Sorry for not updating!
The Cutlass is still in pieces. I could not find a dipstick tube for it, so ended up taking the oil pan off the old 307 and beating the tube out of it from the bottom. Man what a MESS, that 307 was NASTY inside. I kept the oil changed the year I had it, but the bottom of the pan was full of chunky sludge. It’s no wonder the car had no oil pressure if it was sucking that into the engine. Yuck.
I had to take the passenger side exhaust manifold off the 307 to get the dipstick tube out as well, the tube runs under it, between the manifold and the block. It’s amazing how small the 307 exhaust ports are, they are round, and about the size of a quarter. It’s no wonder those engines are so weak, they can’t breathe! The ports on the 350 are HUGE in comparison.
Also had a little issue with belt alignment. The 350 harmonic balancer is just a tad wider than the 307, so I have to put one washer on each of the water pump studs to align the upper and lower pulleys.
The current issue is sorting out the vacuum stuff. I’m not running a smog pump on the 307, and have removed all the emissions-related garbage, but still have the EGR, have to make the carb and cruise control work.
The carb, distributor, and overdrive in the transmission are all controlled by the computer….and I don’t know how the computer is going to react to the having the majority of the emissions devices removed. I really hope the car runs and shifts!
I’m thinking if it doesn’t run, or runs terrible, I may have to get an aftermarket carb, a pre-1980 vacuum distributor, and an aftermarket switching device for the overdrive, and just totally take the stock computer out of the mix. I guess we’ll see soon enough! Getting close to turning the key!
It is cool to finally SEE the engine in the car! Will keep you folks updated.
-Mike