not to sure on a budget just yet. i was planning on taking time to do it rite and learn what i can about em. i think i would like to eventually put a race tranny in instead of what it has now.
Unknown budget and all, my advice would be to get a good used 350 that should bolt right in. Instant upgrade for less money. You can tear it down and make it what you want when you have the cash and a plan. As for the transmission, unless you have to budget for gobs of power, the 200R4 that you have (maybe?) can be built to take it while giving you the advantage of nice street economy. A full race transmission is for a car that is a pretty serious race car as opposed to a car that you drive all the time and want to have a little fun at the track. Just my thoughts on it and I'm sure that there will be those that don't agree, but I would go for the cheaper upgrade that gives you options for the future.
Actually there is very little difference between the big block Olds and the small block Olds. The main difference is deck heigth. It would be very easy to replace the 307 with any bigger Olds motor. Should not be that hard to find one cheap. I will warn you that building an Olds is much like building a Buick. Not everyone knows how. Find someone that know how to build an Olds. If you want a trick Olds start with a 403, it has the largest bore of any Olds motor.
I'm out of my area here, but isn't the 403 a weak block? I seem to recall hearing that it has a weak lower end, but I don't know much about them.
If you go with a Olds motor a 307, 350, 403, or a 455 will bolt right in and you should be able to the use the power steering, AC, and every other accessory off the 307 motor. I'm not saying you can swap engine parts from one to the other, just the accessories.
ok let me change my goals here. i have a daily driver right now so i dont need to worry much about fuel economy or a whole bunch of drivablility i guess. id like to drive it back and forth to the track and take it out on the town once in awhile. im planning on taking everything off that isnt needed to go fast. so ac, power windows, locks, and whatever else i can find is gonna go. i plan on only having front seats and most likely changing them to race seats. so this is gonna take some time and i plan on taking a bunch of pictures and possibly doing a writeup on what i did and whatever i learned. if anyone is looking for parts ill probly have a bunch of stock stuff to get rid of in the next few weeks Im guessing this is gonna be alot less of a budget project as i once said. its just gonna be pieced together as i can afford it
well, if you are going to make it more of a racer then you might as well find a good buick 455 and put that in there. a 455 olds would bolt right in there though.
is that a pretty strong block? i saw someone else said that the 403 block is weak. also id probly want to tear the whole block down, get aluminum heads, and even a race tranny too. but before all that could happen i gotta see what else is wrong with the car cause it has sat for over 4 years
That was me with the 403 block comment, and it was a question as it is just something that I've heard but don't know much about. I agree though that if you are going for a racer, bigger is better! If you don't have money for premium heads, you can do a lot of work to the iron heads to get them to flow better too.
so i think i have decided. im going to go with a 455 if i can find one. is there anything cheap i can do to the 307 to get me some power in the meantime?
If your main goal is the strip go with a 455, either Olds or Buick, there are lots of go fast goodies for both of them. That big boat would make for an interesting drag car, but even stripped it will still be heavy. If your main goal is to go fast and since the car will be the cheapest part of the build you may want to consider selling the Electra and getting a lighter Regal or Cutlass. But if you want to be unique, stick with the Electra. Gotta love unique!
get carb rebuilt, cause you KNOW a 1984 q-jet will need it. curve kit is dist, and since its an 84, i would assume that its computer controled dist an carb, see it you can get a chip for it{ prom ID chip}, but get on for a 84 cutlass with a 307. i did this same thing in a 84 monte, carb, dist, chip, an loose cat converter, car ran GOOD FOR A 305. also, for the biggest bang for the buck, do a gear swap. if its a 200-4R trans,or a 4-speed,an just a weekend ride, shoot go 4.10s. you WILL NOTICE a big difference!!:3gears: :3gears:
so i replaced the tranny fluid, oil antifreeze and got some new gas in it... she fired up right away!!! cut the exhaust off and put a down tip right after the cat and it sound pretty good! problems now, the larger butterfly valves(secondaries?) dont open when you rev it up... is that normal? i know i most likely gotta rebuild the carb and i will, just wondering if that is normal. started pulling the a/c off and i was wondering if the AIR pump needs to be on too? and what about the egr valve?
All I know about the 403 is my tranny builder just used one to make a 490 something stroker motor that dynoed at over 600HP. This guy is really good. Has a 70 632 inch Camaro that runs 7's so knows what he's doing.
"cut the exhaust off and put a down tip right after the cat and it sound pretty good!" If you drive it this way make sure you have a window or two open so you don't get carbon monoxide poisoning from exhaust leaking into the interior.
^^ thanks, weve been driving with the drivers front and rear windows open... only ones that will. we put it at an angle too so its not straight down it kinda points out..
Probably the same as my 85 Olds Delta 88 was... 307 with the 200r4 tranny. If thats the case, it might be a good idea to think about either a 350 or 455 transplant, with some 3:73 rear gears or maybe even steeper. That overdrive tranny will keep the revs low. Don't put in a race tranny, keep the overdrive tranny. I looked into working my 307 over, and I doubt its worth it. The biggest improvements I could find for it were a certain casting of factory heads (can't remember the casting number), port them, put on an aftermarket intake, and run some good exhaust out the back. Gains will be small, and likely unimpressive in a car that weight and a block that small. There really aren't enough aftermarket parts to make it worth the effort. Being a SBB guy, I would say stick with a 350 buick or the olds since they have great potential. But the choice is yours! As far as the 403 being weak, I have heard that too, something about weak webbing or something (I honestly can't remember exactly what was wrong with them). We had a 403 in our 78 Olds 88 and it was a tank but had good torque, with a bit of work it would have been a tire-roaster!
