You got a hell of a deal on those headers for $200. I always like to get the drivetrain sorted before tackling body work as well. Very interested to see dyno numbers.
442 Project: Looks can be deceiving
- Thread starter rogue_ryder
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Looks like your seller's idea of "runs good" means when pushed down hill (not many of those down here in TX). Looks like your list is almost everything except broken windshield. But... after you complete your list, you'll be looking back and see all the work you put into to it and those are things that won't need to be done again. Keep it up. By they way I've seen many down here that are worth "metal content" price.
The passenger side is always the hardest but I managed to get it in without needing to put a single dent in any tube! I did manage a few scratches but touched em up. The main goal here is to prevent rust. There was ZERO excuses for the flattening of the tubes on the headers that originally came off the car when I first got it.
Passenger side was a cake walk in comparison and I didn’t even scratch these! Although alignment to the rest of the exhaust is still going to be a challenge. The hooker 3” band clamps don’t work with the reducers I bought (waited 2.5 months on those adapters too). I’m gonna experiment with a few different adapters and pipe once amazon delivers the parts.
Huge difference in primary size and collector size between these and The Thornton tubular manifolds. I can not complain about those as they didn’t leak and fit well. They were fine for the stock 307.
Sorry to hear about you firing the parts cannon there tbh, but hey at least you have floor pans and a good frame.It all began late last summer; after I sold a Jeep Wrangler that had been my project vehicle for the last 6 years. I really wanted to get a G-Body to build into fun street car. I think a GNX would be my dream G-body but that just isn't in my budget unless I win the PCH Sweepstakes or find a winning lotto ticket.
I've always like Gbodies from the time I was a kid with hot wheels and then later several friends owned them in the early to mid 90s when they were plentiful and cheap in my teenage years, they grew on me even more. My favorites were always the 82+ Montes, Regals and Cutlasses and especially the Turbo Regals and the Cutlass H/O and 442. But other than the 87 Grand National these cars were like Rodney Dangerfield; they just didn't get any respect. They also had a stigma for a long time as being cars only a mullet haired individual from the G.E.D class of 1986 would drive. I think as these cars slowly become accepted by the car "enthusiast" community as classics and collector cars that stigma will disappear.
Initially I thought I'd get a cheap $2500 former Grandma Supreme or Regal, but IMHO bench seats, column shifters and horizontal speedometers have no place in a muscle car. Not to mention the 7.5" rearend isn't up to task of supporting high hp/tq. So the cost of swapping interiors, gauges and rear ends drove me to increase my initial budget and find a 442 or H/O. I found some really beat 442s for $3500-$4000 but they were all really far away and would require just as much if not as modifing a clean. I eventually stumbled across this car on craigslist and eBay:
I thought the asking price was kinda steep; so I waited the guy out a few months and we finally settled on a price (30% under the initial asking price and he'd ship it up to me from Texas). After I got the car; it wasn't quite the car the seller represented online. In fact it was so bad that I couldn't even drive it because the fuel pump was pouring more gas on the ground than in the carb! I should've gotten it for half the asking price!
442_12 by Greg, on Flickr
442_11 by Greg, on Flickr
442_10 by Greg, on Flickr
442_9 by Greg, on Flickr
442_8 by Greg, on Flickr
442_7 by Greg, on Flickr
442_6 by Greg, on Flickr
442_5 by Greg, on Flickr
442_4 by Greg, on Flickr
apparently before the repaint:
442_3 by Greg, on Flickr
The Fuel Pump was just the tip of the iceberg, after closer inspection it was found that:
There were some bad Oil leaks oil pan and rear main, transmission pan and rear drive shift slip yoke seal.
There was no Engine Oil Dipstick or Tube
Coolant overflow bottle was shot
The carb needed a rebuild badly
Belt squeal
Alternator was bad
Headers leaked BAD and were smashed severely
The new "Dual Exhaust" consisted of a nice Pypes Xpipe and tail pipes, but 1 Muffler was a Pypes Street and the other was a Flowmaster 40 series "WTF? Seriously?"
Missing catalytic converters
Blinkers didn't
Radio would not work
Blower motor did not work
outer window sweeps were hacked up to point they were almost non-existent
Dash cluster didn't work well (no lights, no oil pressure, no temp, no fuel and no speedo)
Dash cracked (knew prior)
Power seat coupler broken
Power steering pump leaked
Power steering gear box leaked
Lots of leaky Vacuum lines
Both Grilles broken
Chrome trim beat up bad by the body shop trying to remove it (although I was furnished with new replacements)
Broken wheel stud
There was some work ahead of me, just to get the car to a point that it could run/drive safely.
Have you tried to file a dispute through PayPal by the way? You may be able to get some of your money back.
Those headers look great. Where did you get those valve covers? I haven't seen ribbed Olds chrome valve covers like that.
Believe it or not I found em on eBay! Leftover from the 80s, they were advertised as “MR Gasket 6391 Chrome Valve covers Oldsmobile 330 to 455 motor” they are so old they are Taiwanese vs Chinese. The price was right on them too ($20 + s&h).
I really wanted to run the originals but the back of the rockers hit the baffle and the car sounded like an old IH Diesel. I kinda like these now that they’re on there. And I’m probably not going to see them on anyone else’s motor!
I really wanted to run the originals but the back of the rockers hit the baffle and the car sounded like an old IH Diesel. I kinda like these now that they’re on there. And I’m probably not going to see them on anyone else’s motor!
I actually closed the deal off of eBay so there would've been little if any recourse (I'm sure the original auction "winner" came to pick up the car and told the seller to put down the crack pipe and walked away from the deal). Even if I had the seller refund my money and I returned the car I'd have been back at square 1 and on the hunt again and I haven't seen a clean complete 442 for any less than I paid since I bought this one (at least not within 1000 miles of Denver). There's been a couple $5K cars pop up since I bought this one but they are trashed and you'd need more money and time than the car would ever be worth. $25K buys a very low mile (like <30K) #1 car.
The plan all along was to build a resto-mod, so I was going to be throwing a lot of parts at it anyway. It was just disappointing that this car really wasn't what the seller was representing it as; and I ended up doing a lot more than the brakes/suspension and drivetrain like I'd originally hoped to do My original vision was full Tubular Control arms, Sway Bars, bigger brakes and an EFI 500hp engine (500hp in a SBO isn't as easy as an LS so that goal fell a bit short). The issue of misrepresentation ended up costing me more than a few bucks for the additional parts needed and a bunch more time. In the end though I still have less money invested than I would have if I chose to resurrect a real roached out car or modifying a perfect example. Had the seller been honest this project would've been one of those homerun deals, but you live and learn. In my case I pretty much learned every nut, bolt and wire in a Gbody Olds 😀
I find it's always best to start a project with the cleanest/nicest car you can afford, with Body work costing a premium in time and/or money it's one area you could save 100s of hours or 1000s of dollars. That's time and/or money you might not be able to get back if you ever sell the car.
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I have had some cooling issues ever since I swapped out the 307. I thought it was the water pump or thermostat were in adequate, then I thought my tune wasn’t right, got that sorted and still the car wanted to run on the warm side. FINALLY I got to the bottom of the issue!!!
Cold Case strikes again. Their shroud and fans are woefully inadequate at cooling the engine. I pulled the fans and shroud and went back to the stock fan and shroud (which doesn’t fit correctly with the cold case radiator but it’s close enough).
So I was running at 185* last Sunday on the flats at 55 and going up long hills I would hit 220! Today with similar temperatures I did the same drive with the stock fan and shroud and the car wouldn’t hit over 170 going up hill! Mostly it was keeping right at 165. I gotta say Cold Case didn’t really do their testing with these fans. I can forgive the poor fit but for the extra cost of the fans and shroud and have the car run 50 degrees hotter is unacceptable. Save yourself a lot of money and avoid their fan and shroud set up at all costs!
I wondered in the other thread if those fans would move enough air. The 403 is tougher to cool, 165 is excellent in even warm weather👍. How are you liking the power of this build? Did you notice a good boost from the new headers?
Ruh roh Raggy!!
Maybe oldsofb will see this and keep this in mind about looking out for shrouding. I do believe he just got the radiator and fan "kit" from Cold Case.
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