Fired my Oldsey today...

You Oldsmobile fans will recall the Jetaway 2 speed with the switch pitch stall converter, aka the Junk-away.
I will swap it out for a good Turbo 350; I understand it fits right in.
If I were you I would opt for a TH200-4R instead of the TH350. The cost will be about the same and it will bolt right in (if you get a BOP version). All you will have to do is drill some new mounting holes in the frame for the crossmember, install a TV Cable kit, and a shifter conversion kit. The stock driveshaft length is the same as the Jetaway as are the input and output shaft splines. Not only do you get a 0.67 overdrive gear for the highway (which reduces the engine RPMs and gets you better gas mileage), but you also get a 2.74 1st gear for better off the line acceleration than the TH350.
 
If I were you I would opt for a TH200-4R instead of the TH350. The cost will be about the same and it will bolt right in (if you get a BOP version). All you will have to do is drill some new mounting holes in the frame for the crossmember, install a TV Cable kit, and a shifter conversion kit. The stock driveshaft length is the same as are the input and output shaft splines. Not only do you get a 0.67 overdrive gear for the highway (which reduces the engine RPMs and gets you better gas mileage), but you also get a 2.74 1st gear for better off the line acceleration than the TH350.
This was my original plan. I am gonna find and talk to the best transmission people I can find. I figured the TH350 would be cheaper; if the cost is similar, the 200-4R is the way to go.
The other thing to consider is, I will never race this car nor will it see many miles. Dependability and simplicity are key.
And, anything is better than the JunkAway, even a strong 2 speed PG like Pontiacs used.
 
Yes.....I will butcher a clean rare survivor & not think twice about it. They're the best cars to Resto-Mod as you don't have to use a bunch of junk aftermarket trim & body parts.

Built a '67 Corvette Roadster resto mod out of a fully restored numbers matching 327/4 Speed car once....Used a Paul Newman Chassis which required a lot of cutting & patch panels to clear the C3 frame with C4 suspension. Sure was a blast to drive with a 427 LS7 & a T56!
Ouch! Really? Resto-mods are great, but I sure wouldn't take an original survivor car and use it for this purpose. What a tragic waste of history.
 
Your Oldsey takes me back.. My first car was a '64 Cutlass with the 330 cu in engine. It also had the 2-speed auto. If it was a 4-speed manual I'd still have it. Great car. Never let me down.
Replaced it with a '69 Datsun 2000 roadster. I liked to say that roadster would pass everything on the road with the exception of a repair garage.
 
Your Oldsey takes me back.. My first car was a '64 Cutlass with the 330 cu in engine. It also had the 2-speed auto. If it was a 4-speed manual I'd still have it. Great car. Never let me down.
Replaced it with a '69 Datsun 2000 roadster. I liked to say that roadster would pass everything on the road with the exception of a repair garage.
Yeah, the Cutlass was a trim option on the Olds A-Body. Our car has the Cutlass trim but the 4-4-2 overrides the name.
Later, Cutlass became an A-Body product of its own.

The '64 4-4-2 used the 330. You could easily turn it into a clone 4-4-2 with parts and no one would know.
 
In 1964, Jim DeLorean stuffed the 389 into the Tempest A-Body and wrote GTO all over it. To keep up, Chevrolet put thgether the Chevelle SS and Olds took the Holiday Coupe with Police Special configuration and 4 speed. With front and rear sway bars, this was the best handling A-Body. 7:75x14 bias ply white walls baby!
4-4-2 was 4 speed, 4 barrel and dual exhaust. But the small block cars could not run with the torque monster Pontiacs; in '65 Chevy used the 396 and Olds destroked the 421 to a 400. Automatics were offered in '65, so it became 400 cu in, 4 barrel and dual exhaust..

The 400 engine uses hydralic flat tappet camshaft. There were no solids. I MAY pull this one apart and install a hydrolic roller setup. People talk about hardened valve seats, but this car will not see many miles, so stock is fine. I had hardened valve seat installed in the Vette. It was more necessary because the valves were sunk into the heads.

Regarding the fuel tank, this is a California car, built at Fremont and always garaged. Interestingly, I have owned 3 cars built there: the 4-4-2, a '93 Toyota 4WD at NUMMI and our Tesla Model 3. I have the build sheet for the Olds.
The only rust is a tiny amount at the base of the rear window. Our '68 Corvette, on the other hand, had leaky pin holes in the tank and was a mess.

The trunk has an original tire for the spare and the houndstooth mat in perfect shape. Yes, several bodies will easily fit.

Thanks for all the kind words. This car is Sue's connection to her father; I can never sell it. If it were a Goat or Chevelle SS, it would be worth much more even though this is a very rare car in comparison.
You wanna borrow any of the other cars? Sure, just keep your hands off my Oldsey.
My favorite old car brand is Oldsmobile. My summer daily driver is an 84 Cutlass with a 76 350 Oldsmobile. The engine came from the junkyard with unknown but likely high miles and I've put over 100k miles on it in the past 13 years. It has used a qt every 2500-3000 miles since I got it and that's actually dropped a bit in 100k. All I've done is gaskets (except head gaskets) and timing set, water pump etc.

They were imo the best of GM's engines.
 
This was my original plan. I am gonna find and talk to the best transmission people I can find. I figured the TH350 would be cheaper; if the cost is similar, the 200-4R is the way to go.
The other thing to consider is, I will never race this car nor will it see many miles. Dependability and simplicity are key.
And, anything is better than the JunkAway, even a strong 2 speed PG like Pontiacs used.
From what I have seen, the cost difference between good rebuilt stock TH350 and TH200-4R transmissions is only about $300. It is well worth the price difference IMO. If you go with a junk yard transmission (something that I don't recommend) or want a high performance rebuilt transmission, there will be a bigger price difference. Since the TH200-4R is basically a TH350 with a 4th gear, the cases are the same length and about the same physical size, so the simplicity of the conversion is about the same, the only real difference is that the TH200-4R will require a TV Cable kit which runs about $100 to $125. Either way, you will need a shifter conversion kit.
 
From what I have seen, the cost difference between good rebuilt stock TH350 and TH200-4R transmissions is only about $300. It is well worth the price difference IMO. If you go with a junk yard transmission (something that I don't recommend) or want a high performance rebuilt transmission, there will be a bigger price difference. Since the TH200-4R is basically a TH350 with a 4th gear, the cases are the same length and about the same physical size, so the simplicity of the conversion is about the same, the only real difference is that the TH200-4R will require a TV Cable kit which runs about $100 to $125. Either way, you will need a shifter conversion kit.
Thank you. I have never installed a 200-4R. Sounds like it is time.
 
Ouch! Really? Resto-mods are great, but I sure wouldn't take an original survivor car and use it for this purpose. What a tragic waste of history

Plenty of them at a museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky, It's just a car that looked good.....But didn't stop or handle very well, My view is (I fixed it)!

That Vette was bought "Right"......It was sold under duress of a divorce & the crash of '08/'09. It was actually cheaper than starting with a basket case.

"Survivors" are usually defined as Unrestored-Original, This particular car underwent a full nut & bolt restoration @10 years prior using a lot of NOS parts.
 
From what I have seen, the cost difference between good rebuilt stock TH350 and TH200-4R transmissions is only about $300. It is well worth the price difference IMO. If you go with a junk yard transmission (something that I don't recommend) or want a high performance rebuilt transmission, there will be a bigger price difference. Since the TH200-4R is basically a TH350 with a 4th gear, the cases are the same length and about the same physical size, so the simplicity of the conversion is about the same, the only real difference is that the TH200-4R will require a TV Cable kit which runs about $100 to $125. Either way, you will need a shifter conversion kit.
The 200-4R shares nothing with a TH350, It's based directly on the TH200/TH200C......Hydramatic literally added a Overdrive Unit along with a Variable Displacement Pump to the front of a TH200 geartrian.

Needing a O/D depends on the final drive ratio that's in the car now. I doubt it's low geared.

Getting a 200-4R dialed-in perfectly is very difficult, The Governor is not so easy to access & no re-calibration kits exist. You almost need to start with a Monte Carlo SS core to have a decent calibration to start with.....I actually prefer the MCSS calibration to the Buick T-Type/GN/GNX.

Finding good 200-4R cores isn't easy, Desirable cores....Even harder.
 
My wife's father was a Clinical Psychologist (UCLA PhD) at the famous Napa State Hospital in Napa, CA.
In 1965, he was looking for a family car; he went to the Oldmobile Dealer in Redondo Beach and bought a special order 4-4-2.
Anyways, when he died 10 years ago, he gave us his beloved Oldsey; 94K, always garaged. It has to be one of the most original '65s left.
It has been sitting for more that 2 years in our condo's garage not far from our home.
Tomorrow termite sprayers will need to get into the garage so I had to move the Olds.
I bought an Interstate battery from Costco, primed the carb, aired up the tires. Fired right up. Yippie!
I am starting a plan to get the car up to snuff.
You Oldsmobile fans will recall the Jetaway 2 speed with the switch pitch stall converter, aka the Junk-away.
I will swap it out for a good Turbo 350; I understand it fits right in.
I put an Edelbrock manifold and Q-Jet on when I got the car due to the leaky, worn out 4-Jet.
There is a legendary guy in the area, "Henry at Ole's Carb" who will rebuild it for me.
Please excuse the dust...

I am jazzed. Dig the cool curb finder behind the rear tire...View attachment 36176
Sweet Jesus that's a beautiful car!!
 
Neat car! Don’t change a thing if you can avoid it. Just refurbish/rebuild what was in it originally. It’s a collector’s item, and you’ll only detract from that IMO to change something so original to something else.
 
Turbo 400 has an electric kick down, 350 has a manual. Both good transmissions. Rolls Royce used the 400 in many of their cars. If it were mine I'd go with a 700R4 type, 4L60, 4L80. You can buy them beefed up from a lot of shops.
 
Turbo 400 has an electric kick down, 350 has a manual. Both good transmissions. Rolls Royce used the 400 in many of their cars. If it were mine I'd go with a 700R4 type, 4L60, 4L80. You can buy them beefed up from a lot of shops.
The problem with using one of the transmissions you mention is that they are FAR from a bolt-in proposition, especially the newer ones which are computer controlled and lacking speedometer drives, and all of them are physically much larger and longer. The TH350 and 200-4R are both pretty straight forward bolt-in substitutions for the Jetaway and can even use the same drive shaft.
 
It's gonna be a TH350. While the low 1st gear and OD of a 200-4R sounds ideal, this car will see few miles.
Simplicity is key.

I appreciate all the kind words. There is something special about an old piece of Americana...
I love my Oldsey and this is a cool one!
 
Thank you. I have never installed a 200-4R. Sounds like it is time.
I recommend it. I've got about 270k miles on my 2004R in my 84 Cutlass, I think it's got a shift kit in it but it's never been rebuilt. Just fluid changes every 30k. I've also had several others with lots of miles and none have failed.
 
My wife's father was a Clinical Psychologist (UCLA PhD) at the famous Napa State Hospital in Napa, CA.
In 1965, he was looking for a family car; he went to the Oldmobile Dealer in Redondo Beach and bought a special order 4-4-2.
Anyways, when he died 10 years ago, he gave us his beloved Oldsey; 94K, always garaged. It has to be one of the most original '65s left.
It has been sitting for more that 2 years in our condo's garage not far from our home.
Tomorrow termite sprayers will need to get into the garage so I had to move the Olds.
I bought an Interstate battery from Costco, primed the carb, aired up the tires. Fired right up. Yippie!
I am starting a plan to get the car up to snuff.
You Oldsmobile fans will recall the Jetaway 2 speed with the switch pitch stall converter, aka the Junk-away.
I will swap it out for a good Turbo 350; I understand it fits right in.
I put an Edelbrock manifold and Q-Jet on when I got the car due to the leaky, worn out 4-Jet.
There is a legendary guy in the area, "Henry at Ole's Carb" who will rebuild it for me.
Please excuse the dust...

I am jazzed. Dig the cool curb finder behind the rear tire...View attachment 36176
Fascinating story, but what import is where he went to college, or what his educational attainment was or what job he had/where? Are you trying to impress someone?
 
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