Projects Olds Rocket 324 in a 32 Ford; "trying to finish it thread"..

As some of you Olds guys know, I just got the 303 Olds running and "yard" driving in the 40 Ford coupe.

I am on the back side of life, so it's time to try to get the 32 to run and drive...finally..

No, I don't have money, I simply buy really rough cars that nobody else wanted.

I finished a side job at noon, and rolled this backwards into the L shaped heated work bay.

I picked up 2 new mockup/takeoff Coker 760/15 rear tires when I went to get the 40 brake parts at the old car parts warehouse. I wanted to mock them up today. I've bought and sold quite a few pairs of "takeoffs" bias tires, trying to find something that looks right, so I hope I can live with this setup. It has Firestone 670/15 on the front. The stainless rings seem to be what Bob Bleed has on the Olds Rocket powered "little red truck". I need to get some center caps that will fit the wheels..

Anyways, plans are to go through the twin 49 Olds backdraft carbs, mount the manifold, redo the front motor cradle mount (again), then fire it up. If that goes OK, I'll mount up the clutch slave, rebuild the old chromed 60/62 brake/clutch master cyl. Also cut the driveshaft to fit and then pull the motor to clean it, paint it and install the old chromed front timing cover.

I screwed up bigtime by starting a highboy with old side headers...and then went "full fendered" at a late stage in the build. The driver side exhaust is now going to be a problem, but hope to sort it out.

 

Wow!, any close up engine pics?

 

The backside of life???? Pssshhhhh!!! Gobbledeegook!

The car looks great. Let us know how this progresses. From my standpoint, it looks killer!

 

Congrats ,that is perfect.

 

Frank, I like it. Good to see it back on the front burner. Keep us posted on your progress.

 

F-in A cool, F&J!!

 

Are those Edmunds valve covers I see?

 

yea, I keep having to remind myself...

I am having a rough "first day back on it". I have repro and also good used Ford rubber motor mount biscuits/washers, etc, and I cannot make these fit into the stock 32 recessed pockets in the orig front crossmember. That's why I quit on the front mount before..

The only way they fit decent, is upside down. . I was going to ask here this morning, but I took a vote, and said "who ---- cares if they are upside down"..... I need to get this car going. Makes for a screwy looking front saddle mount bracket on the motor, but I honestly don't care anymore. I am so spoiled on how amazing the other Olds swapped into the 1940, and this swap is pure torture.


I sure do like the way that the early Olds front damper hubs slide right off so nice. At least no fighting at all on that part, while doing the saddle.


Also I am trying to mock up a head pipe location on the drivers side. i will put up a pic later.

 

F&J, Looks great. I like that you are running fenders (and everything else about your car)

 

Damnit F&J. Why do you have so many cool Rocket related build threads going? It's hard for us little guys to keep up. I'll be following this one as well, but TORR is right, we need some more pictures!

 

I am winning the battle with the front motor mount saddle, so while welds cool, I am trying to find an exhaust route for the driver side. I am guessing that 57/58 371 Olds ran the same type of drivers exhaust manifold as the 324, with the down pipe up between #1 and #3? Anybody know?


I need something to dump horizontal straight back, in line with the exh ports, or dump down vertical near the last port.

Plan A; I did not have a piece of 2" pipe for mock up, so this pipe is a 2-1/4" with a 45* bend, and it goes "over" the front leg of the chassis X member.

Plan B; If I were to dump it straight down at the last port, and try to pass it through the front of the leg of the X, then it will get pretty close to where the 60/62 Chevy truck clutch slave will be. You can see the TOB fork eye in the dark pic. In that pic, you can also see the 2-1/4 pipe end with the 45 dumping back and down for plan A.

Not sure what to try. A header would need tight quick bends coming off the ports, and that may interfere with the header bolts.

Or, I hate to do this, but maybe external lakes headers, and then have to cut a hole through the fender for the downspout to go under the car? That's a last ditch attempt. I know it was done in the past, because the 50s built 3w that my rear fenders came from, had huge holes in it's front fenders for fenderwell headers.


Pics of the engine in a day or so, when I clean it up. I am fitting the chrome timing cover on now, and need to clean the rest of this dusty mess.

 

Just a quick noon update;

I took the valve covers off for buffing and spotted a couple of things; one was a cracked rocker stand just on one side...someone had the shafts apart

This motor supposedly came from a 55 Olds 2 dr post stick car that was sideswiped when fairly new w/ 41,000 miles, then stored indoors for decades. I have had the trans apart and the gears could pass for 10,000 miles.

The other thing I noticed is that there are rubber seals on the valve retainers..I've never seen those before on Olds. See pic on the seals and cracked stand. I took one rocker off to see what type it had for oil holes, etc.

So I decided to pull the valley cover to look some more. This motor is really clean, and the timing chain has what I expected for 41k miles. So, I don't know if it was rebuilt or why the heck they messed with the rocker shafts.

Anyways, also I have never seen a dist like what I found some years ago; it is chromed and has a weird timing pointer and scale.

I should have it back together and running by the weekend, if there are no internal problems.

By the way, if you like Olds hot rods, check out Bob Bleeds "little red truck" build with the J2 set up...very cool build. He said his Edmunds 2X2 "won't fit", so I will try to remember to take pics of the special homemade intake gasket adapter plates to make it fit. I am doing the same intake on this 324.

 

The '53 303 I disassebled had the rubber seals you speak of. Also, I've got a couple '49-'50 distributors that have the timing pointer like the one pictured.

 

49 - 50 eh? That explains the problem I ran into this afternoon with the chrome timing cover NOT fitting a 324.

That distributor came from the same motor as the chrome timing cover. The cover must be early because I had to swap the timing pointer to the short one used with late 303 and up that use a damper up front. The long pointer I took off the chrome cover is very long to reach the bare pulley without a damper on the early 303.

So, I am trying to put the cover on, and it's hitting something real good up top inside.... Boy, I got lucky because the fuel pump cam high spot was almost at TDC, and it then could hit the early cover on the back side of the impeller chamber. Lucky, because if the fuel pump cam was at the bottom, it would have fit fine....until I rotated the engine at some point to set the distributor rough timing. Then I probably would have thought that a nut got down inside the head ports and onto a piston... and may have started pulling heads

There is quite a difference in the castings in that area...so I assume the early 303 must have a small fuel pump cam. I was able to see the nick where it was touching and used a 4.5 grinder to relieve the spot...and I did not hit the impeller passage.

Here is a pic from tonight. The intake is just sitting there, not set up with adapters yet.

 

Yes to the small fuel pump cam and early cover

 

Aww crap, Frank, did you send me the rocker stand you needed for this fix, or is that the earlier type stand?

 

Yes, it's the same 1.8 stand. Not to worry as I may have one spare I think, but I will be switching to 1.5's when the Crower cam goes in. That cam was ground for 1.5 ratio.

 

F&J, thanks for sharing this project. I like to do the same kind of work with my stuff and its fun to see the ideas you are coming up with to sort it all out.

 

Well, if you end up having to order one, please let me pay for it. I really appreciate your help.

 

I finished the weird front motor mount saddle today, and now the motor location is final...so I can figure out the headers.

I have a 35/36 Ford inner torque tube driveshaft with the double tapered ends that were used as lakes headers back when.

I tried running a mock up piece of straight pipe, back under the firewall to see if a lakes type header would look OK tucked "inside" the firewall. I think it looks terrible. What do you think? in pic below with a blue colored steering column tube as a pipe..

So, I have not cut the Ford shaft in half yet, but the other pic shows a white chalk mark at the middle, and the shaft is propped up where it will be. What do you think?

I'd need to poke a small exhaust pipe hole at the rear inside edge of the fenders, but I don't think it will look bad. Yes, or no?

Also a pic of old headers last used in 1962 by a local Olds racer that built these for a 37 Chevy coupe. They are messy, and brazed together , but maybe I can salvage something from them. When I asked Ted about his headers and why did he bother putting lightening holes, he said, heck no, those are not for that, we warped the dickens out of the flanges and they would not fit the heads...so we drilled all those holes and heated what was left to make them fit.

 

Keep the updates coming! need to see another cabriolet on the road!!

 

My .02 i like pic 4

 

X2. MAN, do you come up with the cool stuff!

 

I agree, it doesn't look to good running straight back and under the firewall.

I like this look better. Kinda neat being tucked between the cowl and the fenders. This plan would get my vote.

 

I agree with Speedy's comments. Did you try the headers yet?

 

I cut up the old headers and torque tube shaft.

The front elbow is coming off 90 degrees from the face of the flange. But the header body is too close to the fender and cowl edge; I think paint would bubble?

If I were to rotate that front elbow up a little, which would also raise the entire header body up, it should gain more space at those bad spots...... but will that look strange?

What's the minimum clearance to not burn the body paint? I'm at 1/2" near the fender and the cowl front vertical bead.


EDIT: Added 2 pics of a Olds in a 32 Highboy with torque tube headers. What I meant about "rotating the front elbow upwards" is, if you were to kneel down low, in front of the motor, the front elbow points downwards to 7 O'clock. I would be rotating it up to 8 O'clock or so. Would that look bad? I also can shorten the nipple that is welded to the flange, by about 3/8" to bring the radius in tighter to the flange.

 

Frank. I think I understand what you mean about rotating the header up... you're talking about making it sit more parallel with the ground.

I think if you were running the car fenderless, then you'd be right, it would look strange. However, I'm thinking that the fenders would distract from the angle change. I don't think it'd be very noticeable at all.

 

I hope you are right; I have one side completely fitted with all 4 tubes, and ready for finish weld in the AM

 

If you're really concerned about it, just remember that with that Rocket, you'll be motivating too fast for most people to get a good look at the angle anyways.

Post up some pics when you get it in place? Maybe from a standing point of view, and level with the headers, to see how much the fenders really block them?

 

Here is the final height of the torque tube pipe taken yesterday afternoon before I made the 2 middle elbows. I can't pull up the back end any higher for fender paint clearance, because it looked bad if the pipe came uphill compared to the valve cover angle.


I might not be able to finish this header today, because a friend is bringing over 2 front fenders for my 40, and some other parts... But, part of the deal is he is bringing his rust free 39 Ford pickup cab for me to chop. He wants an "angle chop with windshied post leaned back" but also wants the w/s lowered into the cowl more, and also the w/s to go higher up into the roof crown...yikes..