jrok420

i have been looking for hours for performance parts for my 394 and cant find any could any of you steer me in the right direction

Olds64

The reason you can't find performance parts for a 394 is because none exist. Actually, I think Offenhauser still makes a 3 deuce intake manifold for the 394; however, it is hard to come by. I don't know of any other performance parts.

jrok420

well is there a good place to find the stock engine parts

59-59-59

Performance parts for a 394?? Its not only going to be tough, but it is going to be EXPENSIVE. You can find some roller cams / lifters, dual quad intakes from time to time on Ebay. I would recommend a custom ground cam - that would be the easiest performance part you will find. For stock parts, Kanter and EGGE come to mind.

Olds64

Kanter is a great company. I have ordered parts from them before. A rebuild kit for the 394 is pricey compared to a rebuild kit for a 455 or 350. Check out their website.

http://www.kanter.com/

BAM583

My son and I are doing our first engine rebuild on our 61Olds 98 and don't have a lot of $. What are the most important things to replace/rebuild? The car runs but I think we blew a headgasket going to Billetproof this year and I don't think it's ever been gone thru. My son's wanting to do it in autoshop class with some buddies to help out. We're virgins here so don't give us too bad of a time, ok guys? Just a car loving gal and her boy here in CA.

scruffu

HI; Try these guys www.rossracingeng.com They seem to have lots of stuff for 324-394. and the later engines too.

scruffu

I almost forgot these guys . www.fastengineparts.com I have bought all the rebuild stuff for my 371. It was a lot cheeper than Eggie..It was good stuff. The complete rebuild kit came with everything except the block, crank, and cyl heads. everything was in the kit . rockers ,valves and keepers ,springs, rockers and shafts, oil pump kit, pistons ,rings, pins and bushings ,cam ,rod and main brgs, gaskets set. This was the most complete rebuild kit I have ever bought for older engines... If I remember it was $1300.00 to my door.. They have several types of engine kits. I bought the best one they had cause I don't like needing anything once I start. Cause the way I figure it any engine that is 50+years old needs everything..

D. Yaros

BAM583 -

It seems no one has really answered your question? If it were me, engine wise, I would be looking at the bearings, rings and valves in terms of "the most important things to replace/rebuild."

Being a Marine, I have to ask, where you ever in the Corps?

chequenman

Performance parts aren't really all that is needed when rebuilding a "394" 'cause when you've done a complete rebuild on these Engines with a single Four Barrel Carb. you'll be very impressed with the power they can develop especially with Dual Exhaust!!!

panos

Talk with Tony from http://rossracingengines.com/ they do some great stuff with those motors and a lot of custom stuff,great guy to deal with also.

BAM583

No I've never been in the service, I'll bite though, why do you ask?

I appreciate the info though, I wish I could afford the $1300 the other guy was talking about but hey, I'm just a single mom who got a great deal on a pretty cool car for my 17yr old son. I've was born and bred a car girl having cut my teeth on driving a 33 Ford chop, lowered truck with a 327 then a 69 Nova SS in high school. This is my first Olds though and I think I love her more than my son does. It's pretty cool that she is so different and at Billetproof, we were the only late 50-60's era Olds at the show. I've never liked to run with the pack if you know what I mean. I think a car can be a work of art but I do get tired of all the 55-57 Chevy's and late 60's Camaro's, Chevelle's and Mustangs, I mean with those you can only be so original, it's all been done before. I really appreciate the advice though, I'm scared about removing the Old Girl's heart in case we never get it back in and running again. Keep your fingers crossed, I'll probably have a lot more questions as we go. Thanks much!

sborruso

watch out for those 394 heads you have, they have a really nasty habit of cracking between the middle cylinders, have had both crack on mine and took scrounging 4 used heads to get 2 that weren't.

chequenman

You're a girl after my own heart in regards to your dislikes of the Muscle Car era and the retored cars to-day where all you have to do is dial "1-(800)" and get what you need!!! Good luck with your challenges ahead and keep it here with the Classic Olds group.


cliff

D. Yaros

I was afraid this would happen. You had to be there to understand what the BAM acronym stood for in the Corps. Suffice it to say it was a bit derogatory/sexist. Only a WM (woman Marine) would have the degree of moxie required to call herself a BAM.

D. Yaros

Having owned a few 394 c.i. Oldsmobiles; 1960 with a factory 3-speed manual tranny, 1961, 1962 and 1963; I have to agree on the power quotient. There is far more there than either BAM or her son need, unless they are driving down the 1/4 mile!

My '60 with factory 3-on-tree, 4 bbl. and duals more than held its own against all challengers.

BAM583

As for the BAM, I think I get the picture. but it's actually part of the original license # so...... Anyway, my sons autoshop teacher said he needs to bring the car into shop after the Christmas break with a plan for the engine rebuild written out! Yikes, as I said we're "virgins" here and I was wondering if any of you experts might be able to help us out with it? While I applaud and totally understand the need for the "plan", I have no idea how to come up with a "plan". As I said before we have to do this on a shoestring budget or not at all. We really appreciate any help.

scruffu

Man a writen plan that teacher 's tought.
1st. Make sure that it needs to be rebuilt.
First take a compresion test 145 psi to 180psi should be good. Do this dry.
Second do it again only squirt some oil in each cyl. the psi should go up some if any cyls are low then you will need to rering the engine.If they stay the same then you will have to look at the heads.
2nd. check oil psi. 15-35 is good some like it on the high side. I just want pressure. Below 15 psi you may need cam ,main ,rod bearings.
3rd. Do these before you tear down the engine. look at the spark plugs while you have them out for compression test. If they are BLACK and SUTTY buy new.. If the plug wires are cracked or just old replace them along with the cap and rotor points and condencer. Or you could just install a pretronix ignitor.. this is a small electronic igntion set. about 80 $. It is a direct replacment for the points and condenser.
4th. Write every thing down that you find with the engine. Keep a good writen record of what you have done so you won't do it over..
This should get you started I can give you more but I don't want to over load ya. Keep in mind........ KEEP it simple don't get ahead of your skill level.. It's not rocket sience it's just an engine.. Get a manual for your car Factory type.. ebay or swap meets are a good place to find them. I paid 20 $ for my factory manual at a swap meet.. There worth every penny... Have fun..

D. Yaros

I concur with all scruffu has said above. The one thing I would add/do is at the very least have the valve seats hardened, to eliminate any possible problems running that 394 c.i. engine on unleaded gas.

BAM583

You guys rock! This is a great start and we can get started on most of this during the Christmas break (weather permitting) We suspect we may have blown a head gasket, so is it safe to run in long enough to do the above tests? I figure we will have to replace a lot of seals because we blew thru all the fluids (oil and water- that had all just been freshly changed and full before we left) when we did our 90 miles roundtrip to Billetproof in Sept. plus maybe a mainseal(oil in the driveway) She has new plugs,plugwires, condenser and cap and resistor that we did a few months ago. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the compression test comes out favorably. I'm not sure what we'll do if we cracked the block

scruffu

HI.. You can run an engine with leaky seals and bad head gaskets as long as you keep oil and water in it. But sooner or later it will do more damage to the engine. Have you checked the oil filter housing? They come loose and need to be tightened up. Check the gasket between the block and the housing to see if it is still in place.. The 394 engines are known to have cracked heads. There are still plenty around at least around here. There are lots of old wrecking yards that are easy to get to..around here anyway.. Have fun with your OLDs

BAM583

we did the dry compression test yesterday but stopped after the 6th sparkplug. The plugs were black and sooty (even though we put in new a few months ago and only had about 100 miles on them) The first 5 tested between 140-160 but we stopped when we tested the plug closest to the firewall on the passenger side. It tested at 200 but when we cranked it gas smelling liquid sprayed out and the electrode on that plug was a little twisted and oily. We stopped at that point since that didn't sound like a good thing. So I guess now what we need is a written plan to give the autoshop teacher and something for my son to follow as he starts this project at school as soon as we can arrange to have it transported (won't be easy since she only sits about 6 in. off the ground)Happy New Year to you guys, we really appreciate all of your help.

navvet

You are getting great advice!! Know what the issue(s) are and I mean know everything.
I have the 394 and did the dual exhaust...it sounds tough and mean and it hauls @#$%
a buddy of mine who has done a few engione jobs in his day always regrets pulling apart his 394...it was murphys law in triplicate

D. Yaros

If It were my engine, I would be doing a valve job, rings and bearings.

chequenman

We all know what you would do Dave, but it sounds like Bam is working on a shoe string budget, and with that said you know when we get these engines that far apart Rockers, Rocker Arm Shafts, weak Valve Springs, and Cam Shafts are the norm for serious attention.

D. Yaros

It seems to me the biggest bang for the buck is in doing the valves/rings/bearings? A compression problem would also seem to indicate valves or rings, would it not?

BAM583

Would any of you be kind enough to give us a step by step written plan for my son to give to his autoshop teacher so he can get started? He won't even let us bring the car until we have one. I'm sure the teacher just doesn't him to just tear everything apart without having a plan to follow and as I said he's 17 and this is his first engine. Thanks guys.

navvet

Hope this doesn't sound wrong, but has your son been able to get info from the web, library or local repair shops. If he can get engine specs, diagrams etc he may be able to at least give the shop teacher an outline of his plan. Isn't the shop teacher there to teach?
I am sure this group can lead you to various sites to find the basics your sons teacher is asking for.

chequenman

Good comment, teachers should be able to put u in the right direction for the challenges ahead!!

BAM583

I don't know how good this teacher is, he's old and grumpy & been there over 30 years and with budget cuts, has to split his time between 2 high schools. Auto shop is only available to seniors now in our town. I have 2 books the 1961 Oldsmobile Service Manual (2nd edition) the Parts and Accessories Catalog. I think I'll make photo copies of the whole Section 8 about engines for him to keep at school (mine looks like an original copy) It has all the info but I don't really see where to start for an overhaul. I mean it's easy to start tearing everything apart but then what? Like the teacher, I'm afraid my son may be overwhelmed once it's all apart without some kind of plan of what to do next. My brother says that we'll need to have the heads and block magnafluxed once it's apart and then I guess I'll need to buy one of the engine rebuild kits that I see on ebay for about $1300 or so that looks like it will have everything we'll need?

navvet

Ok that is a good start. Have your son prepare for a tear down..he will need the following.
* purchase large zip lock bags for small parts and a marker to document the part
* purchase milk crate size containers for med size parts
* take photos of each part before and after removal
* Have a note book so he can document everything he does, down to the smallest detail
* Purchase bubble wrap so he can wrap delicate parts or if he has to send them out for repair.
* Parts cleaner so he can clean a part and find part numbers if needed.
Keep looking for more info on the 394.
Good luck

dlh61olds

Here is a link that still has some stuff.


http://offyonline.com/index.html

Click on the Oldsmobile Rocket

Good luck, Dave

the white pearl

Schnieders Racing Cams did a custom cam for my 394 mild lope and still streetable.

BAM583

The autoshop teacher told my son it was too late in the year to start an engine rebuild last week! I was so upset, I fired off a letter and asked him to reconsider. So I just got an email and he said "Go ahead and bring the Buick in!!" Buick?! OMG!!!
Anyone have any experience towing something too low to tow or drive up on a flatbead? Will AAA be able to do it?

TripDeuces

Being a former Marine myself I thought BAM was pretty funny.
When I was a kid my father had to go to Bremerhaven Germany to pick up our 61 Dynamic 88 with a 394 in it. We were living in Berlin at the time and Dad drove back on the Autobahn. A Porsche blew by him doing about 100 mph and Dad was having none of that. Unfortunately the 394 coughed up the number 8 plug, center electrode blew right out of it. Quick stop at a local garage and one Bosch plug later Dad was after that Porsche again. He never did catch it, lol.

D. Yaros

Semper Fi!

Monkeymeat

The only rebuild I've ever done in my life was on the old 394 I owned 30 years ago. I'm fairly mechanically inclined, but by no means a blueblood wrench turner. But the guys are right about going s-l-o-w-l-y and keeping everything categorized, organized and documented. It got me through it just fine, and I drove the old crate for a couple more years after that - until that friggin' slim jim tranny finally did its last horrendous clunk.

From the date on these posts I see I'm entering this at kind of a late date. Hope your son's car is back on the road at this point and embarrassing the crap out of every Mustang and Camaro in the neighborhood.