82 cutlass supreme to 355 sbc

[dave_s1987]

The lifters falling out is a problem. You need to put the lifters back onto the lobe they came off from - it is critical. Otherwise you can expect a flat cam in a hurry and a complete rebuild will be needed in short order. The good news is that cams are cheap, less than $300. But those heads don't help much.

Your at a point where you need to decide to do it right or poke and hope. Doing it right isn't that hard with some basic tools and someone to gyuide you.

You really need to post what you want to do with this motor and what your budget is. If you ask, then I'll answer, and being that I'm somewhat new to this forum I don't know too many people here, but I would assume that there are many that can guide you through a basic cam

The lifters falling out is a problem. You need to put the lifters back onto the lobe they came off from - it is critical. Otherwise you can expect a flat cam in a hurry and a complete rebuild will be needed in short order. The good news is that cams are cheap, less than $300. But those heads don't help much.

Your at a point where you need to decide to do it right or poke and hope. Doing it right isn't that hard with some basic tools and someone to gyuide you.

You really need to post what you want to do with this motor and what your budget is. If you ask, then I'll answer, and being that I'm somewhat new to this forum I don't know too many people here, but I would assume that there are many that can guide you through a basic cam and head swap. The tuning is much more difficult than the assembly IMO.

First item on the agenda is to inspect the bores above the pistons and drop the pan and check a couple of main and rod bearings to determine if the short block needs work (if it's a time bomb) presently.

Best of luck - Jim

Well to be honest when i bought that motor I had a friend come and we took the oil pan off and he inspected it and said it is good down there. Wouldn't let us remove the heads though.. Understandably. So I was buying that motor with the idea of clean and paint and drop it in. Possible do some work to the heads if its in the budget. The rest of my cash just went to a few minor upgrades plus transmission and rear end coming up next week. (Ate up a lot of cash there lol) As far as the lifters coming out I was told the new set I bought would be fine to use but trying To guess where the old ones go was a no go. My friend said people will actually put used cams in with new lifters and it's quite common. I'll really have to look into what you said before I put the heads on it and maybe I'll just buy a new cam.. We'll have to see. Thanks for the info though. But basically to answer your question my intentions/plans for this motor were/are to clean it up and make it look pretty and at the same time hopefully find the right deals on performance Parts to buy and bolt on it. I never found any heads that were in budget so most likely if I dknt get anything within the next 3 weeks than those 882's are gong back on. it is what it is k guess lol thanks again For tips!

 

[pontiacgp]

yeah, it similar here but I'm not sure of the exact rpm. They have to build and race within a certain guideline so it wasn't as abused as bad as one would think. He also told me right now it was not running on pump gas when taken out of the circle track car but said it should start with premium gas and will run poorly until I adjust the timing? Not sure if that makes sense? luckily once the motor is in a friend is going to help me with stuff like that lol

I didn't look to see your in Ontario too. The tracks up here limit the rpm to 6200 if you have a crate and some lower that if you have a built engine. I'm not sure what division he ran cause that engine is more than most tracks allow for a super stock That might have been in a late model or a limited late. In that division they allow a 4 barrel carb on a crate and a 2 barrel on a built. The again it may have been in a dirt car and I'm not sure what rules they have. Either way you I think you have a good engine

 

[dave_s1987]

I didn't look to see your in Ontario too. The tracks up here limit the rpm to 6200 if you have a crate and some lower that if you have a built engine. I'm not sure what division he ran cause that engine is more than most tracks allow for a super stock That might have been in a late model or a limited late. In that division they allow a 4 barrel carb on a crate and a 2 barrel on a built. The again it may have been in a dirt car and I'm not sure what rules they have. Either way you I think you have a good engine

Oh yeah, I see you're from Kitchener area. That's by far at all.

All that I know is he told me that it was in a car that was a cas-or car. Not even sure what the stands for lol

 

[pontiacgp]

cascar are what they call sportsman these days. We ran in the Lucas Oil Sportsman Series. We ran a Lietch engine for a while then switched to this car and ran a 604 crate

 

[pontiacgp]

if you want a good place to get exhaust work done Budget Exhaust on Harvester Road did mine, they are real good and very affordable

 

[dave_s1987]

That's a sweet looking race car there my friend! Id love to see that thing in action some time. I'm actually at work now which is right down the road from the budget exhaust on harvester. I just finished notching out and welding my crossmember for a planned dual exhaust next month, but havent figured where i was going ot be getting the work done or if I was just going to order some sort of bolt on kit. I'll definitely be giving budget exhaust a call to see what they can do now that you've given me some positive feedback. Luckily its literally 2 seconds form my house and work 🙂 what kind of exhaust did you have them do if you don't mind me asking?

 

[64nailhead]

Well to be honest when i bought that motor I had a friend come and we took the oil pan off and he inspected it and said it is good down there. Wouldn't let us remove the heads though.. Understandably. So I was buying that motor with the idea of clean and paint and drop it in. Possible do some work to the heads if its in the budget. The rest of my cash just went to a few minor upgrades plus transmission and rear end coming up next week. (Ate up a lot of cash there lol) As far as the lifters coming out I was told the new set I bought would be fine to use but trying To guess where the old ones go was a no go. My friend said people will actually put used cams in with new lifters and it's quite common. I'll really have to look into what you said before I put the heads on it and maybe I'll just buy a new cam.. We'll have to see. Thanks for the info though. But basically to answer your question my intentions/plans for this motor were/are to clean it up and make it look pretty and at the same time hopefully find the right deals on performance Parts to buy and bolt on it. I never found any heads that were in budget so most likely if I dknt get anything within the next 3 weeks than those 882's are gong back on. it is what it is k guess lol thanks again For tips!

A new set of lifters is the only viable solution to issue at this moment, but it is not a guarantee that you won't have any issues. The lifters on a flat tappet cam wear with the individual lobe. So basically, your putting a new , unbroke in lifter against a broke in lobe. It will be fine as long as the lifter roates in the bore when the engine is running/initally started. If it doesn't, then game over IMO. If you don't want to change the cam, then that is your best option. Regarding the heads, there is nothing wrong with running what you have if the funds aren't available for different heads.

What I meant when I asked what are your intentions was is this just a cruiser, street/strip build or what? If you're looking to set the world on fire with this motor, then those heads are going to be holding you back. In original stock for those are just about the worst head GM ever produced, BUT (the big but), if the previous owner had them worked over well, then they'll be fine.

You asked previously if the 750 Holley you picked up is too big. The answer to that is no, but ther eis a caveat to that. Too biig at 6500 rpms? NO. Too big to cruise around in between 1500 and 3500? NO. But tuneability of a big carb at low rpm's is difficult. If your intentions are to street drive this and keep the rpm's below 5500, then the 600 that cam with it is way more than adequate and easier to tune. I assume that the 600 was a vac secondaries unit. Is the 750 a vac secondary or double pumper? Are they both square bore (all 4 throttle plates the same size)? Acouple of pics would answer alot of these questions.

 

[pontiacgp]

if you want a good place to get exhaust work done Budget Exhaust on Harvester Road did mine, they are real good and very affordable

That's a sweet looking race car there my friend! Id love to see that thing in action some time. I'm actually at work now which is right down the road from the budget exhaust on harvester. I just finished notching out and welding my crossmember for a planned dual exhaust next month, but havent figured where i was going ot be getting the work done or if I was just going to order some sort of bolt on kit. I'll definitely be giving budget exhaust a call to see what they can do now that you've given me some positive feedback. Luckily its literally 2 seconds form my house and work 🙂 what kind of exhaust did you have them do if you don't mind me asking?

I had a duel; SS exhaust done by a friends speed shop and the guy screwed the job up so back it couldn't even be twerked. Budget in your area sponsors a late model so I took a trip down there. I was supposed to have a 2.5" but the guy had put a 2.25" so Budget tore it all off and redid it with SS 2.5" for less than the speed shop wanted. It's still on my car after 3 seasons with not problem. .......that car I posted was a front runner every race but we sold that and retired the team. Sponsors are too hard to find and it costs lots to run a car especially in a travelling series. If I get the urge I can go help out JR Fitzpatrick

 

[dave_s1987]

well my intentions for this car is to use it as a cruiser but at the same time I'd like to get the most that I can out of the car performance wise even though it would never see a track. It doesn't need to light the world on fire but I would love it if it sounded like it was going to like the world on fire 🙂. It will be babied most of the time with the odd burnout taking place. I am getting a little nervous about the whole cam/lifter break thing you mentioned. I am going to have re think a couple things and make sure i make a good informed decision here. as far as the 882 heads are concerned I was told they were ported by a professional (don't really know what that means lol) and he just told me they were decent heads that were good to go, but new heads would take it to the next level. At the time I was all about that but after spending quite a lot of money its just been less and less likely I'll be able to go that route now.

unfortunately i don't know a lot about the former carb right now other than its a holley 600. (you can see it in the original motor pic above) I will attach a pic of my intake and holley 750 double pumper that I just purchased. for some reason that choke has been milled off? I got it for a good deal so I decided to still buy it. The intake is the same that came on the motor when i bought it, its just been blasted and cleaned so it looks newer. I also bought a new holley high flow fuel mechanical fuel pump and plan to get a 1 inch air spacer for the carb before I mount it. it just felt like the right thing to do.. lol

as soon as I get the motor in and running its going to go straight to a shop for a good dyno tune so its gets set up properly for what I want to do with it. well that's the plan anyways

.

 

[dave_s1987]

Yeah I could only image the cost of traveling and the burden of finding sponsors being a little too much. its a sweet car either way though. You definitely sold me on checking the budget exhaust next month though. more than anything I just want the job done right.. I always worry about about getting shotty work done because I really dont have the knowledge to always protect myself from it. thanks again!