[Closed] Olds experience and story?

Probably a timing issue....spark was advanced too much i do not recall that on either our 53 or 57 Olds.

but oh yeah - even with stock mufflers - early to mid 50's olds mostly - had a sound all their own...but then - so did other cars....in the day - one could tell the kind of car it was - just by hearing it crank....

What about the GAH YIK TIK TIK sound a mopar starter made?

Every Oldsmobile I ever heard including mine from the fifties and early sixties always had a lifter sticking and made a tick, tick, tick sound. Sometimes this sound would go away after the engine warmed up. I used to use STP to try and quiet down the lifters.

Bob...I remember that lifter tick, tick well on the Oldsmobiles.

I owned two 62's, a Starfire and Holdiday, also a 63 Dynamici 88...all three had the "tick tick" lifter issue.

I always thought it was just the Oldsmobile's were suppposed to sound.

Ron...those were the days!

George, I owned a 55 Super 88 tudor hardtop, a 56 98 tudor hardtop, a 61 Starfire convertible and two 62 Starfire hardtops, a 69 Cutlas hardtop and a 73 Cutlas Supreme hardtop with the 455 engine. All but the last two ticked. I wonder if the 1903 curved dash model ticked? I remember growing up that our neighbors had a 49 98 and it also ticked.

yep....ying ying ying lol

Wow!! Forgot about the tick-tick-tick......

All you had to do was replace the lifters with Cadillac lifters.

Our uncle worked for Cadillac-Olds in New York City before they split into two separate dealerships and he was familiar with what the NASCAR Olds drivers were using.

The Olds lifters had one oil-control hole in the lifter and would gum up and varnish, causing sticking.

The Cadillac lifters were a drop-in replacement with two oil-control holes which allowed them to stay cleaner and the added bonus of higher RPM without pumping up.

I did that when I stuffed a 56 Olds Engine in a 54 Studebaker Starliner.

I had forgotten till you mentioned it here, that was the fix. The Stude was fast I used a 2.78 Ford rear end and the hydramatic with a Jeep radiator top on a 4 inch thick chrysler radiator just to keep it cool not enough air space in the stock grill openings. That was before we had the aux electric fans. went through several fans before we found one that moved enough air. I had four exhaust systems each coupled to two cyl each with the fourth exiting the rear Valence pan as the six cyl Champion cars did and the other three as turn downs exiting before the pan & rear bumper. all sea-foam green with Tan Tuck & Roll int. Real sleeper could do 140 without problems except the tires. No one was making street tires at that time for those speeds. Z rated tires did not come into the scene till mid to late sixties. Fun car lot's of surprises. When I first put it together it had 4.56 rear gears and nothing beat it to 80 MPH when the race was over. I could pull wheel stands on soft 800X15 tires.

Dan...where were you when I owned those Oldsmobiles?

David, some guys put hi-revving Chevy 265 engines in Studebakers but they didn't have the

Torque of the Olds or Cadillac engines.

I never saw an Olds engine in a Studebaker but did know a couple of guys who had Studillacs. They were awesome.

The Olds engine should have been very close to a Caddy when it came to thrills.

Did you use a dual point Mallory plate in your distributor? It really gave a lot more top end dwell and combined with the Cadillac lifters you could get a lot of RPM and power very cheaply.

I remember the "reduction drive" starters that the Chryslers had in the 60-70s LOL

After starting you'd hear the damned thing whine down for like 30 seconds! LOLOOL

My '66 Toronados 425 Purrs but sometimes .....

If it sits a long time the lifters will bleed down and she ticks for about 10-15 minutes! Once driven and warmed up you can barely hear it run.