442 What happened during Covid lockdowns- everyone has gone Prompt Stupid...

[88hurstolds]

Don't forget the Technical Bulletin released in '85 to ask dealers to remove the B84 moldings to improve appearance and sales of 442's.

All my 442's came with B84 moldings, I have yet to personally encounter one that didn't have them, seems like it's more common to have them.

I gave up posting detailed informative posts like this because the internet is full of morons... typically the nonsensical commentary types who strive to be a top poster are typically the ones who ward off people with real knowledge with stupid debates with no evidence to back their claims. They ruin it for the majority of lurkers who appreciate information like this... which sucks.
Seems that some don't get the concept of enthusiasts and what a hobby is and feel their viewpoint trumps others because they want to feel special hence why knowledge like this usually gets lost... and misinformation spreads.
Face**** is full of crap like that too...

 

[olds307 and 403]

69HurstOlds and 88Hurstolds, you two definitely know the most about the G body H/O and 442 cars. You guys are both reasonable and will deviate from the factory when there are aftermarket improvements and it makes sense. Joe Pavadino is also one of the experts on the older 60's and 70's cars. He is less willing to deviate from the factory even when it makes sense. I personally like no moldings and just the gold striping. It always interesting what was available on these cars. I argued with a guy I was looking to purchase a 87 442 from, on whether the original exhaust manifolds were still on the car. He said, it had one of the tubular manifolds replaced. I said, pretty sure all the Vin 9 cars had cast iron manifolds. He argued it was part of the performance package for that car🤷‍♂️. My understanding Olds put the iron exhaust manifolds on due to a performance loss with the stainless log manifolds. Of course Olds could have put on a better Y pipe or heaven forbid dual exhaust and cats. Please correct me if I am wrong.

 

[abbey castro]

Yup, down right incorrect info abounds on everything. My 87 SS came with a a 396! Yeh right. I did get the ultra rare white with Claret interior I forgot: Don't drive your SS to the tip of South America, you'll fall over the edge of the earth into Ford land!

 

[melloelky]

Never argue with an idiot, they will drag you down to their level and beat you by experience...

 

[69hurstolds]

olds307 and 403 , AFAIK, all the VIN 9 Olds engines had cast iron exhaust manifolds. Even 85-87. Tubulars came to being with the roller Y engines. Never underestimate the ability for the factory to screw up, however. I do agree a streetable version of the FE3X exhaust would have been sweeter than the "afterthought" style of Y pipe they actually used, as I'm not sure if the FE3X exhaust was federal emissions friendly as built. The fact is, the VIN 9 exhaust piping (not the manifolds) were really no different from the cat forward from any other 307 G-body. So a couple hangers, a couple mufflers and some different looking pipes and boom, got the "performance" dual-outlet exhaust. I guess they figured it was a cheaper way to go because emissions adherence to the specs technically stop at the cat. No expen$ive exhaust component recertification necessary. Just stick another set of pipes on the end of the cat and you're good.

The bulletin to the dealer suggesting to remove the B84 moldings on those cars that came equipped with them may be what this other chap was referring to and incorrectly inferred from the bulletin that every 442 came with body side moldings. Again, GM documentation isn't always complete either, and sometimes contradicting itself, and holes in any of it can be misinterpreted. But the evidence doesn't support that original claim that the 442 required B84. Although, it is kind of interesting that there were many 442s ordered with body side moldings. I know they had to be ordered with them because I had to specify those for my own car when I ordered it.

I may have stumbled on one of the reasons that many 442's had B84 side moldings-- I don't have the "select-a-unit" stuff for 1985 for dealer ordering, but I do for the 84. I'm thinking this probably wouldn't have changed much between the years, although it may. And just thinking out loud, because of tight dealer allotments, I'd bet many Olds specialty cars were dealer ordered for the lot without a customer order. Sometimes you have to get your allocations ordered in a specified time or risk losing them.

All the dealer would need to do to get B84 side moldings would be to order G2, G3 or G4, with each level throwing in more options. Which is basically anything above the base unit with the bare minimum. G1 would be standard equipment with the exception of tinted windows and AM/FM Stereo Radio. That's it. One thing you didn't get regardless of using the select-a-unit ordering was G80, aka posi, so that's very probably why a great many of the 442 and H/O's didn't come with posi if the dealer was blindly just ordering cars.

 

[olds307 and 403]

I would think the FE3X Y pipe and Corvette cat they used should have been easy to certify. Honestly between the cost of a different Y pipe and shorty stainless for 3500 cars a year produced, it was probably the bean counters that said no way. It is possible being a 87, they ran out of cast iron manifolds and substituted the tubular manifolds. I never went to see it in person, I would have bought the car. The problem with the stupid Olds crossover pipe killed 20 hp and similar tq over dual exhaust. Olds claimed 30 hp with the ram air and just shorties and an actual Y pipe on the FE3X. If it was put on the non swirl port version in 85, it would have equaled the 5L HO Mustang and only been 5 behind the TPI Camaro and Firebird's. Interesting how options were selected and explains these cars being ordered without posi.

 

[84 W40]

Body side molding was one the popular option and dealer installed GM accessories back then. Seen many new 442's and Buick Gn leave the lot with body side molding that was dealer installed. Many with out the molding but very few cars ordered with it at dealer I worked for. We were installing more and more dealer installed accessories and could not understand why until I asked one of sales men, his response we can set are own price.
I have a GM dealer installed accessories catalog that i had taken before the dealership closed for good, all GM dealers had a copy of it.