What was your 1st vehicle?

[Jeff]

1975 Chevy Caprice Classic 4 door friggin boat of a car.

[Elmer Fudd]

1962 chevy pickup. Orange and white.

[JParis]

1978 Mercury Cougar

[neurosis]

Land Yacht 

[ghuns]

1981 Grand Prix.

Mom and dad bought it new with the GM 350 diesel. It was a horrible POS. The thing about those GM diesels was, you got a good one or a bad one. No in between. This was a bad one. These engines were basically Olds 350s that were converter to diesel.

They bought a new Bonneville in '88 and I got the GP. I immediately drove to the junkyard in the farm truck and asked for a used Olds 350 gas engine. The guy pointed to a pile of engines and said, your pick, $300, 30 day warranty.

Now I didn't know anything about Olds engines, so I picked the cleanest one that also had a carb that said, Holley, on it, cause I knew those were cool. He loaded it up and I had it in the car and running the next day.

To say it was fast would be an understatement. It was HOLE-E-SHIT fast. And that was with the original rear end that was geared for the diesel and better gas mileage, like a 2.43.

It is nothing short of a miracle I didn't die in that car. I would race anybody that glanced at me at a stoplight and can count on one hand the times I lost. I went through tires like they were free and transmissions at nearly the same pace. My dad had a buddy who rebuilt transmissions and he always had Turbo 350s laying around, but for Chevys. I would pull my Olds trannie, different bellhousing than Chevy, take it to him, he'd swap the guts out, and send me on my way for like $150. He simply could not understand how I destroying the things so fast. I took him for a ride one day after installing one of his fresh rebuilds. Then he understood. He was like, I will build the next one special. It will cost $250, but you won't break it. I never did.

I sold it to a buddy in 1992 who promptly fucked up the engine. He let sit a few years and then hauled to a shop and told them, it's an Olds 350, rebuild it. They called him soon after and said, uh... it's an Olds 455, and not a stock one.

Well, that explained a lot.

An Olds small block vs and Olds big block is nothing like with Chevys. Visually, they are hard to tell apart. I learned later that the width of the intake is the easiest identifier. Old big block is 14" wide, the small block is 12" wide.

[mkd]

Reminds me of a Pontiac 301 engine I pulled out of a yellow firebird in favor of a Chevy 383. It made as much power as a modern Honda Civic @ 140hp. What a turd.
 Took the 301 to a recycler in Oxnard for scrap. 550 lb lump got me $5. Didn't even cover the gas

[JParis]

Olds 350, rebuild it. They called him soon after and said, uh... it's an Olds 455,

Umm..you couldn't tell the diff between a small block 350 and big block 455? 

[mkd]

Umm..you couldn't tell the diff between a small block 350 and big block 455? 

I bet my POS 301 pontiac looked the same in the outside

[ghuns]

Umm..you couldn't tell the diff between a small block 350 and big block 455? 

Not in the Olds world.

Heads look the same, unlike Chevys. Olds small blocks are much wider than a Chevy.

Intake is 1"/side wider on the Olds big block than a small.

[ghuns]

Olds 455...



Olds 350...

[Flycut]

First legal vehicle was a 1989 Dodge Shadow.
I've had roughly 10 vehicles before that starting with a Honda CB200 
Many ATV's, sleds, 2 Chevettes and an old F150

[neurosis]

My second vehicle was a 1966 Chevelle.  Also a POS but fun to drive until one of the c-clips busted in the rear end and the rear axle shot out while doing 40mph. The wheel and axle pole vaulted what looked like 50' in the air and stuck in someones yard across the street from where I got the car stopped.

My first decent (in decent condition) vehicle was a 1979 Camaro. Cost me $1500 

The Chevelle cost me $800

My first three vehicles combined cost about $2500.  The good ole days.

[Bucky Cornstarch]

1971 Datsun 510.

[ghuns]

...Also a POS but fun to drive until one of the c-clips busted in the rear end and the rear axle shot out while doing 40mph. The wheel and axle pole vaulted what looked like 50' in the air and stuck in someones yard across the street from where I got the car stopped...

I went through a lifted truck phase and was a dedicated Chevy/GMC man. We'd go to Indy every summer for the big truck show and would see this happen every year to some dumb ass with a half ton Chevy on 38" tires with a 12 bolt rear end.

It was so dumb because 14 bolt, full floater rear ends were soooooooo cheap and you could convert them to 6 lugs, if wanted keep the shitty Dana 44 up front.

[mkd]

My first ride was your mom.