skinny

My 71 Supreme has a sb350 which appears to be stock. It is missing the carb, air cleaner, and rad. While I have a feeling that it would be cheaper to buy basically replacement parts to get it running, I have another feeling that I will probably later want to increase the power, so I might as well do that now. Its that whole angel/devil on the shoulder thing.

If I go with the latter, does anyone have a combo that is known to work for a 71 SBO with #7 heads? Should I look at changing the heads? How is the stock intake manifold? Should I replace it? Cam? Carb? Headers and exhaust?

I know these all cost money, and I am looking for a nice balance between added performance and not ruining my retirement. Any and all suggestions welcome...

Oldsguy

You should get it running so you can enjoy it now. As long as it is safe, brakes, steering, lights, exhaust, etc. Even if you buy a rebuilt quadrajet carb from the local speed shop or if you get lucky and find a good working one at a swap meet then you can get it running. From the appearance of the car's condition in your pictures on the other post I would say it wouldn't take much. Just go stock for now as it shouldn't put you back THAT much. Basic tune-up stuff, maybe a belt here, an oil change, a tail pipe there, you know basic stuff. If you get it running and drive it and don't like it you can probably sell it as a driver and make some cash, if you DO like it then you havene't invested too much before you decide to start putting some serious money into it to make it look nice and rund good. An option at that point might be to buy a short block and rebuild it the way you really want (like you indicated). As far as potential goes, I am not a small block guy but I think that #7 heads aren't the best for the job but they are respectible. For some guidance on combos that worked for others go on over to Realoldspower.com, they have a special forum for engine builds but you have to do some careful reading and research because they list the whole gamut over there form mild street to full out race use. Good luck man.

Oh, to directly answer you question, I don't think the original car in original is a collector so go aftermarket when you do. I have seen guys pay $100 bucks for that little chrome thinga ma jiggy guaranteed to be original new old stock to make his numbers matching restoration a five star job.

Oldsguy

Here is an example of a budget 350 build from the ROP site. He used #7 heads even!

Didnt have a lot of $$$$ this winter but i am extremely happy with this street/strip combo

78 Cutlass Supreme with T-Tops

73' 350 Block std bore, hone job
oil restictors
stock rods (.015 side clearance)
reused stock pistons (14CC dish) w/ speed pro rings
cast crank polished and chamfered (not turned down)
clevite 77 rod, main bearings
ARP main and head bolts
high volume pump, stock oil pan
Lunati 318A3 cam (.485/.485 221/230 @ .050)
lunati hydraulic lifters (lifter preload .025-.040)
small valve #7 heads w/ 3 angle valve job, new springs, no porting, milled .060, stock steel rocker arms
Corteco .028 head gasket
9.4:1 compression, runs great on 93 octane
MSD 6AL box, Mallory HEI distibutor, 38* total timing
Performer RPM intake
Holley 650 DP stock jets (67/73?), 6.5 PV
1 5/8 hedman headers??? maybe 1 3/4 never checked
2 1/2 exhaust going thru an X-pipe and Xlerator turbo mufflers
Moroso electric drive water pump with stock fan/shroud
no power steering, using manual steer box from an 82 S-10
Northern 2 core aluminum radiator
200-4R level 2 Bowtie overdrive trans w/ 2200 stall
7.5 rear with 3.73s and mini-spool
P235/60R/15 Mickey Thompson ET street Radials in back
poly bushings in front and back, factory sway bar in rear, got the welder out and boxed the lower rear control arms myself
front sway bar removed
Comp Engineering 90/10 3-way adjustable shocks in front set at 90/10
stock front springs
aluminum hood

Car weighs 3550 with me in it. Ran a best of 13.45 @ 103MPH with a density altitude of 1830 ft. Wouldve had a 13.3XX but i was bracket racing and had to dump at the end to avoid a breakout.......still ended up breaking out Mad

UPDATE: Car ran 13.22 @102.49MPH on 10/7/06. 60ft was 1.86.

Jeffemac

Bump...great info Oldsguy. I would l;ove to hear some more folks chime in on this thread.

Redog

I'm in the process of building up an Olds too.

I bought a 1968 Olds 350 Rocket (thought it was a '72 but it is a '68) and I'm planning on dropping it into My 1985 Delta 88 2 door very soon.

The old 307 is done like dinner, probably only running on 7 cyl now

I already have in the car a Be Cool Raditor, and dual "X" pipe exhaust with Flowmaster Super 40's, I also put a shift kit in the 200r tranny.

My plans were to keep the tranny, but my mech is old skool and won't let me keep the 200r but to swap to TH 350 tranny that's bolted to the motor as well.

I bought a Performer RPM (7111) manifold and a Edelbrock 650 CFM American Thunder carb to top it off. I cleaned up the motor and painted the brackets, did some custom work to them too

The motor sports 5 heads, and is pretty low milage. The motor came out of a 1968 Olds Delmont 88

I did some reseach, and this motor has 250 HP and 355 ft-lbs of torque. I have a video of the motor running out of the car on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6_VchWsRBw before I installed the new manifold and carb

I also have a 2000 Olds Alero that is currently running 14.53 in the 1/4 mile. Hell of a cry from the 16.20 it ran first time out, the list of that car goes on and on: http://www.cardomain.com/ride/462198/2