curious engine question

[iluvmy72]

I know I'm not the first one to ask this but.......My friend recently swapped out a good running chevy 350 for a Olds 350 for his blazer....after he was done't I asked him why and then he toldme to drive it and see why.....I have noticed a much much more smoother ride compared to what he had prior......I drove it, and it responded well without giving me any headaches when I burned some rubber down the street.......do all of these Olds engines run smoother when compared to the chevy's?.....this was totally cool because it was quieter but yet it ran better....I am in the middle of removing my engine right now. I will be putting in a chevy 327 or a Olds Rocket 350 like my friend got.....after this I'm leaning twards the olds.

[68 Suburban]

Cool, I would be interested in the 327 if you sell it

[iluvmy72]

hey 68burb.....sorry but the engine is owned by another person right now......he said he'd sell it to me for 300 but I would have to pull it myself......doubt he'd let anyone else have the same deal though....but I'll ask sionce I bought the rocket 350 engine as of this morning.

[A.P.]

Don't much about engines but could somebody explain why would a 350 olds engine would be smoother than a regular 350 chevy???

[Longhorn Man]

It all depends on what everyone calls smooth.
A milder cam in the olds verses a slightly larger one in the chevy would make one 'smooth'.
If the chevy was needing a valve job, or tune up, or timing was advanced too far, all this could make the olds smooth.

While I don't know much about teh olds engine, i do know the pontiac engine has a much longer stroke than the chevy 350 and could easily make more torque if both were built as close to the same as possable. This could also be the definition of smooth. The torque would make it seem effortless to get up to speed.

[crazy longhorn]

If you plan an Olds swap,think 455....bigger is better! The Olds engines have a taller deck, & also longer rods than a chebbie. The 350 Olds has 6" rods vs the 5.7s in the 350 chev. In the BB crowd, the 455 is a 4 1/8" bore x a 4 1/4" stroke.....6.735 c to c on the rod lenght. The old 425s were a 4.125 bore X 3.975 stroke, & had a rod lenght of 6.998......compair that to a BB Chev! Olds enginges are a high nickel content on the castings, & can run 150,000 & generally clean up with a .030 overbore (much like the Caddy engines on nickel content). They arent cheap to build tho......I have 3 more BB olds engines packed in grease , but am running sb Chevs. Andy (longhornmail) told you right, the cams were very mild in the Olds engines, as well as the valve springs being very light. if you plan to wind them up, valve train & oiling system problems need to to be straightened up. a pretty stock shortblock 455, with a little head work& a mild cam, torker intake/800dp will make a real "hairy" ride in a 1/2 ton truck crazyL

[iluvmy72]

Thanks for the info crazy.........but I just paid for the rebuild on my Olds 350 as of yesterday so it's too late.....I origionally bought it from a mecanic that once did Kevin Harvick's engines a few years ago before he got famous......he never got to playing with the engine and it was pulled from a W-31......but it now has a high competition cam and strong lifter springs.....the heads have been adjusted by the mechanic so it won't lope......the mechanic said it should still run smooth though as long as I use the correct motor mounts and don't mess with his settings and work......he also put in a crank scraper but I didn't know what that was until earlier today.......he also said the block mostly needed to be honed since the engine's high nickle content is high and didn't need to be bored much and the best part is, it's rated at 345@4800 for horse power and 440@3200 for torque with a 10.5-1 ratio.....this baby is going to haul!!!!......and you are correct.....this sucker was expensive compared to the chevy's.......but he said he can do more with the Olds engine....this is a 69 engine and a hard to find one at that.