motors and want to punch it oversize, you might need to buy some fancy fuel to run it
No punching here, I thought if I can run across one I would leave it stock as it is, more than enough for what I plan......will that 61 run well on 3x2's?
And what 3x2 manifold are you planning on using? The stock J2 manifold does not fit without some messaging! 57&58 371's had a different deck height than the 59-60 371s, which were de-bored 394s.
my actual slant pan is a B&M so I am pretty sure that it has the closer ratio 2nd to 3rd. I am after an Olds manual just to get the basics when I am in there. The ***embly should be the same for the B&M as it is for Olds/Pontiac. That and if I am gojng to have olds engines around it is a good idea to have an olds manual. I know the older manual won't cover my 394 but I already have all the pertinent information for that mill. Someone mentioned HP and torqu information. I have been all overe the web looking at specs and the most commonly repeated HP and Torque numbers that I have found are 335 HP and 445 pound feet for the 4 bbl model. I don't recall a year. I was talking to tony one afternoon and he said that 10.5:1 is what the higher performance 394 had for compression. I have a couple of avenues that I am exploring to be able to drive mine. I am hoping that there is enough overlap in my camshaft to kill it on the low end and that will help a bit. But with a stock cam you will need to work on either cooling your combustion chambers or adding octane or both if you run stock compression.
I will have to look around and see what's out there, I remember seeing earlier that the j2 won't bolt up and they were ok I guess for the application on the 371, but heard an aftermarket aluminum with a little more rise was a better way to go.
If you are wanting a three carb manifold for that 1961 you are pretty much locked into an aluminum aftermarket intake, but that is no problem as they show up on Ebay and swap meets pretty often, and maybe some are still being made. You have to be VERY careful though as I have seen intakes advertised as fitting the 394 when they are actually for an earlier block. The only ones that fit are made for 59-64 engines, so be sure you get one of those. I have heard you can machine earlier ones to fit, but have no personal experience with that. Here is the one on my 64 394 engine. They made this for the 4 bolt Rochester carbs and also the 3 bolt Strombergs. There are also some nice 2 x 4 intakes made for the same engine series. another view......... Don
Offenhauser still makes a 3 deuce manifold for the later 394. You can find them listed at www.offyonline.com
My plan is to run no fenders and also probably going with lake headers, so it should eliminate one or two of the problems. I have been looking around and have seen a few nice used 3x2 setups, but nice to know about the year range that fit, cause I have seen a few that say they fit 303 - 394 and as far as comp ratio, as far as 89 or 91.....preferably 91 I am sure.
mndodge; can I use your thread for a minute? I could use some help from all the Olds guys on here. I just pulled apart the block of the 56 324, to clean it up, and find out why they abandoned the project years ago. Well, I found it. Looks like #1 rod broke, then they found a used rod with used bearings...but then reused the damaged piston The broken rod dug into the cylinder wall, and you can see where they tried to clean it up with a die grinder. Some high spots remained, so it must have had piston slap. The #1 rod cap that I pulled a few days ago, showed a good crank, but now that the crank is out, #2 throw has metal transfer, probably from trash in the oil hole on 1 and 2. How does a rod break if that crank throw is OK? I am sure the crank was never removed. So my dilema is; I was now thinking about the 4" bore, either 352 or 371 pistons?, but if you look where the pencil is, there is a step on the bottom of each bore. That leaves a perfect flat bottom on the bore. I measured the gouge damage depth at around .020+, so a .060 overbore should clean it and that would leave some of the step still there. If I bore 4", the step will be gone and the bottom of each bore will now have a C-shaped cut on the bottom. Is that OK for the pistons? I thought about a single sleeve, and then find a good used piston...but.. Sad thing is that a NY hamber really wanted this bare 56 block for his show 56 restorations, and he can't find one. He already has everything new or remachined for it. So, I just let him know. I had planned on selling him this block and getting a 54/55 small cam block, so I could finally use a real nice NOS small journal Crower cam I have.
They can't all be odd like this one. I knew something was up when I saw all of the old boxes for lifters and gaskets in the car, and seeing the rockers removed. Nobody quits at that point unless something went way wrong. I can't wait for my hotrod motor friend to see why the top of #1 piston had what looked like semi-circle dings running all the way around. I told him I though maybe half a valve seat dropped in there, but we both realized the piston would never be there if it did. So we wondered if there was any way a throttle plate could get past the valve stem... we did not think so. So, the reason the marks ran all around, is that the disconnected piston was getting rotated and smashed into the valves. Who would think that was possible if the rod was now not broken.. He will s--- when he sees that I am still thinking about putting all the 324 stuff into a bored out 303. I just looked on ebay for one NOS 324 piston...nope, there were 2 303s and one 371 The other 7 pistons look low mile. I'd just get cast rings in nors. I still need to know why the 303 mains seem to be a different part, maybe I can't use this crank if I get it machined. this motor is still way better than the ones with rusted stuck pistons and a pan full of water.
As Goose said: "This is not good Mav, not good"! Just punch it out .060 all the way around, turn the crank .010/.010 and get back on track. The 56 version of the 324 is a better breather than the 54-55 324's. Those #10 heads will make your engine run better than the older 324's. You can find a cam for the 56 engine. Better get going on this baby!
It is not completely traditional but Tony sells a mini starter for them that may get you past the starter being next to the steering box. There are other options offsetting the engine is one, it was done in the past and engine is not required to sit dead center in the ch***is. This is going to make me sound dumb but other than adapter plates I don't see any way for an intake that fits a 303 to fit a 394. One is a tall deck and one is not. Never the less intakes are not that big a deal in the whole scheme of things.
You're right; in the place I like to call reality, there are three groups of intake manifolds for early Olds V8s---'49-'56, '57-'58, and '59-'64. The first group splits into two subgroups, '49-'53 (small ports) and '54-'56 (large ports). I buy and sell speed equipment all the time, and see more Olds intakes at swap meets than any other brand of vintage V8, so finding one that was made for your particular engine should not be an impossibility.
Something else that I sort of recall is that not all Olds 394 engines were painted the same color. I think the red ones were higher compression/more hp and the green ones were lower compression/less hp. My 64 engine was red and I was happy to see that, and the 59 engine I had was green. Don
It may have just been a matter of the year of the engine; I've got a '64 394 2 bbl engine and it looks like it was originally red.
I am probably going to sound like a **** here but unless you are restoring I don't see the importance of the engine being original color. Mine is Chevy orange and has been metalic blue at one time or another. I am thinking of painting it mostly black with all the tin being gold. Not for any other reason than I like the colors.
No, I wasn't saying to keep the engine the original color, I was just saying Oldsmobile color coded their 394 engines and that might help a buyer determine exactly what compression ratio and hp he has without tearing it down. Only restorers care about the original color, mine is painted white. Don
I am closing on you fast. But I wll never be your age I am afraid. I actually had a '64 Cop Car motor once, I robbed the Speedo from the same car because I have always had a thing for cop car speedos (not to be confused with cop speedos ). Anyway I have been wracking my brain and I can't for the life of me tell you any thing about the color of it.
mndodge; just wondering if you had the time to look at some of the local Olds motors yet? I've been spending a lot of time on the archives and tech threads on hamb. There is an overload of Olds info on hamb. One question I was searching for, brought me back to this thread. If my 56 block gets sold, I may be getting a fairly new set of .030 324 pistons as part of the transaction. Then I'd find a 54/55 block to bore. That is what I should do. If not, I guess I will grab a 303 bare block and hope I can bore it safely to 324. I'd just need to find one NOS GM 324 piston, if I can find out the GM number.. the stuff it still out there. I did find NORS set of 324 std to .009, file fit rings for $15 shipped.
F&J Nope not yet.......was planning on heading out to look at that local 394 yesterday, but one again the guy had a few things come up......he always has something that comes up it seems!! The other 303 i was waiting on pictures of.......well I am still waiting on pictures of, I'll tell ya people never stop amazing me! The other 394 "hopefully" will have pictures this week, that one is about 4 hours away. The other running 324 in the car that is in a barn...............STILL WAITING FOR PICTURES......go figure! I really would like to know what the hell is wrong with people, they post something for sale.....I call and say I have an intrest and would like to make a deal if I could see a few pictures and they cant even do their part......they are the ones that post they have something for sale and I the buyer will give them cash if they would do what they say they are suppose to do......what is wrong with this picture, am I asking to much for them to hold up their end of the bargin......they are the ones with stuff they want to sell, not me!!!!!!
The Jalopy Journal
