ok for a restore, but a boat anchor for anything else.
I agree they are gutless but I'm getting paid to restore these cars....lol
However I'm told they can be made capable to the tune of 400 horse.....not my words but .......
my run in with any 301 was, it was a bearing eater. not impressed with that motor at all.
But I don't think Olds had a "small block" per se..the 330, 350, 400, 403, 425 and 455 were all the same size motors.....if my old memory serves me...which at times it doesn't....lol....
330, 350, and 403 are small blocks, and 400, 425, and 455 are big blocks. they all look the same and the big block heads will bolt to a small block. problem with doing that is the port size on the heads and chamber size. the olds motors have a dome (hemi) shaped chamber on the heads too. you even had two styles of the 400. 67 and 67 had a bigger bore and shorter stroke, same stroke as 425. the 68 and newer 400's had a smaller bore and longer stroke same as 455.
The crank in the 301 was designed with less counter weights to save weight. It caused the crank to be weak and flex eating bearings. RPM was limited to 4500 rpm because of this problem.
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