[Dragncar]

Originally Posted by Jay S

It worked Mike. Thanks! Cool car!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wZ1...3GFmkh4mr/view

That is the coolest thing I have seen today. I LOVE it! I grew up with a 66 Catalina station wagon, 389 4 barrel, 3 on the tree.
Driving that thing to the strip would be a blast.
Our 389 cracked the block and my brother and I always regretted junking it. It would have been a fun bracket car with great traction and a lot of memories. Totaled 3 times(once by me) once in a wreck that ended up with a full Bonneville front wrap and once by a sandstorm on a trip to great grandfathers 180 acre Sooner farm in OK. Best place ever for a kid.

[steve25]

It would work well in a Pontiac 400 which has close to the same Bore to stroke ratio as the Olds, but with the Pontiac 455 in stock form being under-square as it is different specs are needed if we talking about maxing out the power band.

[Skip Fix]

One of my friend's growing up parents had an Olds wagon I always thought that little window in the roof was cool! One of the old NMCA guys from Amarillo(wheat farmer) had a gold W30 he ran in the Pure Stock classes, another Amarillo guy has a Buick wagon with a GS hood he used to tow his GS.

[Jay S]

That vista cruiser is quite a car! What a sleeper.

A W30 optioned Vista cruiser with a automatic would have had the smaller 294/296 cam in it from the factory unless Mondello changed it to the big cam. I remember 294/296 cam in 455 automatics still had a fair lope to the idle.

I looked through YouTube to see if I could find a short clip of a W30 with the 328/328 cam idled slow.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hroqbIwN2Xg

[Johnny406]

A funny story (not meaning to hijack/just entertain) I ran the Isky 292 mega cam with my first 455 and 6X-4 heads in the early 90's. It was a snotty sounding and good running cam. My mistake at the time was believing I could run it with stock valves and stiff SSI springs from an old PAW catalog (I loved those). It worked with the stock rocker arms but once I "upgraded" to the Comp 1.52 Magnum Roller Rockers, I was continuously bending pushrods. After upgrading to chromoly pushrods I started breaking rocker studs. About that time I learned .505 was too much for the stock geometry and I should've chosen the 270 cam...oops... :/

[PontiacJim1959]

Here is another W30. Awesome sounding idle. With that kind of sound, who cares if it goes fast. LOL Music to my ears - what hearing I have left anyway.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZU_HyTt5tBQ

[mgarblik]

Originally Posted by PontiacJim1959

Here is another W30. Awesome sounding idle. With that kind of sound, who cares if it goes fast. LOL Music to my ears - what hearing I have left anyway.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZU_HyTt5tBQ

Beautiiful car, sounded great too. Rock solid shifter sitting there with the lumpy idle! Also saw a quick glimpse of the possible W-27 aluminum rear end. Couldn't tell if it was the legit full aluminum center section or just the W-27 cover. Went by very quick.

[SD455DJ]

Originally Posted by Jay S

IRC the small cam auto trans W-30 and the big cam manual trans W-30 both had the same 370 HP rating. They under rated the stick cars. I little insurance trick I suppose. Not sure what the .050 cam specs were for the 294/296 113.5 lsa cam are the automatic cars had. They had a slight lope to the idle. Needless to say it was pretty mild compared to the mammoth cam in the 4 speed cars. The w31 350s had the 308/308 (zero seat) 232/232 ..050”, 474/474 113.5 cam. Olds had some ran some good sized cams in their engines.

Jay S - I thought the 294/296 cam was the non-W30 stick cam and the 285/287 cam was used in both the std. 442 & W30 automatic engines? We always thought the best Olds motor to run in the Pure Stocks Drags was the OAI std. 455 with the 294/296 cam (not too radical) 442 with 3.91 gears.

Dennis

[JD311]

Originally Posted by steve25

It would work well in a Pontiac 400 which has close to the same Bore to stroke ratio as the Olds, but with the Pontiac 455 in stock form being under-square as it is different specs are needed if we talking about maxing out the power band.

The bore stroke ratio in a Pontiac 455 and an olds 455 are pretty close. Pretty much like putting a 4.25 crank in a 400.

[PontiacJim1959]

Here are the AMA cam specs for the 1970 442/455CI showing both the manual trans cam and automatic cam.

Also have the cam specs for the 1970 W31 350CI engine used in the F-85 and Cutlass bodies. 325HP @ 5,400 RPM 360TQ @ 3,600 RPM

2.0" Intake Valves, 1.60" Exhaust and both share the same lift @ .474".

[Jay S]

Originally Posted by SD455DJ

Jay S - I thought the 294/296 cam was the non-W30 stick cam and the 285/287 cam was used in both the std. 442 & W30 automatic engines? We always thought the best Olds motor to run in the Pure Stocks Drags was the OAI std. 455 with the 294/296 cam (not too radical) 442 with 3.91 gears.

Dennis

Thanks, that is right, 285/287 was what the automatic hi output engine had. I have a 290/300, 112 lsa in the W34 455 my chevelle. It ran a 13.6@100 with stock heads, q jet and 4.10s and stock stall.. Over the years I have had several combos in the car with the Olds. A 1600, 2200 and a 4000 stall In it, 3.23s, 4.10s and 4.88s, a 71 455 qjet, a big predator carb, and a 850 cfm Carter TQ.

Pure stock with the stock manifolds the 294/296 with the wider lsa was a pretty good cam, fairly close to the cam in my car. The w30 cam really hurts the tq with the factory exhaust. A lot of overlap, the bigger cam in the w30 engine really responded to headers. If you followed the rules of pure stock and added the allowed extra 1.5 to the compression the w30 would be noticeably faster than the smaller cams.

Seems like maybe I had the hp incorrect. The 285/287 cam and the 294/296 cam in 70 455s were rated at 365 hp in the A bodies, w-33 was 390 hp in big cars (police) and w-34 was 400 hp in the tornadoGT. W30 was rated at 370.

IRC the 294/296 was carried on to the 1971 W30 4 speeds.

[SD455DJ]

Jay S - It's really interesting that you have an Olds 455 in a Chevelle! I bet that gets the Bow Tie guys flustered...I love it! My brother Dan used to have a '70 W-30 auto on the column/bench seat/post coupe car. It ran 13.40's with 3.42's at the Pure Stock Drags with no special work to it other than tuning, 2.5" exhaust, and new Wide Ovals. He sold it a few years ago. He just sold a super clean and solid low millage (39,000) '70 F-85, 350 4-bbl (310 hp), TH350, 3.23 open rear end. Dan ran it at the FAST (Martin-US131) race a couple years ago and it ran 14.90's at 94 mph on the original non-rebuilt motor! He did put on a decent dual exhaust system to replace the old single system. I had a 29,000 mile original '70 'QB' code 350 (with the 286/286 .472"/.472" cam) Cutlass S with factory M-21 and 3.91 gears, manual steering, PDB, bucket seats, G70 WL tires with poverty caps and the W-25 hood. I reluctantly sold that car to fund some home upgrades. The one time I raced it at the Pure Stocks, I managed some 14.60's at 95 mph with me granny shifting.

Yes, the 71/72 W-30 manual trans. cam was the 294/296 stick.

Dennis

[Mark G]

What does any of this have to do with racing should be in the boat section..

[Baron Von Zeppelin]

True , lol

We even had inside jokes about boat/marine stuff with the K-Head 442 car

[Mark G]

Originally Posted by Baron Von Zeppelin

True , lol

We even had inside jokes about boat/marine stuff with the K-Head 442 car

LOL..

[Jay S]

Nice looking 73. A friend I use to race with all the time has a 73 chevelle SS, it think your Olds would have taken him. Lol

Dennis I have always thought the 350 Rally’s were some of the best looking Olds cars.


If I ever get tired of the 455 in my Chevelle it would work great in an Air Boat. With a W30 cam...

[Baron Von Zeppelin]

That 73 really was very nice.
That was me holding the 1st Place trophy from the big annual show at Rockingham Speedway.
It drew in really fine cars and getting ANY trophy there was a big deal.
At that show, 2nd Place in his class went to a frame-off restored 73 SS Chevelle Black/Silver with 350 & Automatic.

Chevelle owner was PISSED about 2nd Place.
The 442 was highly detailed, but not frame-off.
He confronted my friend, and Jim told him he would race him around the Rockingham track 1 lap - or out on the street.
Winner takes BOTH trophies.
Chevelle guy went back to his car and left. haha

It won a ton of trophies in 2 years. Even best paint one time.
Presidents Choice at Southeast Regional Oldsmobile Nationals (out of the whole showfield)
Was an extremely rare car.
Oldsmobile people flipped out on it everywhere he went - it was Cool.
Was well tuned and ran Good

[Jay S]

The older I get the cooler the 73-77 cars are! I always remember that 73-77 era cars for their swivel buckets. I remember when I was a kid the neighbors picked me up in their 73 Monte, they spun the seat out and my brother and I would hop in the back, I thought it was cool.. Lol, I was probably 5. Years later I found out the Monte had a 454.


You guys might find the specs interesting for the “cheeter” cam for stock eliminator cars running the 70 W30. It set a lot of records, guys still run it in some bracket cars. The lobes themselves are “secret squirrel” stuff. I assume they have a lot of dwell. But at .050” the cam was 243 intake and 264 exhaust with a 107 LSA, .474/.474 lift. Peak tq came in close to 4K and they usually shifted them at 6k. A little different than what you would see in a Pontiac stocker.

[Baron Von Zeppelin]

They can grow on you, thats for sure.
He was a 72 Cutlass Supreme man [he owned 3 of those at the time]
His son bought the 73 from original owner, then he wound up with it, and we restored it.
We got hooked on the car as we did it.

I already had a pretty good running well tuned 77 Can-Am with headers and open shaker scoop at the same time.
The 442 would take my Can-Am , but it couldn't handle my 73 SD TA.
He would have stomped all over that 73 SS 350 car.
I was hoping like hell that guy would take his challenge.

[Jay S]

The lower compression Olds 455 still ran pretty good when they had the bigger 2.072 30* valves. Not surprised you couldn’t take the 442 with the cam am.

I couldn’t get by Jim Hands wagon back in the day with my Chevelle. We were pretty close in the 1/8. But he mph’d more at the end of the track. Our short times were the same. With the ported heads on the car now and the bigger W30 cam, the 4000 stall with that predator carb his wagon would have had a pretty good match. It runs in the upper 12s with the little cam and some mods with 3.23s. Photo from 86’