Once again Small block Olds gets no respect.

[jetsetw31]

All this small block Olds bashing needs to stop! The 350, the 307 and even the 260. They had a purpose and did their job with honor. No one does their homework and assume that these motors are junk just because they didn't work for you. Ask yourselves these questions, Was it tuned correctly? Did it have a lot of miles on it? Was it abused before you got it? Were you trying to do something it wasn't designed for?
Facts:
The 260 was made for good mileage in a light car and thats it! Olds did mess up putting it in heavier cars.

The 307 was made for the same reason but could handle heavier cars. A 307 at its best was not even in a olds car! The 80s Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham use the best 307s. The 307 could pull it without a protest and got the second best mileage in the Caddy line up.( The best was the Caddy 4.1 and it was fuel injected. The 307 had a 4bbl.) Only the H/O and the 442 got that engine, but not the same gearing. Yet any stock H/O or 442 can out run their counter parts. Only one exception. The GN. (which was programmed to shut down at 125mph.) In a long run the 307 could beat the rest. The problem was no one knew this bc GM never revealed top speeds.

The most misunderstood bashing is of the 350 Olds. Can someone tell me how many stock engines can beat a stock 350 Olds from 1500 rpm to 5500. Not many. And Chevy 350 isn't one of them. Starting in the early to mid 70s the olds had way more restrictions on them than the rest of the 350s. Why? Because the Olds made too much power. Olds was lying about the power numbers of the 350 since '68. Example: !968 W-31 Cutlass. A 3600 pound car, running a 14 second time, with the shitty tires of the day, and being pushed by a engine that made 325 flywheel horsepower??? Total BS. The W31's true power was right with the famed Chevy LT1. Chevy never liked competition from the other GMs.
The 350 Olds was the first GM small block I ever seen that had a special Quadrajet made to restrict the four barrel use. It looked like a full Quadrajet but the back half had closed plates. All the others got the 2 Jet (Chevy) Or the Dual Jet(which was half a Quadrajet).
Don't take my word for it. Look it up and do the math. These engines aren't bad.
T

 

[pontiacgp]

The fact that these engines are still around 30 or so years after the car was produced shows us the engines operating for the purpose they were intended for and kept the owners happy or the engines would have been gone long ago.

 

[clean8485]

Different strokes for different folks. If it works well for you, and you like it, then its all good.

 

[Evan11]

I'm one of the few olds guys around here

 

[dottelife]

Love em when I put in another motor I'm going with an olds 350 instead of the 307.

 

[hurst1979olds]

I love my Olds Small Block Then again its not your average Small Block Olds

 

[jae]

Count me in as well for liking the SBO. But I'm also a fan of other engines.

As you said JetSet, a lot of people bash these engines (330-350-403-260-307) as well as others but don't look at the basics to determine if the engine design itself is really bad or if they got one or two that were just abused to death. On this same note I don't buy the negative B.S. that surrounds Olds engines from Chevy guys just like I don't buy the Chevy bashing from Olds guys. It's actually funny some of the crap that comes up from these self-proclaimed "experts".

 

[Hoopty_Mike]

My 307 has more power and gets better fuel economy from than it ever did from the factory, it use to struggle getting up hills, now I can accelerate up them. They were poorly tuned and heavily restricted. If you have a bone stock 307, advance the timing a few degrees and see the difference it makes. I'm no expert, but I advanced my timing 7 degrees from the stock 20 degrees for a total of 27. I can run 87 but run 89. I get better fuel economy and performance so that makes up for the price difference. I ended up doing a basic emissions delete of the AIR system, opened up the secondaries a little by bending the stop, and installed a cat back from a 442. With the 2.14 gears it loves to pull from a roll of 20-35mph. 2.14 was the numerically lowest rearend gear in a g body which you never see with a chevy engine. If it had anymore gear if would definitely light them up. My olds has been a very enjoyable car with some free modifications and the addition of some bilstein AK shocks. Gathering parts for a 5 speed swap and and looking for a 2.73/3.08 rear. No need for tons of gearing with an olds.

Nothing but good things to say about my olds 307. It's been a dead reliable engine that delivers no lower than 17mpg and has decent power for what it was originally rated. It runs smooth as silk and start reliably the same way every time. My el camino is much more fun to drive, but with almost half the gearing in the olds I can't complain.

 

[High Roller]

I'm all Olds! I always liked the chevy owners complaining about their cars/engine breaking down and my 307 Olds still pop's off right away and don't burn a drop with 325M. But I did go through 7 200-R4 trans & 2 rear ends on my 83 Hurst. Then my 86 442 with the 307 ran strong up until got t-boned at 265M. Sure they are not powerful as my pump gas SBO with 456.5 hp @ 5800 rpm/453.9 tq @ 4600rpm with steel heads. I know a friend that built a SBC w/alum heads that didn't even do close.

Don't matter to me if my olds has 100hp, i'd still be happy. Nice to be different

 

[Randy_W]

The '68 Olds W-31 or Ram Rod as it was known that one year, was refactored by NHRA to run heads up with 350 h.p. 350 Chevy as was the '69-'70 350 H.O. Pontiac which little known was rated at 330-335 h.p. not the standard 325 h.p. 4 bbl that you usually saw, depending on application, w/4 speed trans cars. The 2 engines in similar packages were near dead even and either was as quick as the 350 horse SBC. Problem was so few were built and bought that most people are totally unaware.