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Little back story on the car. My grandfather bought it brand new in 1970, and garage kept it all its life. Odometer sits at 126,000mi which isnt bad for being 47 years old. My mother actually drove it throughout high school (and wrecked it into a telephone pole) It had an anemic 180hp 350ci small block olds with a 2 barrel and th350 from the factory. When his health started to decline he gave it to me being the only mechanically inclined family member. Rebuilt the carb, threw some new suspension on it, rebuilt the rear with 3.73's and posi, new fuel system and drove it for a little bit. Realized it was dog **** slow so I tore out the factory drivetrain and here we are now.
Breakdown of the combo so far is!
2000 LQ4 Longblock, 243 heads, Cam motion Junkyard Dog cam, Holley single plane, Holley 850cfm. Rebuilt entirely with OEM ACdelco parts and gaskets. I painted it gold since the factory 350 was gold.
Will have a either a TH350 or TH400 behind it, whatever I find first.
BTR .660 spring kit came on last week, dropped heads off the machine shop to get seals and springs done along with a 3 angle valve job. ARP head bolts and fresh head gaskets came as well. Drove out western MD today and picked up a brand new Victor Jr for 260. It was painted black so just have to strip the paint off. Hope to have the long block back together by end of next week.
Your Cutlass looks great! I wish my 65 Cutlass body was as nice as yours. You know Olds valve covers will sit right on top of the LS valve covers. Use a coil relocation kit and paint the whole motor Olds gold, running an air cleaner and a carb, most people won't know it isn't the Olds motor. That's what I am planning for mine (someday).
Jarhead
Your Cutlass looks great! I wish my 65 Cutlass body was as nice as yours. You know Olds valve covers will sit right on top of the LS valve covers. Use a coil relocation kit and paint the whole motor Olds gold, running an air cleaner and a carb, most people won't know it isn't the Olds motor. That's what I am planning for mine (someday).
Jarhead
I got rid of everything Olds engine related already. Let it all go for a steal just to get it out of my garage (which is my parents garage actually). Hoping to hear back from the machine shop about my heads today or tomorrow. Would like to get them bolted on so I can measure for pushrod length. Stripped off most the paint of the Victor Jr I picked up. Need to get another can of paint stripper. I feel like I ripped this guy off but he named the price sooo. Cant beat a brand new Victor for 260$.
So progress over the winter was slow. My parents garage is VERY small, not really enough room to do much of anything. So once the weather started getting nice I got moving on it. Pulled out the old fuel system in prep for the Aeromotive tank and lines. Also got the old motor mounts and exhaust out. I'm using UMI swap mounts since they come with the frame side mounts as well. I must say, the motor went in extremely easy, and it fits great. Also was able to throw on my ICT billet accessory drive and my Speed Engineering headers. These headers are stupid good quality and fitment for the price. Cant believe they were only 280$.
Progess has been slow but steady. Working on tying up some body things. The core support was somewhat rotted so I pulled that off. Also wanted to delete the AC so had to pull off fender to remove the whole box. Started off my trimming the excess metal from around the ducting. The AC delete panel I bought didnt exactly fit with the LS motor so I took a heat gun to it and melted it and molded it for the clearance I needed, then I sealed the seam with RTV to keep water out hopefully.
Next I started wiring up the MSD 6014 box. Got the coil pack and cam/crank sensor put in the car and ran the way I was content with. Ended up running the coil pack harness underneath of my victor to try to keep it less cluttered looking. Then mounted the box over on the driverside fenderwell. I don't like how the ends of the MSD harnesses aren't completely loomed, so I did my best to try and hide the end of the harness.
Little bit of progress made. All the wiring for the MSD is completely done. Also got my accessories in from Amazon and got them all fitted. Also pulled the steering box - local pick-n-pull just got a 96 Grand Cherokee so I'm gonna go snag the box off it hopefully saturday morning.
08-29-2018, 09:26 AM
1971 Cutlass LQ4/Th400 S475 build thread 
