Projects Unknown Olds Rocket Engine for my 55 Olds Rocket 88 Project

Hi there, my name is Jan and I'm from northern germany. I recently bought a 1955 Olds 88 4dr as the next project. The car came without the drivetrain. A few weeks later I found an olds rocket with jetaway and driveshaft for a few hundret bucks. Since rockets are really rare over here I just had to buy it. But the motor is stuck and one of the heads had cracks on one corner. Seems like someone dropped it hard while removing it. I want to find out more about the parts that are combined in this engine and already contacted Tony. Seems that the Block is a 1949 303 cui bored to 324 cui. Tony said the 2 bolt clamp for the distributor is one year only and 1949. The motor has solid lifters with adjustable rockers and dome pistons, 324er heads and chromed dimpled valve covers. Here are a couple of pics of everything.










On the last pic the engine is sitting in my shop. Last weekend i started disassembling it further on. I was able to remove two of the pistons so far. Will post up more pics in the next days. The idea is to get it running again. I hope there is enough material left on the cylinderwalls. Maybe some of the Olds gurus can help me along with the built. First I'm trying to find out what parts are thrown together here. The rockers show a "Olds" stamp. Will take better pics near soon.

 

Your car looks pretty solid.I have found that if you put penetrating oil in the cylinders and heat the block it gets in better.Your main problem is going to be that the rings will likely be rusted to the cylinder walls. You can spray penetrant into the cylinders from the botton too.Get a piece of about 1\2 or 5\8" aluminum round stock maybe 2 feet long,remove the rod cap on whatever one you are starting with,sleeve the rod bolts with small pieces of fuel line.Now put your piece of round stock down into the piston you are working on until it bottoms on the inside of the piston head,beat with big hammer,repeat as needed.If you can get the crank out of the engine cut a piece of fence post that fits the bore as closely as possible and beat from the top with big hammer.This method works quite well.As soon as a piston moves you can sand the rust ridge left by the rings out and the piston will come out.If that block hasnt been bored way out it should save.Good luck and good wishes.

 

Those valve covers are fairly hard to find. They have the " bumps" to provide clearance for higher lift cams or more aggressive rocker arm ratios. I have a fresh 324 long block and a set of chrome rocker arm covers with the Olds spark plug wire separators for sale. If you are interested, PM me.

 

The covers and rockers arms are a nice score!!! Tony is the correct person to talk to.

 

I think you "done good" for a "few hundred bucks" The rockers alone are worth that. Hope everything works out for you. I have the same engine ('49 bored to 324 with a hot cam, solids, and adjustable rockers) sitting on a stand waiting for a project.

 

Very cool,
It must have been a hot motor at one time.
It has a later balancer, the '49 was one piece with single groove.
It may be that someone married a '49 with a '55 and added the race parts for even more go.

 

I would soak the devil out of it and try to get the pistons out and save them. if you can do that without trashing them or the cylinder walls in the process chances are that you may not need to bore it just clean it up and ring it. Those old blocks wore like iron and given the period that it was most likely built you may even have chrome rings they were really easy on the block.

I got a stock bore 394 here that ran chrome rings from the git. granted it is a few years newer that yours but the concept is still the same. Sometimes you get lucky.

Smooth project by the way.

 

Looks like mine.

 

I have one better pic of the Rockers. Wondering if they are og olds or aftermarket parts.



I soaked everything in penetrating lube before leaving last sunday. Tomorrow i will get back to the shop and see if I'm able to disassemble it a bit more. I scored a distributor on ebay usa yesterday since that is one of the missing parts. The balancer is a two piece kind of thing and the "weightring" is loose. I will try to rescue as much as I can from this engine. The previous owner got it mounted in an old Ford pickup but wanted it gone. So maybe you´re right, Paul. Could be a go machine that time. What´s up with that dome pistons? Are they og or aftermarket and could I receive spare parts like this?

A few more pics from the car:


I already celaned out all the mice shit and what not. Body is very straight and solid but front floor is gone on both sides. Seems that is all I will have to weld in to get the body back in shape.





Here is the tranny that came with the drivetrain. Should be a 1956 Jetaway.



And I already got some new tires out back just for the look in the shop. Later I will go with nice www ones. But first I will have to make into a runner.

 

Yesterday I was able to remove the crank. Looks like the bearings (or seats) of rod number 1, 2 and 5 are bad. Spottet a little crack at the hole of the "position locating pin" at the main stud (at the end of the crank). Not sure if this is bad. Sadly I ran out of penetrating lube so I could not get further on with trying to get out the lasting 6 pistons. Next weekend I will try to bath them in lube and hammer them out downwards. Should be easier because the cylinderwall is cleaner in this direction.

 

Here is the crack. Do you guys think it is a bad position? I guess it's not. Should be no forces on the hole when everything is bolted down.

 

make your own penetrant. mix half acetone and half automatic transmission fluid. it's about the best. here's the '56 i had 50 years ago!

 

Olds Motors can be made to look pretty if you decide to go that way.....
We get so spoiled here in the US, having so much easily at hand....
I applaud you for taking this one...GOOD JOB

 

I found this quotation in another thread and now I'm curious what that means:

"Internally, any special parts might be stamped with numbers or letters. The conn rods and caps will be stamped with numbers 1, 2, 3, etc., where the production rods and caps were not. Experimental and special non-production parts were stamped or etched with what we called index numbers."

All rods and caps in my engine have numbers from 1 to 8. I thought every Olds Rocket had that numbers. But because of the quotation I'm not sure now.

 

The adjustable part of the rockers looks like Isky or McGurk, but the 'body' of the rocker doesn't look similar to any ones (Gotha, McGurk, Isky, etc.) I've seen before.
@Paul @GOATROPER02 @Martin_F may know more.

 

look a lot like Thomas but, the ones I've seen said Thomas on them.

 

I don't think that a crack. Looks to me where the main bearing journal is recessed in the block.
Unless I'm looking at the wrong thing in the picture.

Not sure about the rockers. Have seen the letting on them before but don't know the manufacturer.

If you want to use the '56 Jetaway transmission, make sure you mill a counter bore in the end of the crank shaft, where the pilot bushing is now, to make it work.

 

Be careful removing the pistons. The rust will expand the pistons and when you try to hammer them out, they could crack the cylinder walls.

Maybe someone who has figured out a safe way to remove pistons from rusted bores can help you figure out how to do it without damaging the block.

 

The crack is hard to see but it goes from the hole of the positioning pin down to the outside of the journalcap. Right in the center of the red ring.
I will take more pics of the rockers and the other stuff when I am down in the shop at the weekend. Maybe it is possible to close the cylinder with a thick plate and squeeze in some grease with higher pressure after letting the air out. Thats a method to loosen the pistons on brake calipers that I know.
What about those numbers on my rods and caps? Is that in every rocket?

 

Since the jetaway tranny was bolted on that engine before I guess the machining of the crank is already done or not nessecary. But I will take a closer look on the cranks end!

 

Are you sure it's a crack and not just a casting line? Take the cap off and if it falls apart replace it. If not, the crack might not be too bad.
If the rods and caps have numbers stamped on them, that usually means somebody has rebuilt the engine before.
Most people stamp them to make sure the bolt the same pairs together again during re-assembly.

If the engine and transmission have been bolted together before, you should be fine.
I just mentioned it, because the only 303-324 with the right crank would be an automatic crank from 1956.
In your case somebody must have already machined it to fit, during a previous rebuild.

 

There was a thread here a while ago where a guy was able to unstick a DeSoto hemi in an unorthodox way. He removed everything he could and filled the valley with charcoal briquettes.. Got 'em going good, covered it with a piece of sheet metal, and then just let 'em burnout. A little penetrant before and after, and the pistons came right out. I've never done this myself, but I think it would work. Everyone knows heat is your friend in cases like this. This is probably the way to get the most heat into the block assembly there is. You could even get some burgers and kill two birds with one stone.

 

Hmm, I'm not sure about the charcoal method. Because of the thermal expansion coefficient of aluminum, which is double as high as iron. Plus the residual stresses that may result from the high temperature. I think there is also a danger for cracks. But I'm a scared ass in such situations First I will try some more "cold methods" to get the pistons out. The first and second came out very easy. Maybe I'm lucky with the other ones. But since I'm working at the university of Bremen and we're having a big material science institute here, I could be able to use one of the big ovens to heat the block gently to a pointed out temperature. I'll keep you guys informed.
A friend is getting a big crate from Tony at RossRacing real soon and he ordered a spare cylinder head for me. Seems there is a bit of space left in that crate and so I don't have to worry about the cracked head I'll have to replace. But I'll take a closer look on those heads i have here on saturday. Got to be sure ordering a matching one.

 

Hi Guys,

the last few month i was trying to remove the lasting four pistons. I wasn't able to get them out so far. Soaked it several weeks in an expensive Caramba Rust Remover and hammered from time to time on it with a wood log and a big hammer. Nothing. Today I talked to an old collegue who is working in a heat treatment department at the university. We diskaussed the method making a charcoal fire in the valley. He is a doctor in his research field so I trust him. He gave me a green light to try it but gave the advice to avoid direct contact between the charcoal and the block. If it didn't work out in the end we will try to put the whole block into one of the big ovens in the laboratory.
Here i have a few pics from the last month dissassembling everything and soaking, hammering onto the pistons. I already got a new cylinder head from ross racing to replace the broken one. The jetaway tranny is at a tranny shop waiting for an repair/overhaul kit.

Cam says 116-44 on it. What do i have there?

 

That ratchet nylon strap is not putting much force on the piston.

If you dare, maybe make some solid plate with holes for threaded rods for the headbolt holes. Then use a tiny bottle jack. I'd find some thick Oak block, run it through a table saw to get the angle of the piston dome and the flat half of the piston....to get a solid footing on top of piston.

Heck, I'd build a fire under the block, let the temps come up and stay up, for quite a spell.

.

 

I had a 324 block with stuck pistons. 3 wouldn't budge, no matter what method I used (diesel fuel, Acetone/ATF mix, etc.) I put just regular coke in the three stuck cylinders. Waited over night and all came out with a 2x4 and a couple of whacks from the hammer. Worth a try...

 

Coca-Cola....so much more than a breakfast drink!

 

I have Thomas's thought the same thing when I saw them.

 

I will give the coke a chance. Next time I'm in the shop i will give a good sipp of coke into the cylinders and let it work over night. Let's see what it is worth.

 

Hey Jan, Michael here.

Nice '55 you got there, still a lot of work to do

Wish you all the best with the other block.

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