What to put in an 83 olds

when i get it over here i was going to start with the brakes and then suspension and so on and so forth. what would be the best area to start? i plan on pretty much either rebuilding/replacing or upgrading pretty much everything. do you kno of any good quality companys that sell kits and that stuff? and what would be the best way to upgrade the rear end?  

inspect and evaluate what you have to start with then determine the place to go first
you won't want to replace okay brakes if suspension bushings are shot, and by the same token won't want to replace servicable bushings if brakes are shot
check the upper control arm bushings to ensure that they aren't gone...excess play in this area will effect steering geometry, ride quality not to mention safety...when these bushings wear out and not replaced in a timely fashion, the excess movement can open up the bushing hole in the control arms and destroy the control arms...learned the hard way on wife's car, used same problem to my advantage later on a project purchase.
if ALL the brakes are in good working order and have some life left, you could start collecting suspension parts and upgrade brake parts
i have used Peformance Suspension Technology (p-s-t.com) for parts on at least three vehicles, they offer rubber and polyurethane bushing kits for many vehicles along with brake upgrade kits and sway bars and springs
another place i've had good luck with was Energy Suspension and i think Rancho makes parts for cars also, there are several places to choose from and with the www at your finger tips, finding the stuff now is soooooo much easier than it used to be
usually bushing/ball joint/tie-rod end kits are in the $450 range...but tubular control arms and accompanying kits are about two to three times that price...the question is are you willing to spend some now and enjoy it until you can afford the big layout, or can you afford the big price tag now...tubular arms weren't around when i did my first car but the polyurethane made a huge improvement in the handling...the difference is in the strenght of the tubular stuff as opposed to the factory stamped steel pieces...i believe john mcgann did an article within the last year where he welded some reinforcing braces in the lower control arms for a later model box caprice, john if your reading, how did that work out?

my way of thinking here....replace entire front end at one time...reason?, new bushings, less slop, even if all the alignment shims got put back EXACTLY where they came from the front end still needs to be re-aligned...toe is set with adjusting sleeves on tie-rod ends...god can't exactly match tie-rod length when replacing them, so if they are replaced at a different time than the bushins...another alignment

brakes would be a good thing to replace at the same time as suspension work if possible just because you have to pull all that stuff out of the way when doing the suspension work..now is a goo time to be thinking about ride height too...if you want dropped spindles and you already have the stock spindles removed, why not go ahead and put new ones back on

the rear suspension is usually upgrabable with parts from the same supplier as the front

the differnetial is a whole 'nother ball game.  i've seen pro auburns die in light cars with stock motors and spools have NO place in a daily driver...yes, some guys run spools in thier occasionly street driven race car and have no problems, but a spool in a daily driven street car will eventually cause problems
that said, what i did, mostly because i saw someone else have success this way first, was to get a "powertrax" unit made by richmond gear.  it's the easy way out because you don't have to pull the differential unit out of the rearend housing.  the side gears and spider gears are replaced with the powertrax unit. these will give posi traction while in s straight line and when cornering, power goes to the wheel on the outside of the corner...but with this set up, one still has the factory ring and pinion with the factory strength, so, if you start out with a 7.5" 10-bolt with an open differential, all you have really accomplished is to make both wheels pull in a staight line...for the price of the powertrax ($500+/-), you could be a couple hundred from a new locking differntial/carrier unit and new gears, but you still have the cost of getting the gears set up in the housing...read up on this subject before you attempt it at home
of couse there is still the option of an entire new housing built to suit for $1200 to $1500

the thing to keep in mind is that most of the factory stuff will take some abuse for a while, its not like your going to park a stock automobile one night and have a racecar the next morning with all factory parts still on it...the differential (even if it is 7.5") and gears (the powertrax option comes into play here) will hold up through suspension, engine and transmission upgrades until you start getting into the neighborhood of 450-500 horsepower, if you don't make neutral drops a habit...i'm not trying to say that it should be last on the list but the factory rearend can be helped to last until better is more affordable

have i overloaded you yet  
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the red-headed step-child of the mailing list

fuzzy dice, air shocks & N50's rule

If gas mileage is really that big of a deal, how about a modern-day Jetfire.  The Olds Jetfire was the first-ever production turbocharged car (GM, of course, pulled the plug before they got it right).


But there's no need to search for an aluminum 215 Olds/Buick/Rover V8 or a box of unobtainable factory turbo parts. The late-model Olds V8 could be converted to a blow-through turbo car for reasonable money.

And I saw an Aurora V8 just sitting in the back of a truck at the JY the other day, which makes me wonder why more clever Oldsmobilers don't fab up Aurora-powered Cutlasses.  A clean DOHC "Sword"** would really shake'em up at cruise night.  


**History Lesson: For the youngsters in the crowd who have no idea where GM came up with the odd name "Cutlass" (and probably wonder why they didn't give the heap some sort of alphanumeric handle, such as "F-85"), a "Cutlass" is a sword -- usually a short, thick sabre with a straight or slightly curved blade and a solid cupped or basket-shaped guard.  
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460_BBF_Turbo-in-CC (formerly Dr511scj) "This guy has no life other than posting endlessly on carcraft.com." -- Car Craft, July 2005
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October 1, 2003: " I'm thinking a couple of...turbos, blowing through an old Powerstroke intercooler...on a Super Cobra Jet-head 460 would be mad cheap and make sick power."
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"I have no problem with your...talking to several versions of yourself...or pointing out our failure to do a turbo story ...." --Douglas "CC/Rambler" Glad

gas milage really isnt that big of a deal to me as long as it isnt worse than like 10-12 mpg  

thats awesome info man thanks. that powertrax option is something im really going to look into  

glad i could help

is the car an 83 le sabre?

if so the car should have a four speed automatic already, right?

i see most people want to drop in a hot motor right away, but if you get the car ready for the hot motor first, you'll enjoy it more for longer
what i mean is that you'll enjoy the handling upgrades now and the motor will be more enjoyable with a car that can hold it, i did this backwards and had roughly 400hp in front of an old tranny with stock converter and open differential...it was a DOG at anything below 45mph...great on the freeway but nowhere else...at the time i really did need a motor, but got caught in the hp dream

when it coomes time for engine upgrades, pick your motor...olds, buick, cadillac, pontiac, or what ever, just remember that in the GM family, chevrolet is the oddball in the bell housing department...i've heard about dual pattern bell housings but don't know when they started being produced
to keep things simple i suggest a motor that will bolt to your current transmission as long as the current tranny is a four speed model, if it's not you'll want to replace it with one with overdrive sooner or later
assuming the tranny is already an overdrive unit, it can be built to handle as much motor as you can afford to put in front of it

gas mileage is a function of efficiency, and the slower the motor turns at cruising speeds, the less fuel it will consume
someone suggested buying a tach and seeing where (rpm range) you drive most
max hp at 6500 rpm sounds great at the cruise spot but belongs in a small car with a manual trans (my opinion)...point is that if 6500 rpm is where hp peaks, torque will probably peak between 4500 and 5000
say for example that your car has a 3.08 rear gear (means driveshaft turns 3.08 revolutions to 1 revolution of the axle) (using this ratio because of my familiarity of the rest of the numbers involved) (edelbrock has a two page  section of automotive formulas in their catalog, under tech info, and is probably accessible at their website also...and for a beginner, edelbrock takes the guess work out of engine parts selection with their "power packages" that include heads, cam, intake, and carb suggestions that are proven to work...it's a good place to start if you aren't familiar with head, cam, and intake relationships)
okay...3.08 rear gear with an overdrive of .7 (700r4 tranny) puts your cruise rpm at 65mph in the 1500-1700rpm range depending on tire diameter
if the motor is built with a torque peak above 4000rpm, the car will need an increase gear ratio and loose torque converter to get it moving from a dead stop...i don't mean the car won't move without the increased gearing, it will but it will lug the motor because the motor won't be in it's torque range.  you'll see cams advertised to operate in certain ranges, idle to 4500 or 5000 rpm, 1500 to 5500, 2500 to 6500, and further down the list will be something for the nascar guys with  a range like 4500 to 8500 or something like that...for my daily driver, 3000rpm is roughly 100mph

another example, a 4.11 rear gear without overdrive put me spinning the motor at 4000 rpm on the freeway to run 75mph, this was with 31" tires even, swapping to the 700r4 dropped the rpm to 2600 +/-... how hard do you really want to be on it just to get back and forth to work?

for a car the size of what you have, a rear gear of 3.20 to 3.50 would be a good compromise between freeway cruise rpm and not spinning the tires every time you try to take off from a red light in the rain...of course i'm thinking 350 to 400lbs/ft torque at this point and for mostly street duty you won't see 6000rpm without racing from every stop sign so the cam selection could be on the mild side like idle/1200 to 5000/5500 rpm...again this is where looking into the edelbrock stuff will help you build something with plenty of torque for an enjoyable street experience (rpm packages say increased stall speed torque converter and/or increased gear raito and mean it)
of course the best case scenerio would be if you could afford to buy another motor and build it then put it in the car and not be without the car for more than a weekend, but not everybody has that luxury, which leaves you collecting parts like cam and lifters, intake manifold, gasket set, and possibly heads (heads are the most important part of the power making equation)...and do your homework before selecting a machine shop...and if you build a bulletproof bottom-end from the onset, you can upgrade the top as money becomes available
a full on new build can easily be $4000 for something that is run-of-the-mill like an aluminum head 383 stroker
or you may get lucky and find a gently used motor for cheap and be able to spend less than a grand on a rering and bearing rebuild with a better than factory cam and go several thousand miles without any problems...with any luck, you'll be able to make the motor live until you're ready to replace it...something that i've never been able to do
to better understand the internal combustion engine, i'd suggest some reading, find a book that is specifically dedicated to engine theory and not just how to build this or that... if one understands the basics of operation, the variations and improvements are easier to understand and the reasons some improvements work better than others becomes clearer...there is some info on the web in various places, search for "otto cycle engine" and see if that helps...school's out, it's time to learn something that interests you instead of the government  
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the red-headed step-child of the mailing list

fuzzy dice, air shocks & N50's rule

my plan is to fix up the car and set it up to handle lots of torque and hp and learn as much as i can from the 307 it has in . i dont really want to upgrade the 307 because i plan on trying to find a big block motor like a 406 in a junk yard a rebuild that and drop it in. so i dont want to spend a lot on the 307.  

sounds like a good plan

the most important part is that you have a plan

i hope you're able to enjoy the car for any years  
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the red-headed step-child of the mailing list

fuzzy dice, air shocks & N50's rule

now that you have planned on a motor... and you want to make it handle...

you might measure the sway bar...     i would think that larger diameter bars could be gotten off full size cads... that might fit...      drop washer on a string to the ground under where the bolt go through the end... measure the distance..

then do the same for the frame brackets...  see if they are close...

then between the frame brackets and the ends...

some cads came with big thick bars...  that may bolt on..  stiffer shocks.. will also help... KYB's  

there are aftermarket sway bars also available..    

measure the diameter with an adjustable wrench.. then a tape measure..



there are shocks from 4 way shock company..  they have coil over springs on them...  the ends of the springs are locked into the clamps so they have pull also...   i have used these on motor homes...   driving one wheel at a time up a 4 to 6 inch curb...   then climbing under and loosening the spring seat... so it slides down the shock body...  locking it there..  so it pulls down on the suspension...

when you turn a corner the inside lifts...  unloading the spring and suspension..   with the coilover  pulling down.. this reduces the amount of body roll... it really works great on motorhomes.. but they don't say to do the one tire up on a curb trick...   i don't know if the 4 way shocks will fit in your front .. they should have a pair that would work in the rear...

best of luck...  

"drop washer on a string to the ground under where the bolt go through the end..."
when u say the end what do you mean?
and thanks for the info on the caddy bars and the shocks. thats really goin to help  

the washer and string trick is to measure the distance from the mounting bolt on one control arm to the mounting bolt on the other control arm

carpenters use a plumb bob to transfer a point straight up or down when the use of a level isn't practical...most plumb bobs are way too big for this particular application and generally not needed for working on a car until you start moving frame members

for this, tie a washer to a piece of string, say 12-15 inches in length
with one hand, hold the string on the center of the swaybar end link
let the washer dangle close to the ground without touching
when the washer stops swinging, make a mark on the ground at the lowest point of the washer,  bottom of the circle
this creates a reference point on the ground that is in a vertical plane with one end of the swaybar,(as long as your finger holding the string wasn't in the way)
repeat the process for the other side
once both ends are marked on the ground, you can measure the distance between the marks, this is the distance between the end links
the car needs to be either on the ground or have the weight of the car on the suspension...like if the cars was on ramps instead of jack stands

the other measurement (crescent wrench and tape measure) will give you the diameter of you existing sway bar

with these two numbers in mind, you can scavage the wrecking yards for a factory swaybar that is bigger in diameter (bigger bar = less body roll) and the right length
usually these are found on full size cars from the same family
if none can be found, the same companies that sell performance bushing also sell bigger sway bars  
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the red-headed step-child of the mailing list

fuzzy dice, air shocks & N50's rule

350 with vortec heads and a performance cam and a corvette cranck, my friend had that engine and he could go an easy 100 mph on the highway (160 Kmph)the thing was it mysteriously ate pushrods so its an idea but bewarned you might want to buy puchrods in bulk