BUILD THREAD “The Juggernaut”

[Rktpwrd]

What are your cam specs and what will your compression be? Just curious what your goals are on this awesome car? You always seem to reach perfection, I had to settle for less.

As I mentioned earlier, I still haven’t decided on a cam yet. Need some suggestions from those that know more than I do about selecting one. Cylinder pressures, opening events, closing events, overlap and all that. I want something that has a rough lopey idle and will pull like a freight train from 2000 rpm to about 6, with a torque curve as flat as Kansas, yet is still manual transmission friendly. Should be easily attainable I would think.

I’m still running the old school TRW forged aluminum pistons, really trying to avoid the temptation to upgrade to the newest icon ones with the shorter skirt and thinner ring pack that you and Mark are always talking about on Classic Oldsmobile. That’s just deeper yet down the rabbit hole, but it might still happen. We’ll see. My CR with those TRW pistons and the old iron heads was right at 9.8:1, so very pump gas friendly. I can already see milling these new aluminum heads down a bit to bump it up a bit more yet as aluminum is more forgiving of higher CR’s.

 

[olds307 and 403]

Unless you are upgrading rods as well, deeper down the rabbit hole, leave it alone, unless you really are going rev it up. You should be at 10+ to 1, 77cc vs 80+cc uncut, especially with thinner .027" Cometic head gaskets. Your pistons are probably pretty far down in the hole, it will definitely help quench. My short block turns over at 10 ft/lbs with tight .025" piston to wall and .0026" and .0028" clearances.

 

[Rktpwrd]

You should be at 10+ to 1, 77cc vs 80+cc uncut, especially with thinner .027" Cometic head gaskets.

How much of a cut is that to get them down to 77cc’s?

 

[olds307 and 403]

.006" cut = 1cc for Olds V8 heads.

 

[oldsofb]

Give Howards Cams a call. Their Tech guys are very knowledgeable.

Did the 3/8 spacers for the VC as well. Getting jelly over those new heads!

One last thing. Progression Ignition advertises a Melonized Gear on their distributors in .491. Maybe they would divulge who their supplier is.
https://progressionignition.com/products/ols/products/oldsmobile-v8-hei-distributor

Hutch

 

[Rktpwrd]

Give Howards Cams a call. Their Tech guys are very knowledgeable.

Did the 3/8 spacers for the VC as well. Getting jelly over those new heads!

One last thing. Progression Ignition advertises a Melonized Gear on their distributors in .491. Maybe they would divulge who their supplier is.
https://progressionignition.com/products/ols/products/oldsmobile-v8-hei-distributor

Hutch

Thanks John.
I’m a little unimpressed with Howard’s at the moment, I tried submitting their online cam form and got zero response. Finding time during regular business hours to call these companies is next to impossible for me because of my work. But I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I’m just going to have to try and find a way.

How do you like the VC spacers, and what arrangement are you using for sealing them up? (2 sets of gaskets?)

Thanks for the info on the Progressive Distributors, but I still stand by my statement that there are no standalone individual melonized Oldsmobile distributor gears currently available on the market today. One might get Progressive to disclose their source, but I’ve typically never had much success with things like that.

 

[olds307 and 403]

Most of the aftermarket distributors have melonized gears. I'm almost positive my Accel DFI distributor has one. The composite gear sounds pretty reliable from what I hear.

 

[oldsofb]

How do you like the VC spacers, and what arrangement are you using for sealing them up? (2 sets of gaskets?)

I'm still in the process of putting them on. I've still got to cut up one of the covers and weld it back up. What I've seen shows most using silicone to seal the one side to the head and gasket between the cover and spacer.

Hutch

 

[Rktpwrd]

Going to keep this one short and sweet.

It’s almost anti-climatic at this point, but tonight I FINALLY finished the bodywork on the hood and header panel. It’s been an epic odyssey, taking the entire summer, plus September, October, and now exactly half of November.

But it’s done for now until final prep for paint.

Tonight I laid down 2 coats of epoxy primer, let it set for an hour, and backed that up with 2 coats of regular high build primer surfacer. After it cured for a few hours, I unmasked it and installed the grille, headlight, and hood pin jewelry just to get the full effect.

That’s it for words, I’ll let the pictures do the rest of the talking. Feel free to let me know what you think.

Oh, and btw, don’t mind the weird little something you see on the passenger’s side door and fender, I’m not done there yet. The fenders are going to receive a little something special next, so the bodywork isn’t finished there yet.

D.

 

[08Malibu]

Looks great. How bad are the quarters and deck lid? Although I’m sure you have some more custom work to do on the rear as well.