Hey just wanted to say hello

[historyg]

Hey, I just wanted to say hello, it took me awhile to find a good g-body forum and this seems to be the one.

I currently own a 1986 cutlass supreme with the 307 engine, I am really new with American cars so any information you can tell me about it would be great. I was a hard core "ricer" before hand in which i owned a 1997 honda civic, which was well equipped in the suspension department, in which i went autocrossing with. It was nothing ricey, i tried to stay away from multiple color bodies and big wings, with large fart can exhausts. Anyways it was stolen about 2 months ago out of my garage, and my best friends dad had a oldsmoible to give me so i took it, since i am now in grad school, and have to commute. ever since i have had the olds, which only had one owner, my friends dad, i have been falling in love with it more and more, and I love to work on cars so i am going to need some help from the internet to gain knowledge on what to do.

well, as what i have found out so far, My car I believe has a 307 olds engine, which had a hp range of 140, with 235 pounds of torque. (please correct me if I am wrong) and the engine is suppose to be a great engine for driving across country or just every day use.

I Plan on switching it to something a little more aggressive, but i do not know what. I really would like to change it to a 350 Chevy small block, But i have had mixed reviews from people, and I hope someone could help.

As of right now, I am a full time grad student working on a masters in physical education, and I only work about twice a week so I Hope to start doing smaller things first before swaping the engine. I plan to do everything myself as I hate mechanics sometimes, even thou i want to go to mechanic school next fall and take one class on body work.

Thank you everyone who actually read the whole post, and sorry for the blabber, but if you have any suggestion on what to do first ie brakes, suspension, lighting, ext, ext please let me know thanks.

 

[nycutlass]

well welcome to gbodyforums... glad to see your interested in a g-body.well there so many places to start with the car .just need alittle more info on what you mean on aggresive as in profermace .but never the less a great place to start is in the front end , springs , shocks , brakes and rear sway if you dont have one already ,start getting the car ready to handle the power that you will give it later !!! also what shape is this car in ? all i listed so far wont take long to do but most of all you need to find out if you want the car to be a cruzer or a strip car .hope this helps you so far.

 

[historyg]

hey thanks for the reply, I want to to be streetable, and the condition is super great, ill get some pics up when i get time, my friends dad babied the car, and kept it in the best of shape, minus one cig hole in the seat, and the headliner falling down. Anyways, back on topic, i really want to have around 350 hp and around the same in torque, I want a little head snap feeling, while not sucking all my gas and or pocket up. He already had kyp gas struts installed awhile back, before he gave it to me, but i dont think they are tight enough, or tight enough for me coming from a autocrossing background, but i am not sure what springs and struts to get, as i said before I am new to American cars, and what suspensions work best for it, if i could i would get teins for it, but that would just be silly. Anyways thanks again

 

[kingcolbert83]

First thing I would do is beef up your security on the car. Especially since its a clean gbody and super especially since somebody stole your car out your garage. Don't tell people what type of security measures you have unless they are visible anyway. The more you have the better imo. May not stop them but may have them think twice about all the work and buy you valuable time to stop them before its gone.

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

Welcome to the forum. Sorry to hear about the Civic, those things can be a lot of fun when you set them up right. Anyhow, the only good things about the 307 are that it will run forever, and that it isn't the V6. As for what to do, I went the Chevy 350 route with my car an am happy with it, but it is an involved swap if you have lots of options and want to keep them. The easier swap would be to a mild Olds 350 or 403, but the engine build will cost more than a Chevy. However, either of those will accept all of your stock accessories, and if you paint it black, no one will know. The first thing I suggest anyone do with these cars is a swap to better rear gears. My favorite is the 3.23, but I have about twice your stock peak torque, and most of it is available off idle. A 3.73 will be quicker off the line, but not so good on gas. If it is a street car, I would still say use a 3.23 and plan on building an engine that emphasizes low end torque. These are heavy cars (even heavier than the newest Civic!), and they need the torque to move off the line. Plus, the stock bottom end on anything you can build on a tight budget will not like RPMs too much, so it is the most logical choice.

As for a specific combo, my engine basically emulates the one Comp Cams lists on their site as the test engine for my cam (funny coincidence as I came on my setup after running some computer simulations and only found theirs afterwards.). Theirs made roughly 350hp and 410 ft/lbs of torque. Mine is a relatively low dollar engine, and I imagine a similar combo would yield similar results in a SBO. I will let the Oldsmobile crowd chime in on that though, as I am experienced only with the SBC. For reference, my combo is as follows: 1977 350 Chevy bored .030 over with Badger cast flat top pistons (4 eyebrow), cast rods and a cast crank. The compression ratio is 9.5 :1 and I run World Products S/R Torquer heads with 2.02 intake and 1.60 exhaust valves with 171cc intake ports. The cam is a Competition Cams XE 262 (with a 114 degree LSA for a smooth idle), and it runs Comp's 1.52 ratio Magnum roller tip rockers. The intake is a Edelbrock Performer ($15 at a u Pull It)with a 1979 Chevy Van 350's Quadrajet carb ($30), and the air cleaner is a L69 Camaro 305 HO's dual snorkel base with a LG4 305 Monte Carlo's lid. The ignition is a GM HEI ($15)with an Accel coil and an MSD module, cap and rotor (Soon to be an MSD HEI as I am tired of worn out 30+year old parts). The headers are Edelbrock's smog legal ones for a Monte SS with a HO 305 going back to a single 3 inch cat and forking out to 2.25 in duals. I run a TH 200 4R transmission that is stock (and dying) with a B&M shift kit. My cooling system is all stock parts with the 3 core radiator off a junkyard 307 Cutlass and a $15 parts store water pump. For a fan and shroud, I run stock GM pieces that were also junkyard parts. I also have a junkyard oil cooler off a police box Caprice, but it is not hooked up yet.

 

[historyg]

Hey, thanks everyone for the replies. On the matter of security i'm not going to skimp, they stole my civic when it had the steering wheel removed and hub lock on, with an autolock on as well, I think they towed it which is rare in ny and my good neighborhood, my dad soon installed a full camera system which now overlooks the garage so it should be safe, as I plan to garage keep the car when I start to dump money into it.

As for the gear ratios, I can only assume your speaking about the transmission 85 brougham. I was planning on going with a hand built motor from some good guys in phonix, but it's a chevy 350. Anywho I was planning on useing the 350 turbo transmission as I heard that it is good, (please correct me if I am wrong) and I can nab a rebuilt one for Under 600 eventhough I would like to rebuld my own I don't have enough confidence, even thou I did rebuild my Hondas 5 speed transmission that exploded on me.

 

[DelOhio]

If it were me, I'd go with an Olds 350. I like the term Olds powered Cutlass over Chevy. Nothing against chevy guys in any way, we run a SBC in the race car but I would speend the little extra money to keep a Olds heart in'er.

When he was speaking about gear ratio he was referring to the gear in the rear end (Axle assembly).

Be sure to get your suspension and drive line good and ready before the swap so as to not have to deal with broken u joints and hot transmission issues ect.

IMO, if you ever decide to sell the car years down the road after all the work....It will be appealing to more Olds fanatics and gear heads if it remains Olds powered. Some people don't care, some do....

Welcome to the GBody family

 

[historyg]

Oh the rear axle, like I said I'm new to American car, and rear wheel drive in general. I was going to defently change that soon ne one have a good brand to get and some good sites pleasasee... I would rather keep a olds motor, but it seems hard to find and the amount building one might equal out to the chevy 350 which seems to be cheap to play around with.. If I could get a 455 I would love that, but once again I had some trouble looking for one.

 

[Blake442]

Welcome!

It will save a lot of trouble if you keep it Olds powered, since it'll be a direct swap from your 307 to put in a 350 or 403, or even a 455.
The Chevy swap isn't too bad, but it also means you'll have a lot of tracking down to do for parts you'll need.

I say put a 455 in it!

 

[historyg]

Im really stumped on what to pick, does the chevy 350 swap require a lot of fabrication or does the engine drop in, but all the brackets for everything else wont work???/ I am confused. I been doing heavy research on the 455, but it seems mighty expensive, but very appealing. Would a olds 350 make as much power as the chevy 350??? well if anyone has time please throw their two cents in

I want to thank everyone again for responding, I have learned a lot using this forum and its becoming a great help!