5.0 ho weirdness

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L67ss

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Dec 8, 2016
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So on two completely different cars I've had I've found some oddness with the engines. Both cars had ho 5.0s tho neither was supposed to. The first was an 83 caprice with a 305 ho. According to info I found it wasn't even available in caprices till 84. Was before I understood rpos so I didn't check those. The second one is my current 86 cutlass. From what I've read it was def an ho 307. I knew RPO thing this time around and the car had an RPO for a base 307. Both cars were bought new by really old people. I know the second owners of both(second owner of caprice in bro in laws dad lol) that bought both cars from original owners in early mid 90s. Both were granny specials(tho the olds had f41) down to power everything, wire hubcaps, and pillow top seat and vinyl tops. Were they an early warrantee thing? I could mebbe see the olds having it dealer installed as they used it to pull an aerostream trailer. But the caprice?
 

clean8485

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Dec 18, 2005
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Just being curious here. So you're saying that the Caprice had an HO305 Chev, and the Cutlass had an HO307? How do you know that these engines were in these cars? Did both cars have the RPO codes for those engines, or did they have the VIN codes for the HO engines? Did you check the suffix codes and casting numbers on the engines to verify that they are HO engines? To the best of my knowledge, the HO305 Chev was only available in the F body cars (Camaro & Firebird), and the Monte SS. As for the Cutlass, as far as I know, the HO307 was only supposed to be available on the Hurst Olds and the 442. As I said, just being curious.
 

L67ss

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Dec 8, 2016
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Well like I said I didn't know about rpos when I had the caprice. Friend at a shop ran head and intake PNS and they came back as 305 ho parts. And on the cutlass the RPO says reg 307 but the parts on the motor and somewhat along with how it ran leads to 307 ho
 

TURNA

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Jul 24, 2009
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Nothing GM put out in the late 70's early 80's surprises me.

Pontiac's with Olds engines,,,,,Pontiac's with Chevy's.........Chevy's with Buick's....

I think they just put in whatever was laying around at the time.......
 
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Oct 14, 2008
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Yes the 307 would have the real balancer and a 3 groove? crank pulley like earlier 350's, different code carb and ecm as well. I am guessing no dual snorkel air cleaner or dual outlet exhaust. Being an 86, did it have cast iron or tubular manifolds? Tubular manifolds are a dead give away to the regular Vin Y 307.
 

-83MONTESS-

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Nov 4, 2010
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HO or not they were still all turds lol.
 
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axisg

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Jul 17, 2007
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There were quite a lot of warranty repairs done on the 5.0 chevs in the 80's due to wiped cam lobes and the introduction of lead free fuel. Friend and I had a side business going at his dads shop in the mid-late 80's. $500 for a diesel engine flush, RV cam, timing chain and new valve seals.
Point being a dealer would likely swap a motor before tearing into one deeper than the valve covers for a warranty.

307's didn't have many problems from what I recall. Other than being sloww
 

L67ss

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Dec 8, 2016
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2 groove pulley but from what I remember it had cast iron. Another thing I remembered from when I pulled it out for the 350 olds it all of the teeth on the distribor were worn to knife edges. On the olds it having the ho really isn't too weird to me because like I said it makes sense that it could have been dealer installed as either an option or as a warrantee repair. Its the caprice that kinda confuses me lol. Can't really ask the original owners because the original owner to the olds died around '98 and the caprice original owner around 2000
 

L67ss

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I do still have the PCM still to the olds but knowing Arkansas dealers they prolly wouldnt have changed it lol
 
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