New user 83 Calais SBO swap

[Stupidquestionspro]

New to the forum this was a father son project unfortunately he has a progressive incurable disease so I have taken over with him to consult and live vicariously through me. Part choices and purchases were done by him though please refrain from any truly negative comments other than feedback by time we had money for the project he had been out of engine building etc from the disease for 25 years and unfortunately the disease effects his memory somewhat.

Extreme budget build and will be used by me as a fun daily I am very familiar with mechanical work though mainly did all my work on obd 2 vehicles and am learning as I go especially through the forums. I have never actually built an engine but have done plenty of tear downs to short block for internal work.

I will ask a bunch of stupid questions from ignorance and have terrible punctuation and grammar heads up. Trying to go back and fix any accidental mistakes or bad choices he made without telling him so I appreciate all your help

1983 olds cutlass Calais originally 3.8l with 1968 sbo 350 bored .30 over
#5 heads I believe
Completely unknown pistons 😐
Guessed to be Keith black cast unfortunately
Summit mv8600 600cfm carb
RV cam completely unknown specs 😑
Edelbrock 7111 intake currently sealed with Mondello gaskets with Mondello heat riser block off plates and super ugly RTV black because I somehow screwed up the install and couldn’t afford to redo it
Bolt in valley pan or windage tray not sure what it’s called.
W30 retro exhaust manifolds I believe
MSD ready to run distributor blaster 3 coil
AC Delco plugs gapped .34 I believe
Newer 3 core radiator I think
Will be getting rotella t6 full synthetic 5w40
Wix filter 51258 hopefully I bough the right one.
Milodon I think deep oil pan apparently has a oil capacity of 8 quarts?

TCI TH350 street rodder package
TCI 1700rpm stall non lockup converter
TCI trans cooler
TCI max shift trans fluid

Stock 7.5 rear end and drive shaft no idea of ratio and too lazy to check tag.
All new moog front suspension including coils
New rear coils shocks and I believe other items I’m unsure of
1 year old lower steering shaft
Stainless steel brand performance front disc brakes I think

plans:
Either strengthen and change gears in 7.5 if it and the driveshaft will survive or do 8.5
Will eventually paint it and work on interior
Will like never have slicks
Purely for street and daily fun driving and if I’m lucky acceptable mpg

Pictures on the way

 

[Daca214]

sorry to hear about your dad. hopefully you can get it all restored for him to see and enjoy.

good luck.
i wouldnt worry too much about the punctuation or grammar on here..lol...

 

[Stupidquestionspro]

Thanks for the kind words so far he likes where I’m going with it so we will see it makes him happy but sad at the same time he had to give it up he originally had an 80 Calais with a sbo and tubbed etc but had to sell it when I was a baby and he was disabled so this was all of us coming together to give him what he wanted while he could still work on it and drive that’s why there are so many expensive parts even though it’s a budget build but now funds are gone so it’s a super budget build for my broke self.

Below are the pictures of my car and of course I can’t forget my little shop assistant

 

[Daca214]

looks good. clean and not alot of rust. engine bay looks great.
good luck with the build

 

[Turbolq4]

The 7.5 will be fine if you don't run slicks. Can put 7.625 stuff from newer Camaros in it if you want to make it a little stronger. Nice looking car!

 

[Stupidquestionspro]

Thanks and I hope not I’m in Florida and it’s an original Florida car that came to us with 73k and a seized 3.8 the entire chassis is under coated. Is it bare metal under the landau top or painted? My dad and I hate it.

 

[fleming442]

I'm a little confused. Is it running and driving now? I'm an Olds guy, so I'm glad it doesn't have a Ch*vy in it at least. The carb looks to be a Holley(?) knock off, so it should be easy to tune; just get a vacuum gauge and a few sets of plugs to get it right.
Olds engines also like alot of timing, especially if the compression is low-ish. You should be around 16-20 degrees initial, 35-36 total at 3000, and it could get as high as 45-50 with vacuum advance hooked up.
As far as oil goes: I wouldn't waste the money on syn Rotella, and you need something a little heavier than 5W. Oldsmobiles have big, heavy rotating assemblies. Checkout Lucas' Hot Rod and Muscle car oil. It has the ZDDP level necessary for your flat tappet camshaft. Rotella used to have it, but I think the current levels are below flat tappet requirements these days.
As far as the extra capacity pan goes, don't put anymore than 6 quarts in regardless of what the dipstick says. Figure out what your new "full" level is with 6 quarts. The point in having a deep pan is to keep the crank from sloshing through a lake of oil.
There are a lot of threads here regarding 7.5 rear use/abuse/and lack thereof. For what you have, a 7.625 posi unit out of an LS Camaro (lq4 beat me to it) and 28 spline axles would probably be your best route IMO. Gear ratio really depends on performance expectations and driving style.
I wouldn't be surprised if those heat blockoff plates burn through, but I wouldn't worry about it as long as they don't create a vacuum leak on the underside. The iron plugs for the head side are adequate, but will rattle after time in most cases. The best way to eliminate the crossover is either fill it in the head, or get aftermarket heads that don't have it.
Enjoy your "Rocket"!!!!

 

[Stupidquestionspro]

The 7.5 will be fine if you don't run slicks. Can put 7.625 stuff from newer Camaros in it if you want to make it a little stronger. Nice looking car!

Awesome I’ll have to look into that once I start working on the gears and thanks for the compliment the paint is actually fairly bad and so is the passengers fender I’m thinking about doing the roller rustoleum painting I’ve found from a lot of how to considering I want a different color and don’t want to break the bank plus a lot of the examples come out awesome for what they are. Ideally when I get around to it I want to take all the chrome trim off I honestly hate it.

 

[Stupidquestionspro]

I'm a little confused. Is it running and driving now? I'm an Olds guy, so I'm glad it doesn't have a Ch*vy in it at least. The carb looks to be a Holley(?) knock off, so it should be easy to tune; just get a vacuum gauge and a few sets of plugs to get it right.
Olds engines also like alot of timing, especially if the compression is low-ish. You should be around 16-20 degrees initial, 35-36 total at 3000, and it could get as high as 45-50 with vacuum advance hooked up.
As far as oil goes: I wouldn't waste the money on syn Rotella, and you need something a little heavier than 5W. Oldsmobiles have big, heavy rotating assemblies. Checkout Lucas' Hot Rod and Muscle car oil. It has the ZDDP level necessary for your flat tappet camshaft. Rotella used to have it, but I think the current levels are below flat tappet requirements these days.
As far as the extra capacity pan goes, don't put anymore than 6 quarts in regardless of what the dipstick says. Figure out what your new "full" level is with 6 quarts. The point in having a deep pan is to keep the crank from sloshing through a lake of oil.
There are a lot of threads here regarding 7.5 rear use/abuse/and lack thereof. For what you have, a 7.625 posi unit out of an LS Camaro and 28 spline axles would probably be your best route IMO. Gear ratio really depends on performance expectations and driving style.
I wouldn't be surprised if those heat blockoff plates burn through, but I wouldn't worry about it as long as they don't create a vacuum leak on the underside. The iron plugs for the head side are adequate, but will rattle after time in most cases. The best way to eliminate the crossover is either fill it in the head, or get aftermarket heads that don't have it.
Enjoy your "Rocket"!!!!

Yea it’s running and driving just trying to fine tune and fix things I drive it every day. Well a little late on the rotella I already bought it I will keep that in mind for future though also I didn’t know that about the pan I thought for sure it needed the full capacity. And good to know about the Mondello plates because I only have the plates not the iron plugs how would I tell it has burned through without pulling my intake?

And aftermarket heads sound nice in the I’m rich future.

As of the moment I’m going to go to the correct forum and start a thread about my tuning actually because I feel stupid but no matter how much I read I can’t get this thing to do what I want tuning wise 🤬

 

[fleming442]

https://pitstopusa.com/p-4154-how-to-tune-holley-carburetors.html