Lime Green 71OLDS 442 convertible

[71OLDS]

Kevin,

Actually after seeing this I may just sand smooth both Nittos front and back and order the Treadwear glue on letters. I'm really impressed with how they look:



Plus my sidewalls are bigger (both 45 series) so I think with slightly bigger letters (but this exact setup/design) mine will look even better. To NEVER have to paint on white letters again would be pretty cool!



-Joe

[71OLDS]

Got the raised white letters done on the passenger side. Went with the BFG letters since I had a BFG tire to use as a model. Bought the letters from Treadwear. Sanded the Nitto lettering off and glued these on one by one.

[71OLDS]

Finally got some videos up on Youtube.

walk around of car idling in my driveway:
71 Olds 442 Walk around - YouTube

This one is disappointing on video. This is me shifting at 5500 in first and 2nd. So loud and aggressive in the car and throws me back in the seat - comes across as nothing in this video. Will need to try something else but it's a start:
5500 RPM shifts - YouTube

[71OLDS]

uhhh blown head gasket - won't be updating for a while :(

[Mr Nick]

That's not good. Do you know the cause?

[csouth]

uhhh blown head gasket - won't be updating for a while :(

Sorry to hear that.....

[wfo guy]

I hope you don't find anything worse than the gasket.

[71OLDS]

No idea yet. Heads have to come off first, then check for damage, then try to figure out why it happened. Will update when I know. Oil still looks good (not milky) and all the coolant/water has been drained but won't know anything until the heads are off.

[71OLDS]

The car is on it's way to Frank Trimble in MD to take the heads off and see how bad the situation is. Fingers are crossed. I had plans for Frank to do several projects on the car but I thought it would be around this time next year. We will see what all needs to be done to the motor and then if he can do some other projects from there.

-Joe

[71OLDS]

Both head gaskets were blown. Sounds like most likely cause is the wrong head gasket was used. Apparently Edelbrock suggests not using Felpro Blue gaskets with their aluminum heads. I had never heard this before but found others that have. So gaskets will be replaced but other issues have been found in the motor so maybe this was a blessing in disguise. It looks like when the heads were ported through the push rod holes and head bolt holes to get the max flow, the sleeves that were added did not hold up. There was a puddle of oil in the intake port and the oil is "sweating" from around the sleeve but the rest of the port is dry. Also the distributor gear is all chewed up possibly because an iron gear was used with my hyd roller cam instead of a bronze gear. So far that's all the issues found with the motor but there's more digging to come. Will be checking the rings next. Separate from the motor the brand new gas tank that was installed is leaking from the seams and will need to be replaced. Unfortunately is was purchased 10 years ago so no way to get my money back or even to find out/remember where it was purchased. Also fuel related one part of the fuel lines toward the front of the car by the frame are crimped/smashed. We couldn't figure out why the custom manual fuel pump wasn't working but best guess is the fuel couldn't get through at this point w/o the help of an electric pump. Lines will be replaced and manual pump will be tested again. Also Frank and his brother started to try to fix some of the wiring issues on the car. Most of the car will need to be completely rewired. Hoping to get all these issues worked out slowly but surely.

[Mr Nick]

Sounds like this might snowball into a case of "may as wells." Be careful, that can happen easily!

[71OLDS]

Sounds like this might snowball into a case of "may as wells." Be careful, that can happen easily!

Oh there's no doubt about that Nick. But I'm OK with that since the plan is to fix EVERYTHING. All but paint and body issues first. Then drive it for a while. Then just big body issues first (fiberglass parts and welding in metal etc). Then drive it for a while again. Then off for final paint. I just don't want to be years without the car again. If it's not raining or snowing I want to be driving this car. I also want to get it back to the track in 2016 to get some baseline 1/4 mile #s and maybe do some cruises, or track events at Virginia International Raceway (want to do some laps around that course on their open track days) and do the SCCA Solo autocross at Fed Ex Field. Hoping to do all of this in 2016 so need to get all these issues fixed and get the car on the road and ready to be driven hard!!

[71OLDS]

Lots of progress and discovery on the car at Frank Trimble's shop in MD.

Motor is out and a few more issues have been found. There was an issue with the with all the gears getting ground up (dist gear, gear on end of cam) the dist gear was rubbing against the "thrust pad" on the block and actually put a small groove on the block that will need to be repaired. Additionally the 3 week old pilot bearing is trashed and will need to be replaced. All of this caused some small metal pieces to be found from all this grinding so the motor will be fully disassembled and put back together with a Edelbrock recommended head gaskets, the head sleeve issue will be repaired, the groove on the block fixed, the cam & dist gear replaced, and the crank may need to get reground. A few of the bearings and one rod had some minor issues from all this. The bottom line as mentioned the head gaskets blowing was a blessing in disguise there were several other issues that would have done lots more damage if the motor was not torn down. Frank will get everything fixed properly and back in the car.

While the motor is being fixed up the car was rewired and the parking lights and gauges are working now. The dual disk clutch was boxed up and sent back to McLeod to be converted to a "strapped unit" and re-balanced. Apparently I have the old pin drive floater version that had basically a "recall" about 8 years ago. The hydroboost brake setup will be installed to help with the hard pedal with my manual disk/disk set up, the newly purchased gas tank will be replaced (leaking at the seams), the custom manual fuel pump will be installed, some custom work to get the stock valve covers to fit (or stock appearing) and will try to find a way to add the stock breather even with the torker intake. Needs to come down about 1.5 " with a drop base aircleaner welded into the stock air cleaner base and maybe some cutting of the rim where the breather mounts. The QA1 Coilover springs will be changed from the progressive 365-465 rate to 550 linear rate along with the roller bearing washers being added to prevent binding, custom reverse lights setup will be added to work with the Richmond 5 speed, the motor was installed with solid motor mounts (not sure why) those will be swapped for original rubber mounts with the bolts put through them for added strength. Plus lot of other small things that need to be fixed or updated. Can't wait to get the car back with all of these things fixed.

-Joe

[deejai35]

Nice updates. Glad to hear larger issues were caught before catastrophic failure. Several of you have inspiration Oldsmobiles that I follow, so it's good to see the progress.

[cdrod]

.... Also the distributor gear is all chewed up possibly because an iron gear was used with my hyd roller cam instead of a bronze gear.....

Joe:
I really love your car!! It was the inspiration to go the ProTouring route with my '72 442 convertible project. I really appreciated the weight reduction methods you shared in your build thread as I want to shed some weight off the front end to better balance my car front-to-back. Sad to hear of your engine problems but it sounds like you've found additional gremlins to fix while it's apart. Here is a good tip to check out before rebuilding your engine. Make sure the LH oil galley plug has a small hole in it to spray oil on the distributor gear. This is a common oversight by engine builders who are unfamiliar with Olds engines. Without it, your distributor gear is basically running dry, without any lubrication. Your new distributor gear won't last much longer if you rebuild the engine and don't correct this. You can use a bronze gear but they are still softer than the roller cam metal and will be a sacrificial part. For a street driven engine, I'd recommend an Melonized gear which is compatible with most roller cams but harder than the bronze gear for greater longevity and they're cheap. Summit sells one for $25 part#85006-12. My cam grinder swears by it. The composite (aka, plastic) gears are prone to breaking so stay away from those. Good luck with the rebuild! Be sure to post pics.
Rodney

[71OLDS]

Hi Rodney,

Thanks for the kind words and the tip for the distributor gear. I will pass that on to Frank who is getting everything fixed. I actually called Crane Cams - my cam is part # 80HR00013 - it is a billet steel hyd roller but it is made with an iron gear so the iron dist gear that was on it was correct. A billet steel hyd roller would "normally" have bronze dist gear but because my cam had the iron gear on it that changes things. Hardened steel hyd rollers are supposed to generally have hardened steel dist gears. Sounds like this is all over the map so extremely important to check with your cam manufacturer to make sure you get the correct dist gear. Glad to know mine was correct. The bottom line is something else caused it to be chewed up but at least it was the correct part. Unfortunately I will have to send the cam back to Crane to have a new iron gear put on it and obviously replace the distributor gear too. The groove that was put into the block as a result of this has now been fixed and thankfully the rest of the block is OK.

-Joe

[71OLDS]

motor is going back together.



Unfortunately Crane can't just replace the iron gear on the cam so I have to get a new one. They will give me a $160 discount though so will probably be sticking with a Crane Hyd roller. Considering a different cam with more duration but a wider LSA. We'll see.

[DrFraZZy]

I am curious about Frank Trimble's shop in md. Whats his shop called and what kind of work does he do. I am looking around for a good shop in Maryland.

[71OLDS]

I am curious about Frank Trimble's shop in md. Whats his shop called and what kind of work does he do. I am looking around for a good shop in Maryland.

Frank & Terry Trimble
TR Performance
6796 Mid Cities Avenue
Beltsville, MD 20705
(301) 437-2243

-Joe

[71OLDS]

Pistons are back in. Block was decked again just to clean things up. Pistons are out of the hole a little now



New cam is ordered. Stayed with a Crane hyd roller since I got the discount for sending the one with the chewed up cam gear back. As mentioned went with a wider LSA (112 vs 108) and a little smaller on the intake side (about 4 degrees) The LSA should keep it safe for pump gas.

Old cam: 238/246 @ .050, 292/300 @ .006, 602/614 (1.65) 108 LSA 10.53:1 measured
New cam: 234/246 @ .050, 288/300 @ .006, 592/614 (1.65) 112 LSA will be around 11:1

The Ebrock heads flow 320/210 @ 600 = 66% so the 12 degree spread on the new cam is probably about right. I'm going to miss the healthy idle of the 108 cam but hopefullly the smooth idle will make for better stop light to stop light driving especially with the AC on in the summertime. Also hoping the power will be spread out more and less peaky. Will probably lose some peak power #s but maybe the avearge across the power band will go up. It will be interesting to see how it drives with the new cam. I don't plan on doing another engine dyno but may do a rear wheel dyno in the summer once everything is dialed in. We will see. I found 2 Olds 455 builds with this same cam and a Pontiac 455 with a very similar cam. All made hp at the motor in the 525 – 565 range and tq at the motor in the 560 – 590 range. With the old cam I dyno’d at 528/563. As long as I stay in that range and the motor stays "healthy" for a while I'll be happy. I want to put 3 to 5 k miles on this car a year and really enjoy it. Need the motor to run well and be ready to take a beating. I'm going to drive it hard.