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'87 Olds Cutlass Supreme. You vote

What to do with an unexciting g-body

  • Total voters
    20
  • Poll closed .
Some things I have thought about;
GM3800 supercharged
GM3800 supercharged with turbos. Just for shock value when I open the hood.
Chevy 383 with a turbo. Boring but proven.
Junkyard ls with junkyard turbos.
Junkyard ls with twin churbos - t3/t4 for 125 a piece on eBay.

Or a turbo on the olds rocket 350.
A big block probably isn't something I would explore in this car except one.
I have a Buick 430 big block which is a 360 horse engine.
And I already have it.

And lastly the 3.6 LFX
Amazing engine.
IMG_20160501_100542260_HDR.jpg
My wife's car has me convinced this engine needs twins. Her car is big and heavy and this engine pulls it around like nothing. 305 hp and 29 mpg.
 
The LFX is a good engine. A local guy in the Camaro club threw twin turbos on his and with conservative boost and conservative tune made 480 at the rear wheels. He laid waste to all the other V8 Camaros.
 
Odd there isn't a single vote to keep the current olds 350.
I thought it might have been cool to fix it, add efi and some boost.
 
Chevy305 said:
The LFX is a good engine. A local guy in the Camaro club threw twin turbos on his and with conservative boost and conservative tune made 480 at the rear wheels. He laid waste to all the other V8 Camaros.
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480 doesn't seem like much.
A few rough calculations puts that 7.98 lbs of boost based on a factory 305 hp engine.
At 10 lbs of boost it would be around 521 HP.
That's alittle more like it...
 
beags86 said:
480 doesn't seem like much.
A few rough calculations puts that 7.98 lbs of boost based on a factory 305 hp engine.
At 10 lbs of boost it would be around 521 HP.
That's alittle more like it...
Click to expand...

Sounds like it's turning into a normal Olds drag racer to me. Cool and quirky is going out the window. :dunno:
 
campfire said:
Poor car suspension, slammed into the ground by an 1100lb engine. :doah:
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Sorry guys, no diesels in this car, that just doesn't interest me.
Plus it would suck trying to explain to the random guy that it's not a 5.7 diesel, it's not factory, etc,etc

campfire said:
Sounds like it's turning into a normal Olds drag racer to me. Cool and quirky is going out the window. :dunno:
Click to expand...

Typical engineer getting lost in one thing.

Don't get lost in my original post. It's not a requirement to be odd or quirky. I just tossed that out there to see if anyone came up with something good.

Main requirement is HP.
 
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A reasonably built Olds 455 will make a boatload of torque, fit right in there easily and eclipse your horsepower goals beyond what the stock rear diff can handle. With aluminum intake and Eddy aluminum heads it is lighter than a SBC engine. It will be less expensive than the turbo Olds which would require expensive pistons and everything else performance related. The Buick 430 is a torque maker too but you would need to have all accessory brackets etc for the swap which might be expensive and difficult to scrounge in this day and age.
 
beags86 said:
480 doesn't seem like much.
A few rough calculations puts that 7.98 lbs of boost based on a factory 305 hp engine.
At 10 lbs of boost it would be around 521 HP.
That's alittle more like it...
Click to expand...
Ya 8lbs sounds about right. Like I said he ran it conservative. I'd crank the boost to 12psi and run meth but that's just me.
 
beags86 said:
...
I am pretty sure a drag style car isn't in this cars future.

...

Low cubic inch big block swap just for something different?

...
Click to expand...

beags86 said:


[USER=18566]@folkenheath I know you will vote big block, either or.[/USER]
Click to expand...


Actually, I would never vote for a tiny big block, it completely defeats the purpose of the big block. If you are going to install a big block that is no more cubes than a mild small block, what's the point of the extra weight?

Plus, you said this isn't a drag car or a truck, so I vote LS pro touring style build, or twin turbo LS if you can. Although if all you want is 400 hp a 6.0 could do it easily, although you could easily build it for 500 , or build a stroker LS3 or L92 for 600 hp.

If you aren't going big block the LS small block is the way to go. (and a 396 is not a big block anymore). Yeah I know the purists are going to hate me for that, because when it came out the 396 was awesome and it is the basis for all other big blocks. But these days, when 454 blocks are cheap, and 4.25" stroker cranks are $300, I don't see the point of a 396 anymore unless you are building a numbers matching muscle car or something. I'm all about maximizing the cubes for a particular block. It will almost always give you more torque and hp withouting having to rev it to the moon.

Now in your Monte that you tubbed, I vote big block for that one definitely. A 540 minimum. :saweet:
 
beags86 said:
Odd there isn't a single vote to keep the current olds 350.
I thought it might have been cool to fix it, add efi and some boost.
Click to expand...

My buddy had one that was done up a bit, intake,cam,headers,good heads...it sucked. He had a totally stock 425 that killed it.
 
campfire said:
Isn't that pretty close to what blew the car up in the first place? :wink1: :haha:
Click to expand...
According to the 1st post, it was actually a 125hp shot of NOS that killed it. Methanol injection is much different. On boosted vehicles it cools the intake charge and adds fuel allowing to run more timing and/or more boost while still maintaining safe air/fuel ratios. If you are running any kind of boosted engine, you'd be a fool not to run a meth kit.
 
Chevy305 said:
According to the 1st post, it was actually a 125hp shot of NOS that killed it. Methanol injection is much different. On boosted vehicles it cools the intake charge and adds fuel allowing to run more timing and/or more boost while still maintaining safe air/fuel ratios. If you are running any kind of boosted engine, you'd be a fool not to run a meth kit.
Click to expand...

I meant more in the general sense that pushing things past their limits decreases engine longevity, regardless of engine type. Obviously some mods are safer than others, but if you are pushing for lots of power, you're going to shorten the lifespan. That's just part of the game. Nobody expects to get 200,000 miles out of a drag car.

I think it's funny that the car went from "blow it up amounts of quick power" to "I am pretty sure a drag style car isn't in this cars future" right back to "lets put as much power in here as we can." Nothing wrong, I just find the progression fun to watch. I think that if he continues down this train of thought he'll wind up with more power, more fun, and yet another blown engine. :haha:

:popcorn:
 
Technically the car runs, I backed into the current resting spot.

It has one or two head gasket(s) out. Maybe other problems too, I am not sure. But the car was running on 8 cylinder when parked. Since there are true duals on it thought I could look under the car and figure out which bank of cylinders it is.
But when I did that there was so much steam under the car I couldn't see which side it was. I never looked into any further.

I have talked to Heath about the cutlass before. I believe we determined that I didn't retard the ignition enough for the Nitrous shot I was running.
Also I didn't invest in high quality head gaskets when I built the engine. ( I Didn't plan on Nitrous at the time of the build.)
And the hardcore olds guys insist on high quality olds heads.

@folkenheath I actually knew you would vote as LS as well, but like @campfire I just wanted to mess with you a little

Honestly in this day and age I don't think 400-550 hp is drag car territory at all.
I really believe a boosted LS with 600 is completely streetable, docile even.
I don't even think you would know it until you got into the boost.
 
campfire said:
I think it's funny that the car went from "blow it up amounts of quick power" to "I am pretty sure a drag style car isn't in this cars future" right back to "lets put as much power in here as we can." Nothing wrong, I just find the progression fun to watch. I think that if he continues down this train of thought he'll wind up with more power, more fun, and yet another blown engine. :haha:

:popcorn:
Click to expand...

Just remember that, because a drag racing car isn't part of this cars future doesn't mean it wasn't part of its past....
 
beags86 said:
Just remember that, because a drag racing car isn't part of this cars future doesn't mean it wasn't part of its past....
Click to expand...

But why bother having a fast car if you don't intend to use it as such? :thinking:

I expect burnout pictures if you get it running again. :deal:
 
beags86 said:
Honestly in this day and age I don't think 400-550 hp is drag car territory at all.
I really believe a boosted LS with 600 is completely streetable, docile even.
I don't even think you would know it until you got into the boost.
Click to expand...

Streetable? Yes. But you can't get past 10% throttle without having a little fun... :whistle:

:haha:
 
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