What a cool site. I'm not sure I'm doing this right but here goes. Born a car nut back in '48. Frist car was a '49 Pontiac Silver Streak not even powered by a Straight 8 but a lowly and oh-so-slow six backed by a hydro. Installed a '49 Olds and hydro in '64. Much better ride! Have owned way too many cars of all makes but gravitated to the big FE powered FoMoCo in the mid sixties. Currently driving my 8 year project, a '60 Sunliner true 352HP/360 horser now powered by a '63 427 still backed by the original T85 w/O.D. and 4.56's out back. Runs okay for 4,400 lbs. - 14.5/99 mph last summer at the local Spokane drag strip. About a month ago I finally acquired the project I've been working on getting for ten years. A '49 Olds 76 Coupe that became what looks like a '50 88 back in 1961. The seller bought it out of a wrecking yard back then with a wiped out nose. He immediately bought a '50 88 that had been rear ended and transformed the looks of the lowly 76 into a '50 using much of the parts from the 88. He was a drag racer and wasn't into anything automatic so he installed a '40s era Cad LaSalle side shift stick along with a '55 324. He immediately won a trophy racing it at Deer Park Dragstrip North of Spokane. He won another trophy in '62 all while it was his daily driver. He kept the factory 76 4.10 gear out back. He last fired it in '69. Sat behind his house until just a month ago. It's now at my shop along with two pick up loads of spare parts that came with the deal. Parts like extra LaSalle*******s and gears, an E'brock OL396 intake topped with a trio of Ford Model 59 carbs(and linkage too), the 303 that came from the '50 88 donor, extra heads including a set of '56 #10 castings complete, and lots more. I feel very fortunate and Thankful to be able to take a full circle trip back to kinda where I started - with a GM car. I'd always wanted my nice '49 Pontiac to be an Olds but it wasn't quite right. Thanks for letting my blab. Here's what I'd like to find to help me lay the plans, the Doc Frohmader article/series on building an old school 324. I've found the article on building a 394 and of course I dream a little about doing a 394 for the car but I think I'd prefer to have a nice old school driver with 324, mild solid cam(An Engle grind would be perfect), headers, Edelbrock intake, etc. and very importantly, keeping the Hurst stirred LaSalle transmitting things back to the 4.10s. So that's enough from me. I'll attempt to attach a pic but I'm sooo low tech I'll probably screw it up. But I'll keep working as I can to get better. I'm happy to have found this site.
Thanks. Like you I'd always wanted an '49-'50 88. My favorite body style is the Sedanette like the one Gene Adams raced and set all kinds of records with. Have heard/read that he still owns it. I remember it was built with a 371 backed by a LaSalle. Don't know much more about it. It was black, fast, and beautiful.
Hard to beat a 324 Olds. In my first car, 40 Ford coupe, I had a stock 324 Olds bolted up to the stock forty trans. I was 15 at the time and my Dad would take me for the cruise around the block every now and then. He blew that poor little trans during one of these adventures. After that we bolted a Hydro to her still using the stock 4:11 Ford rear end. Never had any problems after that. She'd lay rubber for half a block.
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