setting up a caddilac seville and tips or help with 350 oldsmobile

im having trouble gettin my car to finish a race muchless be able to run with everyone in the top 5. im not sure if its timinng. the motor is a hog but its sluggish and none of the people working on the car and myslef dont know much about oldsmobile if i had it my way id run cheverolet but from what i hear i have to run oldsmobile. sponsor help is always appreciated. im just starting out and i cant even finish a season with the way things are goin now i need tips for the motor and the handling. its a unibody frame and a leafspring rear end with disc brakes. so if you have any ideas or help let me know.  

First when it comes to an olds Timing is everything. You will have to find that sweet spot where it will just barely start! What olds do you have? 350,307,455,425,or a great choice 403? The problem might be your gearing as well. Those olds are mean at the low end. You may have to run higher(lower numerically) gears. You dont need a big carb either because you will run less rpm and a smaller carb will be more responsive. A good area to work is the heads. Find the 307 heads and drop them on a 350 or bigger. They will have smaller ports but smaller chambers as well giving you some much needed compression. We have used manifolds from a Tornado for duals so you lose the crossover pipe.

There is also a bigger pan for them but you have to hunt the junk yards to find on or call Mondello.

Keep extra rockers with you at the track as I am sure you have found out! The olds rockers are WEAK!

If you haev any more questions ask! Jr  
"Remember when sex was safe and racing was dangerous?"

just a thought from the side....

the 76 to 79 sevilles share the suspension design with camaros of the same years....  i have heard that the subframes will interchange except for how the front bumpers mount... so camaro suspension pieces will fit..

as for HEI distributers...    don't use the seville unit ......   get one for a 77-79 transam with a 403....   the sevilles used electronic timing controls... this is what the 4 pin wire round connector is for...

i don't know if is legal

but taking there is a way to bend the frame slightly to get more camber on the left front wheel...   got a jacking beam???? some frame pulling chains???a 20 or 30 ton bottle ***

by jacking up the front of the car ... take off the front wheels.   loop each long chain up the outside of the frame rail over the top and behind the upper control arm mount and back down...    make it so there is a loop on each side to slide the jacking beam through and still have enough room for the bottle jack on top of the beam  and under the cross member... put a half inch or thicker plate on top of the bottle *** so you don't damage the cross member...  with the jack on the drivers side of the bottom of the cross member.. you can jack some to spread  the subframe a ***   by jacking off center you can open the drivers side more to get the extra camber....... this trick can also be used to straighten out collapsed crossmembers so the wheels can be aligned and make the motor mount bolts fit easy....


this can be done on tall jack stands...   on a single post lift...  on a frame rack...     and if you have the stuff to do it... takes about half an hour...  nothing to unbolt except the tires and maybe a brake line bracket...

a wheel alignment gauge is also handy...  when trying to get the alignment right before doing this...   set the caster  so there is a minimum of 2 one eighth inch shims over each stud..,.  see which side need more camber..  put the jack closer to the side that needs more...  you want the wheels off...  the suspension hanging... so you don't drive the lower ball joints out of the lower control arm....

(jacking beam is usually W  beam,  4 or 5 inch tall  W beam...  think of I beam... but with wider flanges on top and bottom)