ive been doing some research on my 76 cutlass supreme and i just cant seem to find out if the 350 rocket engine would still work with a chevy 383 stroker kit, seeing as they are both gm products.  but at the same time i had read that the oldsmobile block had a slightly different internal dimention of that of the chevys.  i was just wondering if there is any 383 stroker kit available for the 350 rocket or if the kit i found from summit racing to bore and stoke out a SBC would work just fine in it?  also is there any alernatives to stroking it out that would get more power and torque for about the same price of the stoker kit? (it costs about 1300 bucks including machine work on the block.)  im looking for the most bang for my buck. im 16 so the money really isnt flowing to afford a custom engine build from a well known engine builder or to go all out and spend thousands on the engine only to gain 50 more horses than i would with a stoker kit.  any input and suggestions would be very helpful.  

Hello and first off I would like to congradulate you on your choice of cars. I am glad to see that you are not trying to soup up a Honda. I am glad to see that we have younger people still interested in muscle cars. When I was 16 I had a 71 Torino, but the car was only 20 years old at that time and only had 34,000 miles on it and it was free to boot. I don't think the 383 Chevy kit will work in an Olds 350. Not only have I never heard of that, but I believe they are completely different motors. I am no Olds 350 expert, but maybe there are a few around here that can give you some info. I have never heard of a stroker kit for an Olds 350 either. I do know that an Olds 350 has a 4.057" bore compared with a Chevy 350 4" bore. The Olds 350 has a 3.385" stroke as compared to a Chevy 350 3.48" stroke. I'm sure the crank mains are of a different size as well. However, if I were you, I would use the 350 that you have now because there is nothing wrong with using it. Everything doesn't have to be stroked. I would just put a larger cam in it, an aftermarket intake, headers with duals, and possibly aftermarket heads if you have the money for those. If you don't, then you can always have your heads pocket ported. That would be just fine. You will be surprised how much more powerful the motor will be with just that little bit of work. Your motor has low compression assuming that it is the original 76 engine. It would be nice to throw an older set of small chamber heads on that motor instead of using the large chamber low compression heads that you have now. I am assuming the pistons are flat tops, but it would be nice if they were dished that way you could increase compression when you rebuild the motor just by going to flat tops. That is if you were planning on rebuilding the motor completely. But anyway, good luck and I hope I helped.  

what year of heads would be ideal for the higher compression u mentioned?  i will probably just go the route of rebuilding it with a summit racing and keith black rebuild kit.  they have the dished top hypertonic pistons, high output oil pump, and moly rings with the summit stage 2 rods and bearings.  what cam duration would u suggest to maximize the power gain from the aftermarket rebuild and a new intake and headers?  also should i go the route of trying to convert it to roller rockers?  i was eventually thinking of putting some kind of supercharger or possibly a pro charger....but again im not sure if they make them for oldsmobile applications...     my plan is to eventually have it a street/strip worthy application that i can just go to the tracks and plink around and get some wrench time under my belt b4 i go to wyo-tech a few years down the line.  thank you for the help and the good pointers and info.  im a gm guy but im not totally familiar with the oldsmobile branch of it all so its a great deal of help to get pointers and specs.  

I am not an expert on Oldsmobiles, but probably heads before 1972 would be small combustion chamber heads. You can check for yourself just by looking up the Olds motors from all the different years and finding what the compression ratio was. A Chilton manual or something like that would be perfect. You probably could just look it up on the net. I noticed you mentioned dished pistons. Did you mean dome pistons? Dished pistons would lower your compression ratio, not raise it. Flat tops and smaller chamber heads would be ideal though. You probably don't want to go with domed pistons and the small chamber heads because the compression would be too high for the street most likely. I noticed that you mentioned a supercharger. Superchargers are nice and everything, but you could use all that money to do alot of other things to the motor instead of buying a supercharger. Just a thought. Also, with a supercharger you probably want to use forged pistons and a forged crank. A bigger carb too. I am not too sure on the high performance durability of an Olds motor. I just know on like a Chevy, Ford, or Mopar small block engine all those forged parts would be essential. I guess it all depends on how much boost you are going to use as well. Like anything I guess, it all depends on how much. A lot of things come into play when picking a cam and everybody has their own recommendations. You should try calling Comp cams hotline and telling them exactly what you are going to do and see what they recommend. I also would call a couple other places just as a "check" so to speak. If it were me, I would probably use an Edelbrock Performer RPM air gap intake and a Performer RPM cam. You just don't want to pick a cam that is too big though. A cam that is too big in a street car down right sucks. I have had so many friends put cams that were too big in their cars. One buddy in particular had a nice 1980 Z28 with a 350 and we put an RPM intake on it, headers, 2.5 inch exhaust, 600 Edelbrock carb and an MSD ignition system and with the 3.42 gears it was a tire burning machine. I was 18 then so the car was only 13 years old. It was in real good shape. It was a lot of fun to drive. Very snappy throttle and gobs of low end. Then he installed a Performer RPM cam in the engine. An RPM cam is not considered to be a small cam for a street car and it works well with RPM heads and intake and a good compression ratio. However, this was an 80 Z28 with an 8.2 compression ratio and loped real bad, which sounded cool, but it was a dog now. It did run a little faster time at the drag strip, but it sucked to drive on the street. Now if he would have had say a 9.5 compression and maybe a higher stall converter, it would have been so much better. Roller rockers are always nice by the way. I am not sure how much trouble it is for an Olds motor though. You will have to check that out yourself. usually you can go to a roller rocker arm company like Comp cams or Crane and go to the Olds Rocker arms and then go to instructions and see what the installations instructions say. That might tell you something. I don't know if Oldsmobiles engine have a fully adjustable valvetrain like Chevy does or if it is like a Ford and doesn't. Hope this helps. I just wish I knew more about Olds.  

These are good suggestions and i echo what the other fello has said. Can the idea on force induction. If you do that increasing compression will be bad not good. For the bucks, increasing your compression and using natural aspiration is your best bang for the buck.  As far as torque goes, Olds engines are torque monsters.  Make your improvments to your current engine and you will be more than satisfied.

Any pre-1970 heads will help increase compression. If you want a big bump in compression, find some heads off of a pre-1968 330 cubic inch Olds. I can give you casting numbers if you are interested.  The 330 in 1967 ran about a 10.something to 1 compression ratio. If you are running dished pistons, it should give you an approximate compression ratio of 9 or 9.5 to 1. Thats streetable, but you will probably have to run the more expensive gas. The trade off is that you will get better mileage. Put in a cam, and that will go out the window too, but more cam will give you more performance.

There are many cam selections out there and I suggest that you get a Mondello catalog. I am not plugging their shop, but they have just about anything one might want (as far as cams go) and all made just for Olds engines. They are a little higher priced, but not bad. I strongly suggest that you pick a cam that will give good performance, but still give good street manners. I have a crazy cam in my '67 Cutlass, and while it's crazy fast, it doesn't idle below 850-900 rpm. Go below that it lopes so bad that I can even get the car out of the garage. I like it, but I don't use it every day. It is strictly a fun day car and nothing else.

I agree that the air gap is a good manifold choice, although the 350 Performer RPM is an inexpensive direct bolt on that has proven itself on a couple of my cars. I am not saying it's the best - I think I might shop around a bit more if I had to do it again. As far as carbs go, the sky is the limit.  I have a holly on my Cutlass with vacuum secondaries, and honestly it's a bit under carbureted. It's a 650 CFM and I really think that my mechanical secondary 850 would work better.  There is a place here in my town that rebuilds quadra-pukes into impressive high performance carbs.  Their reputation is stellar, and I am going to try one of their units on my 442. They aren't cheap, but I figure I will see if the line they are spewing is true.

I know that Summit sells reprogramed quadra-pukes as well, but I don't know much about them. I figure I will do business with the local yokals here so if the thing sucks I can get my money back.

As far as stroking that engine, the Chevy stuff absolutely will not work. They are different blocks, rotating assemblys and everything else. The Olds 350 engine geometry is one of the best anyways.

Let me know if you want some casting numbers for heads or other stuff, and I will get them for you.  Good luck.

Bowser    

ya i would really appreceate the casting numbers and what ever else you can provide that u think is helpful.  im not really setting a max budget amount because im sick and tired of these tiny domestic cars with the little 4 bangers in em....my 2.2L cavalier has been nothing but trouble the past 6 months, and the best vehicle that ive drove is my 85 chevy c10....sadly the engine (for some unknown reason) chews up trannys like crazy... so i had to park it in the back yard and leave it sit.  i really want the most bang for my buck thats still has street capability and the every day driver in mind. im the kind of person that has a strong belief that if you own a nice car, and you got the money into it, you should give the respect deserved and drive it like any other car (every day)  i also do see the point in a fun day car though, some cars are just not graced with  ok gas millage.  but ya any kind of numbers or other suggestions or stories are well appreciated.  im open for suggestions and i love to learn as much as i can so i can apply it in the future.  thanks everyone.  

The heads on your car are probably #7s (I would guess). Not bad heads really since they have 64cc chambers on them and the flow characteristics are pretty good.  The #4s that we put on my son's 72 Cutlass did improve his performance. They are 60 cc heads. Now that doesn't sound like much, but it was enough to boost his compression probably half a point. We elected to use a W-31 replacement cam in it, and put the #4s on and it at least runs better. That said, he hasn't put enough mileage on it to give me the difinitive thumbs up or down.  I have just recently read that Olds did vary their compression with changing pistons (dished style as opposed to flat tops).  The literature tends to suggest that this is true since #5s, #6s and #7s were all 64 cc chambers. Many of the '68 and'69 350s wore the #5 heads, and all were at 9.5:1 and higher compression.  From practical experience, I tore apart a '67 425 that had a 2 bbl carb set up.  It had dished pistons, but with the C heads on it, the compression ratio was still around 9.5:1. That was in the days of good gas.
Best thing to do is to look at your block and pistons when you tear it down. Some of the weak points will become fairly obvious, and you will be able to build from there.

Bowser    

Dear 76Supreme;

Congratulations on your Oldsmobile, very excellent choice.

However, no Chevy parts work with Pontiac, Olds, or Buick engines (if they are real Pontiac, Olds, or Buick engines).

Here is the great thing----> you've got a "Chevy-Killer".  Olds 350 is a naturally de-stroked engine (that means the bore dimension is larger than the stroke dimension).  As a result, you engine will spin faster than the Chevy - and - outperform the Chevy at all points.

Get an engine man under your belt, and, build Olds 350 as Olds 350 and go blow some Chevy and Ford doors off.

If you would like further input, contact me.

davidjmcvay@yahoo.com

Happy racing, David.