After I finished installing the camshaft I decided it was time to race this car. It was bone stock other than the modifications listed previously. I had the original TH350 3 speed and 2.73 Posi rear. I took the car to Pontiac day at ATCO raceway in November 2002. Here are a few pictures of the action. I didn't win a single race that day, finishing with a best time of 15.1. I "won" my race in the opening round of the competition but I went under my dial in so I lost.
I had such a great time racing that I decided to return to ATCO the following weekend for test and tune. I brought my friend and his girlfriend so they could watch and see some real cars.
I had a few runs never going under 15.0 and then my dad had the great idea to let my friend race my car. Well, it turns out that he didn't know how to manually shift the automatic and missed a shift, wiping the crank bearings on the engine with over 80,000 miles. The car had to be trailered home, the crank was trash.
Here is the race when it all happened.
Here I am with my dad, pulling the engine the next day. I was pretty pissed as you can imagine, that something so horrible could have happened to my car. After whining about for a few days I took it as an opportunity to do a few things that I wanted to do it.
I bought flat top pistons (TRW) for it which raised the compression ratio up to a healthier 9:0. I drilled out the oil returns in the heads and the block, a main problem with Oldsmobile engines is that they can't drain oil back to the pan quick enough. I painted the lifter valley with Glyptal, a high temperature, oil based paint that makes the oil run back down much faster due to its smoother texture. Here is a picture of the new pistons and painted valley.
Here I am working on the front of the engine, after putting the heads back on.
I had to buy a new stock bearing size crank shaft. I also bought new connecting rods (EAGLE) and rod bearings (CLEVITE 77).
Here is a shot of my friend helping my dad and I put the rebuilt engine back in the car. Yes, he did feel guilty about it and helped me do some of the installation.
I did all the rebuilding during the winter and it snowed not long after I put the rebuilt engine back in the car. I decided to have a little fun with it while it had some snow all over it.
