Oldsmobile 350 Rocket Motor

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1972 Cutlass Supreme with 350 Rocket motor 300,000 miles. I used Valvoline 10w 30 when the car was given to me.

The car has been in the family since the early 80's. The car was given to my older brother(6yr difference between us) as his first car, graduated in 96. I picked the car up from my brother in Texas after we installed a 600cfm edelbrock carburetor on the motor, I drove it back to Oklahoma for my high school years as well. But, I installed a RPM intake manifold,hooker headers with flowmasters, and a B&M megashifter to race the car and my brother had the 350 turbo transmission rebuilt with a shift kit when he had it.

The motor was still running when I decided it was time to rebuild the motor back in 2007. My landlord and his twin brother dropped a big Cottonwood tree on my cutlass from back to front down the middle and turned it into a "vrod" as my buddy said when he got to see the car (totaled). No motor or transmission was in that car, they could've pushed it out of the way.

When I broke the motor down, all that I found was a Crane Cam and a Hi-Volume oil pump that was installed. Everything else was stock from what I could tell I still have all of the motor parts to show anybody that is interested.

Ten years later and I'm finally going to hear what my Motor build sounds like this year. I put it in a 1970 Cutlass Supreme this time around. I also have many pictures that I can post on whatever you would like to see.
 
2nd on the pictures!! I'd like to see pictures of the 72 and 70!! My first car was a 74. I remember the air cleaner cover having the "Rocket 350" sticker on it.
 
Would love to see some pics! My first car was a '74 Cutlass Supreme, silver with a black top
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Originally Posted By: OVERKILL
Would love to see some pics! My first car was a '74 Cutlass Supreme, silver with a black top
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Sweet!! We had almost the same car! Mine was blue with the white landau top,white vinyl seats,and those paint matched Cutlass wheels. Something I thought was "ahead of it's time" was that it had an AM-only radio like alot of cars from the 70s did,but it had two speakers (one of the left of the dash and one on the right) instead of that one large oval speaker in the middle of the dash like so many cars had back then. Maybe the left and right speakers were there for the "optional FM stereo radio"? I wish I had pictures on mine,which I don't know if any exist.
 




Pictures of the car, my mom has a picture of car the with my brother when he first got the car. I will take another picture of whatit looks now as a parts car because the image was to big. I don't feel like cropping it either.
 
I put a 350 Olds motor from a 1970 Cutlass in my 1977 Olds 98, to replace the 350 Olds engine that was in the car. It was a 2bbl motor with a points ignition.

Years later, I rebuilt the '70 engine. Among many things, installed a Competition Cams 252H cam with new lifters and I retrofitted the cast iron manifold, Q-jet and HEI distributor. It ran great.

Still miss that car. Your post brings back memories of fixed post aluminum rocker mounts, of fine tuning ring end gaps, of plastigauges in each bearing, of fabricating an oil pump drive to spin the pump with my electric drill before starting, and of running at 2,000 RPM on start-up to break in the flat hydraulic lifters...

Cheers,
Astro
 





I cropped them for you and they both had matching stock rims on color

The front end is missing off of the 72 because I put a stage 3 PST front suspension on it before the tree got dropped on the car.
 
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ARP as much as I could

More Machine work to get these guys to fit. Crane also didn't size the holes bigger on their guide plates(only fits stock size not 3/8 in. Stud Size)

https://m.summitracing.com/parts/CRN-80744-1


I also tried looking for serpentine belt brackets on some of the last years of the small block rocket motor on vehicles. Obviously, I haven't found one yet and the one off of Summit is expensive.

https://m.summitracing.com/parts/mch-16030
 
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Originally Posted By: Red91
Nice to see a Cutlass. Around here everyone does Chevelles.


Same here...I prefer the Olds and Buicks (70-72)
 
Originally Posted By: Letsrunum
ARP as much as I could

More Machine work to get these guys to fit. Crane also didn't size the holes bigger on their guide plates(only fits stock size not 3/8 in. Stud Size)

https://m.summitracing.com/parts/CRN-80744-1


I also tried looking for serpentine belt brackets on some of the last years of the small block rocket motor on vehicles. Obviously, I haven't found one yet and the one off of Summit is expensive.

https://m.summitracing.com/parts/mch-16030



That's a pretty serious camshaft in a 350 Olds. I'd recommend a minimum of a 2800 stall converter and a minimum of a 3.55 rear gear (3.73 preferred) for that cam.

I also realy like Oldsmobiles, it's the business man's muscle car.

I liken building an engine and hearing it come to life to as close as a guy can get to child birth. I still follow up on all of my "children" that I have built over the years ranging from stock rebuilds (the oldest approaching 200,000 miles) to race engines to see how they're doing.
 
The 1970 I bought, I didn't check the whole car on what it had already 307(not suppose to be in that car) and found out it the rear end had already been upgraded to a 12 bolt rear end. That's a plus, I will need to upgrade some things. My carburetor is undersized and the stock stall converter needs upgraded like you said.

I bought it for $1,500 running
 
I will get a bigger intake manifold and go with holley when it's time for that upgrade.

I have American Racing Torq-Thrust II rims, 15x7 215/65/R15 15x10 295/50/R15
 
https://m.youtube.com/watch?list=PLGXtdhFN8RSpi0WuPfESHkFvPi5tDrGoh&v=zxJt_cM4G4k

big block 455 that had the most torque out of a motor back in 1970


What it took to take it out

https://m.youtube.com/watch?list=PLGXtdh...amp;mode=NORMAL


I found this for the corvette and he was using taller gears than the 442 with his front wheel possibly off the ground. Cutlass still hooked and got the jump. I was impressed with the cutlass doing that.

http://www.69corvette.com/69specs.html



I found a place on the web saying 3583 (442)

http://whatiscurbweight.com/vehicle-weight/oldsmobile_curb_weight.htm


I've been trying to find one that has the 440 6pack Barracuda vs 455 442 cutlass. No.1 vs No.2, which one had the fastest car in the 1/4 mile?
 
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