Return of the Oldsmobile 350 - Power Upgrade Dyno Party 

We hit the 350 HP later on with the 750 Thumper Carb.

Tony’s wife there with him takes me back almost 50years. My beautiful 18 year old bride would put on her jeans and one of my old t-shirts and help me work on my two Mopars. She was (and still is) in love with me and wanted to be where I was. Later on she was one of the first woman parts person at an auto parts store in our Texas home town. She still amazes me after almost 50 years of marriage

Thinner secondary rods while thinner at tips , he is correct that the thicker sectional portion of rods will lean out the engine as lees fuel can pass . Qjets have a great deal of secondary rods that were used . You need a wide selection to tune a Qjet .

This was a longer video than most, but it made several good points to we viewers. It showed the value of a well-instrumented dyno for trouble shooting problems with an engine. For starters, there was the uneven fuel distribution of the carburetor, where one side was leaner than the other side. Without a dyno, there would be no way to tell this until some engine damage was done. Then after that got fixed, there was the problem of the air distribution, which was the first cousin to an air cleaner, that was causing uneven air flow distribution. Timing as actually needed was different than the book specs. Just one thing after another. Finally, things got fully sorted out, but if the owner had just set everything to factory spec, the engine would never have run correctly.

Flipping the air filter cover did make the engine sound meaner though , even if it didn’t help air flow 😊

Id invest in some headwork on this 350 if Nick has not already done cylinder head work bowl and made flow improvements. In the day , I used Joe Mondello performance. He was the top Oldsmobile engine doctor for these V8s . Probably alot of good solid performance improvement secrets still available from his service around to study up on . I recall the 350 olds Nick was trying out the iron versus aluminum intakes on a few years ago . Id shoot for maximum torque on this Oldsmobile W31 . One of the strong features of this engine

🤣🤣 Loved it @ 8:06 when Mama said NO to the sound suppressors !!

My 1972 olds cutlass supreme had the same rocket 350 cu in. I got married in ‘75 still married to that lovely girl. (49 years). Miss my second love ❤️ and still do today. Thank you my friend Nick for waking up some beautiful memories. Blessings from Hamilton, Ontario.

That engine starts so nice and runs smooth at an idle. It’s gonna be a fun night watching this

Those Oldsmobile gold 350's would last for many miles with basic maintenance.

I'd be perfectly happy with 340 from this. I had a 1970 cutlass with this engine and that would have been fine, idk what more you can really expect that would be worth the effort. If you want significant power time for an engine swap. It would be cool to swap this into one of the compacts like a F85 or 70s Starfire. Either would be a proper rocket with this.

Nick! Have Phil get you a spread bore spacer plate! I think a 1 inch spacer will do that Olds motor a lot!

My dad raced many years when I was a kid. Used a wide variety of carburetors. He loved Quadra-jets quite a bit. Not sure if it was his ability and experience that gave him the confidence and advantage racing with them, he used Holley’s, not always with luck, but some race cars and the engines liked the Holleys. But, people would bring their cars over to get help from my dad to get their car running correctly and often they had carburetors that were too large for the build, no jetting could solve the fact that they were too big. Often, my dad would get them to get the original carburetors that the engines came with and work with fixing the carbs up, jetting them properly, adjusting the linkage, fixing the idle, vacuum leaks, all of that. And if the cars biggest problem was just the carb and its issues, these cars would run amazing afterwards. Miss my dad, as I’ve told you George, watching the shop is very therapeutic and I love to watch Nick, Manny and the guys do the things I did with my dad. Even my dad’s daily driver pickup had a a balanced and blueprinted Butler and McMasters small block Chevrolet that was a monster. I drove it all through high school and when I hear the engines on the dyno it reminds me of the 1976 black and silver Chevy 4x4 that I got to drive as a teen. Man there was nothing like picking up my girlfriend, sliding her to the center of the bench seat and switching gears, burning rubber and making the glass packs bark like a dog. It made my girlfriend’s pulse race as much as it did mine. Good times to you all, peace, happiness and finely tuned motors.

Have Olds with nice cam it sounds so nice

One of my favorite engines the Oldsmobile V8 . I prefer any non Chevrolet V8 engines . Far more interesting and different .

Tuning cars & motorcycles has always been my favorite thing to do. People now want to use self learning EFI and phone app adjusted ignitions... phoooey. What's the fun in that? I like the experimenting, Nick👍

Always a pleasure Nick.Shout out to the crew

Dana "60" Glass. Can't get enough Oldsmobile, especially small blocks. The first 442 in 1964 was a 330 Rocket that was tested under Police pursuit conditions. That's when the 442 was (4) 4 barrel carb, (4) 4speed transmission, and (2) dual exhaust. In '65 the 400 was introduced, and the 442 stood for (4) 400 cid, (4) barrel, (2) dual exhaust. In '68 the 350 grew from the 330, and a performance option for the F85 base Cutlass was created as the "Ram Rod" later called the W31 in '69. From what I remember, the 4 speed W31 was rated at 350 hp, where the automatic version was rated at 325. I know there were a few W31 Cutlass/F85s raced in NHRA for the Smother's Brothers Race Team. Jim Waible's '69 W31 convertible was restored recently

Dr. Nick, next to Hemi Orange, I like the Oldsmobile Gold color , I know how you fell about headers, but the ones on that 350 are nice, and how they are below the plugs make things a few bit easy, cheers.

I owned a 70 W31 Cutlass. The great thing about that engine was that the Olds engineers created a really nice factory powerplant that was blueprinted and hand assembled. My hardtop Cutlass was a four speed with the 3/91 W27 rear differential. I pissed off many a Camaro owner on the street and a 13.90 on street tires was the best ET at the local strip. I recently came acrossed it, very well cared for at a cruise in, owned by the same person for over forty years. I love that car and wish I still owned it. The sucker was fast and beautiful.

The "correct" carb for that 31 is worth a fortune..even the balancer is hard to find..i shifted my 31 at 6500 with a 4.33 gear

It's gold When they made it they broke the mold What does the colour gold on an engine reveal? Well it could only belong to an Oldsmobile It's got the headers on and it sounds nice and strong Nick always tests what he builds so it doesn't go wrong Tony has brought a crowd While Nick makes sure this W31 350 is something of which he will be proud It's a Dyno party with drinks and snacks It's great to see how Tony reacts when rhe dyno attacks You only get to hear engines like this at full charge Right here on Nick's Garage Thanks Nick Big Ups George Respect to Tony and the family

You're a blessed man Nick!!! 😊

So different. Watching numerous attempts to fine tune is so authentic and super enjoyable.

56:20 - but flipping the air cleaner made it do the awesome "whooooooaaaaaaaaa" when the secondaries opened up!

Wonderful report on and truly tragic event in auto racing history. This report shows the responsibility of all involved to be present and proactive in making safety the number one. Profit and winning can only be enjoyed when we can sleep at night.

Love seeing other Q-Jet enthusiasts. I never understood the need for a Holly on the street. Q-Jets are great if you know the tricks. Biggest fix TIG weld the metering rod wells and forget the stupid plug/o-ring kit from Tomco.

hello nick and George hope all is well with you tonight 👍🍁🇨🇦🛠🌞🍻

Maybe adding the air filter with the air cleaner would richen up the A/F a bit, I think the stock intake was holding that back, smooth engine though.

350 Olds Ramrod !

Nick I'll tell you what man I admire your patience and that was a tough one it was even tough for me with all the people and everything but I'll tell you what no wonder I watched your show so much over and over sometimes thanks for the videos Nick

I cant wait to see my engine design on your dyno 5/4

Hi Nick and Crew. Love the channel. Cheers from New Zealand

Three quarters of the fun is watching you figure everything out. Sherlock Holmes would be impressed.

Something that helps on the secondary is to loosen the spring tension on the secondary plates 1/4 turn. It allows the secondary plates to open sooner. It will get into the thinner part of the needles quicker. Learned that at GM training center years ago. Teacher was cool. Taught us how to beef up quadrant carbs. Something they were not supposed to do. My buddy that I worked with at a Pontiac dealer could not get the Hollys to run correctly. First, I timed his engine with a vacuum gauge and then replace the Holly with a quad jet which he swore I could not get to run better than a Holley. But it beat the hell out of the Holley. Had 7:24 way more power.

You guys are brave turning and Olds engine over 5500. Chevy all day 6000, 6500. Those Olds W engines don’t do well with rpm. Joe Mondello does oil restricters, main cap girdles, and light weight Arias pistons to give the Olds engines higher rpm capacity.

I ran 2 Olds 350's moons ago in a class of dirt track called Street Stock before done away with , in a 78 or 9 T.A. Biggest thing with em , even in a couple personel cars was they got warm , hot enough on track each race real bad. Wouldnt start , but by next heat fire right up topped with coolant and maybe little oil. Man we tried everything. I determined you couldnt kill em. Brother in law had a Firebird , same engines , same problems. I ended up with them engines used ,his and mine , just cleaned up and tweaked , couldnt do much to em for the class. That you could tell lol. Competative go getters , but ran hotter than a pistol .

My dad had a w 31 350 in a 79 Malibu we ran that north of 7k rpm easy no issues. Out ran all kinds of cars in the day lol love those olds engines.

Hi! Here in Finland we do call Rochester carbs as a rock orchestra that spells " rokkiorkesteri"

Nick I can see the fuel flowing in the secondary and it looks like much more on driver side flowing?? maybe the camera angle. Compression test all 8 and check intake leaks? Oil amount made 60 hp difference on dyno engine on Eric Weingardner Racing. .5 Qt extra cost major hp, I was amazed but proved it on dyno.

I am sweating........342 Not bad!!!!!!! Nick you went at it KID!!!!!!! No quit in Nick!!!! What a great way to spend a snowy day and with friends!!!!!!!!

Evenin Mr George an Mr Nick! Have a Great week!!

I'm going to buy a big IH flag for Nick's shop this summer at one of the IH event's the wife and I attend. Look for it this fall.

watching your mind work is amazing

Great episode!!! The extensive Dyno testing and the viewer mail was really nice!!! That model of the 340 T/A along with the lift and the mechanic was very cool!!!

Awesome group of guys, They all great and got a great running Olds with a Rochester, Also Nick you are the smoothest Dyno operator ever. You are very gentle on the deceleration which I'm sure the engine loves it.

I recall years ago a friend had a top fueler. The fuel lines going to each cylinder were as large as milkshake straws and the fuel hoses looked like radiator hoses 😮. Amazingly you could lift it off the ground from the front end

I know he's trying to keep it as factory as possible but that intake is choking off HP. Edelbrock preformer rpm would probably help.

54:25 I heard the ticking at the start of this test (#10) 29:42🤧 I hope everyone stays well. Everyone's wiping their noses with the hands to the faces after shaking hands. Nick please be more careful You guys took out the original carburetor rods and put in thinner ones and then put in the two spaces. Maybe all that was needed was two spaces and the original rods in the carburetor?

A little amplification: If using the factory drop down/ low hood line base it is important to tune with it (and an air cleaner) It is not regular (lots of bumps and channels) and quite different than a horn, different from a pick up truck base

That Melbourne tap water is multi-purpose. Could use it for antifreeze or fuel in the car or antifreeze or antiseptic in your body

I learned a lot on this one, I’m used to rocker shafts on mopars and I’ve never played with individual studs like this setup.

Thanks Nick for yet another awesome video and so glad you got the Old's sorted in the end and sharing mail time some real beaut gifts, that TA was real nice. Till next time thanks again and have a beaut week ahead.

Nick & the boyz in the dyno room action, run a Olds thru the paces.

The Holy Ghost of Olds small blocks 🤌🏼😊

A very nice running ol Oldsmobile Engine !!!! Running nice and sure sounds good !!!!

If you look at the overhead during the pull you can see the top secondary venturi is flowing much more fuel.

This channel eclipses the eclipse

Always enjoy the dyno runs and the subtle changes you make to squeeze every pony out of the engine build. The only thing I haven’t seen or heard mentioned is the actual distributor advance curve. We used to change the springs and weights and carefully examine the overall advance mechanism for smooth movement among other things. Changing the intake rocker ratios was an inexpensive modification as well as visually inspecting the rocker arm contact point on each valve tip while turning the engine over by hand. If the rocker arm had any “creeping” across the valve stem tip we checked clearances to make sure the pushrod lengths were correct for assembled engine. Changing head gasket thickness and machining the deck and head surfaces sometimes made us rethink the pushrod length. Old engines, machining and adding different aftermarket parts can create new issues as you well know. That’s why we all love the challenges and the rewards when you can feel the difference when driving. Keep up the great job and cheers to all.

I will just about bet that there is a vacuum leak on the manifold or the carb. base plate to manifold ! That is why it is showing up leaner on O2 sensor number 1 than on O2 sensor number 2 and they should balance the air / fuel mixture screws on the primary side of the carb. I hope this helps ! A good thing to remember for a tech. tip , is you time for torque and jet for horse power ! 😊

1:08:12 I have a set of nice 1 7/8" headers to compare with our dyno 1 3/4" headers, and they only show improvement on engines north of 400 cu in and above 5500 RPM. On my personal 670 HP 400 they are worth about 8 HP over the 1 3/4" headers, an this is an engine that peaks at 7500 RPM. (Chev small block, but the premise is the same, a smallish header will support a bunch of HP)

I love the SBO videos, probably because I have a mild ‘72 in my ‘23 ford t-bucket. It too likes the higher timing even with flattops. 🤷🏼‍♂️

Be awesome if he had a set of the W exhaust manifolds, they were high flow and probably worked very well

Had to mention Pizza now I'm hungry😂

Awesome video Nick. You did Awesome on the engine. You received fantastic gifts. I love the model with the lift very cool. Greek moonshine from Melbourne yum sounds good. I've never heard of this. I'm in Geelong just near Melbourne. Hello to my fellow Aussie 👋

Always enjoy watching your videos Monday evenings!

Check your plugs , read them and see if they show a difference in your fueling to both banks . Manifold vacuum leaks , even a minor one will affect your 02 s readings per bank

Love ya Nick, love your stuff, great content, smart move getting a carb specialist.

W31 already have bigger valves, #5 heads respond well to porting. Also i had one of these motors in the past. A cam did wonders. Carb space helps too

The double gasket might cause an issue with airflow on the dual plane something to check next time your playing with it

Oldsmobile 👍

Those Oldsmobiles will run with crazy high timing..

Nick, this is what I wait for. To see the test and tune on the dyno. Only problem I see is your gonna have to rebuild the bottom end with new rings! Those 6000 RPM pulls have got to be hard on the bottom end if that's a stock setup of pistons, rods, rings, bearings and rod studs. Just my opinion. Anyway, I envy you Nick with the dyno. So keep up the dyno testing! We need more running test and tune. Are you gonna put George's 6 cylinder on the dyno, I hope, when it's built?

for a second I thought John Gee had been driving around with that engine - tick tick tick

Hi Nick Andy from California love the videos

Awesome show good job Nick and crew it sounded really strong always enjoy when you blast it then adjust and blast it again very cool keep them coming and see you Monday

That T/A model is awesome!

I know you appreciate what everyone sends you and everything but man I'll tell you we all love you end of discussion

Those run great with an old school Open Plenum Small Runner Street Dominator Manifold and a ThermoQuad of 625 to 750 CFM. 10.5:1 CR…

Thank you you made my day…

Great engines for sure they sound HUGE and racy at the same time

Did anyone notice the passenger;'s side big barrel not fogging fuel under all the pulls? that would explain a lean condition on a bank. Yes ,they are staggered banks. One side of the carb running richer and the other lean can balance it out. I had this happen to me before on an old 73 chevy 350.

Good idea Nick one adjustment at a time.

yasou again Nico...Petro from Florida

Excellent Video Nick and Gang! Such great fans and gifts! Love the model/lift, SO COOL!

Love the RUN DMC 440 shirt!

good one

I love that Motor. I Have 2 of them.. R 1977 D1978

The V stack was a nice improvement for the air flow thru the carb. The pressure differential was probably reduced enough so the fuel circuits signal dropped. I bet on the need to upsize the jets even more now. Good move adding the stack.

Checking TDC depends on stroke and rod ratio, degree wheel and dial guage. That carb loves a stack or even an airclener base. Evens up the mixtures no end

I had a 1970 W-31 God I wish I never sold it!!!!

Unless it's the camera angle, the drivers side looks like it's flowing more fuel on the secondary . Maybe a difference in the jet seat or a blockage somewhere.

might try bigger exit size exhaust tubes and no mufflers and put the air cleaner on the carburator on the W-31 Oldsmobile and old cars got 21 mpg pretty easy, they had rear ends that coasted into the next little towns so the motor could idle slow and burn less fuel, when the rpm was up and no free rear axle the motor was naturally suckin more fuel . Do you understand, we had a big 57 Pontiac with free wheeling rear axle and it averaged 21 mpg.

The 350 olds was underestimated in stock form.

Nick if you were in the US I would bring a 1970 Boss 429 engine to break in and test. It would be a pain for me to get across the border and back with my engine.

It really needs a Edelbrock Performer intake to help it breathe easier and a Quadrajet 850 cfm from either a Buick 455 or a Cadillac 500 And hook up the vacuum advance back to it

My 72 Cutlass had the 350 Rocket engine with a Turbo 350 transmission. Points ignition served in a rev limiter. That engine was scary. The car had over 140,000 miles on it when I bought it cheap with a burned out transmission. I rebuilt the transmission and did a tune-up and was ready to go. During try outs, I did one takeoff that put 4 tenths of a mile on the odometer in about 100 yards. I had to put new tires on the rear the next weekend. She would hit 65 mph locked in low before she would start misfiring. There was no sensation of speed in that car. It rode too smooth. If the engine settled into a soft hum, that was the telltale sign that you had passed 80 mph. The best mileage I could get out of her was 14 mpg if you drove careful. 12 mpg was the normal. It was the original build and it is the second engine I owned that I was scared of. I had her cruising at 120 just once and she sounded as smooth as silk. I thought I was going about 80 maybe 85 until I saw the speedometer.

Geez...purring like a kitten. Huge secondaries on a Quadrajet...

Stacking the carb gaskets is not advisable and youll get a vacuum leak doing that. There are nice phenolic or similiar carb spacers starting at 1/4" in thickness that are a better choice .

yes been waiting on this one