Engine
Original numbers-matching Oldsmobile 330 High-Compression V8
Built by Chris Slee and John Brousard in 2012 (co-hosts at Horsepower TV based in Franklin, TN)
The team at Horsepower had just rebuild two Olds engines, so they were naturally the perfect choice for this build.
The goal for this build was 'reliability' with performance as a secondary goal, so invested in quality parts over horsepower, ARP bolts and quality machine work. Designed to last 'another 50 years'.
Bored '60 over' to 340 cubic inches with magnaflux-tested cylinder sidewalls, could easily bore larger considering how Olds 'over built' this bullet proof block. Later models were bored to 350 stock from factory.
Highly desirable factory forged steel crank with aligned-bored mains.
Olds high compression pistons from Egge with Olds #4 heads cc'd at 64 cc's yields a confirmed static compression ratio of 9.17 to 1 (see calcs below), bearings are 10-over for crank and rods, and deck surface machined 5-thousands to clean up the deck surface on this seasoned, rock solid block.
Balanced rotating assembly done at Brousard's machine shop. Safely, smoothly revs to 6,000+ rpm!
CompCam 265 Dual Energy camshaft (Lift 0.472/0.486, Duration 211/223 at 0.05, RPM range 1,500-5,750)
Upgraded valve springs, new valves, hardened exhaust value seats, and bronze valve guides
Holley Street Dominator, low-profile single-plane intake for high-rpm breathing (selling with the rare/original '67 Olds high-compression four barrel intake!)
Holley 4160 vacuum secondary 600 cfm four barrel carburetor (comes with a factory Quadrajet)
Full-length 1.75" headers feeding into a 3-inch straight-piped dual exhaust with Flowmaster 20s - Sounds AWESOME! Quiet enough at idle to pass inspection but crazy fun at wide-open throttle.
Daily driver with 34k+ miles on the odometer with zero issues. Compression test yields 185-192 psi on all 8 cylinders with less than a 10% deviation between cylinders.
Only issue has been a leaky oil pan that we recently replaced, also updated the front and rear main seals, even though they didn't need it.
We installed hardened valve seats to allow for modern-day gasoline mixtures that include ethanol. We also upgraded the carb and fuel lines to allow for ethanol gas, so you don't need old school non-ethanol gas in this engine. Currently running super unleaded.
This is the build sheet that we used to optimize piston selection, cam selection, and head gasket thickness for this street build.
We chose a thicker (40-thousands) head gasket to keep it safe on pump gas, but we could have used a thinner gasket to increase compression.
Currently runs great on super unleaded with no pinging at 34 degrees of total timing. Tried running regular, but had to back off timing to 32 degrees total.
Showing side by side calcs of the 40-thousands gasket and factory 17-thousands steel shim gasket. The steel gaskets will be sold with the car and are very rare since they are re-useable.
Dyno performed in 2018
215 rear wheel horsepower
Considering drive train losses of rear axle and Turbo 400 (20%), likely 260+ horsepower at the crank
407 ft/lb of torque!
Wasn't breathing well above 4,000 rpm, horsepower should have been higher, then remembered that we forgot to shim the valve springs after the break-in period. Typically done to allow safe cam break-in. I drove it for years without noticing it, but it was obvious on the dyno. Massive torque made the car fast on the street, but we needed to unlock that high rpm horsepower!
Added 50-thousands shims to the upgraded CompCams springs to get to the recommended 100 lbs of seat pressure (was 75 lbs for break-in), now revs to 6,000 rpm with no issues.
Also added full-length headers, a low profile single plane intake, and Holley 4-barrel carb since this dyno. Going to back to a dual plane intake is in the game plan since we are staying below 5,500 rpm.
Have not dyno'd since the baseline in 2018, but optimistic :)