Hi I am approaching 20 years of age and just purchased a white 88 cutlass which I am already rubbing my hands together in apprehension of restoring. I should mention I haven't taken delivery of the car yet, but will have it soon and cant wait to get started.
Keeping in mind that my budget for doing up this car is generous, but not by any means unlimited, I wanted to hear opinions from you experienced rodders about what to do first. The engine in the car is a junkyard 5.0litre (i believe) rebuilt chevy 350 which I may decide not to keep. The car was sold "as is" with a described engine knock, which is supposedly being caused by the flywheel. I really like billet styling cues - so I was drawn to edelbrock's beautiful shiny 350 crate engine and I ordered their catalog - but I'm not sure if I could actually afford such a lavish option with all the labor intensive work that would be required in installing such a beautiful engine - and also since my girlfriend will probably be driving this car and she is not a skilled motorist I was curious what crate engines with EFI might be a better option.
While I'm certainly addicted to power myself and would like to make the car trackable, I would be satisfied enough just to run low 14's and have a vehicle that my g/f can still operate normally. But if I'm going to get the wheel/tires that I want and invest $$$ in painting the car I'm definitely going to short the accelerator cable everytime I hand over the keys to my better half
I may be able to work w/ the 350 that's already in the car, but advice would definitely be appreciated. I should mention the body is straight, 88k miles on the original trans (whatever the stock trans that came w/ that year cutlass is).
I guess the main thing I want advice on is whether I should be satisfied toying w/ the 350 already in the car since this is my first rod and I'm not extremely track-savvy or serious - or if the ammount of money and effort to install something else would prolong and improve the quality of the car so much that it is worth considering or not..
any help would be appreciated!!
thx
Keeping in mind that my budget for doing up this car is generous, but not by any means unlimited, I wanted to hear opinions from you experienced rodders about what to do first. The engine in the car is a junkyard 5.0litre (i believe) rebuilt chevy 350 which I may decide not to keep. The car was sold "as is" with a described engine knock, which is supposedly being caused by the flywheel. I really like billet styling cues - so I was drawn to edelbrock's beautiful shiny 350 crate engine and I ordered their catalog - but I'm not sure if I could actually afford such a lavish option with all the labor intensive work that would be required in installing such a beautiful engine - and also since my girlfriend will probably be driving this car and she is not a skilled motorist I was curious what crate engines with EFI might be a better option.
While I'm certainly addicted to power myself and would like to make the car trackable, I would be satisfied enough just to run low 14's and have a vehicle that my g/f can still operate normally. But if I'm going to get the wheel/tires that I want and invest $$$ in painting the car I'm definitely going to short the accelerator cable everytime I hand over the keys to my better half
I may be able to work w/ the 350 that's already in the car, but advice would definitely be appreciated. I should mention the body is straight, 88k miles on the original trans (whatever the stock trans that came w/ that year cutlass is).
I guess the main thing I want advice on is whether I should be satisfied toying w/ the 350 already in the car since this is my first rod and I'm not extremely track-savvy or serious - or if the ammount of money and effort to install something else would prolong and improve the quality of the car so much that it is worth considering or not..
any help would be appreciated!!
thx