Hi Everyone My name is Steve and I recently found a 77 cutlass salon. It is a very unique car as it has factory hurst hatches and a 5 speed. Well I ended up buying it and yes it is definetly a project car, it needs work. I called GM Canada to have them send me the build sheets so I could see if everything matched and it does. There was 2500 produced for Canada that year but only 29 with the 5 speed. Does anybody think that the car is worthy of a restoration? It has factory posi and is pretty much loaded except for power windows. It has a factory 260 in it which is a big block. It is a 350 rocket detuned. It has a 4 barrell on it that has the back 2 blanked off. If anybody has any suggestions I would gladly appreciate your advice. Thanks Steve
5 speed ?? I never heard of a cutlass of that year having factory stickshift.....maybe I'm wrong..o No:
... only 29 made in Canada....maybe that why I never seen one..have seen many and also owned 1/2 a dozen of em....my favorite was a 75 h/o white one...that was stolen in 1982 never found....I presently own a 77
I'm no olds expert but that sounds very fishy to me. 5 speeds were not common in the mid-late 70s, especially not in a bigger car like a cutlass. The mustangs didn't even get 5 speeds until the mid 80s. And a 260? The 350 was not a big block, the 260 was definately not a big block. Maybe I am wrong, but I have never heard of anything like that before and it doesn't fit in with the cars of that time period. Maybe an olds expert will chime in on this one...o No:
A 350 rocket was a big block also known as a wide block. A 350 chev is a small block. I know the 5 speed thing just boggles me. It says on the spec sheet from GM 5 speed borg - warner. Know of any oldsmobile specialty guys that I could contact?
Hi Steve, I was a young adult in the mid/late 70's (yes, I remember disco ou: ) and remember quite well Olds having a 5 speed available behind the 260 cid V8. It was an effort to gain fuel economy, but was not very successful. On your other question, the Olds blocks were all pretty much the same, but with different deck heights. If you look at your 260, it will look pretty much the same as an Olds 455. You cannot call the 260 a "small block" or a "wide block", they were just Olds motors. The 350 Olds, 350 Buick, 350 Pontiac and the 350 Chevrolet were all different with little or no interchageability between them. The odd gasket or PCV valve is about it. The Olds 260 has more in common with the Olds 455 than with any other divisions engines. Chevrolet produced a 262 cid V8 in the mid 70s, but it was a version of the "small block" Chevrolet engine. Small block and Big Block are usually used in describing Chevrolet engines, but we "borrow" the term to describe other engines by different manufactures; ie: a Buick 350 is sometimes called a small block Buick and a Buick 455 a big block Buick. In years gone by, when you bought an Olds, you got an Olds engine. When you bought a Buick, you got a Buick engine. I still remember my Dad getting a 77 Olds Delta 88 that had a Chevrolet 350 in it. Boy, was he PO'd when he found out he bought an Olds with a Chevy engine! It was called a "corporate 350 V8" back then and started the trend of using a division "A"'s engines in vehicles manufactured by division "B". It reduced costs as now mother GM had to only produce one 350 V8 (Chevrolet) instead of 5 different 350 V8's (I'm just using 350's as an example...the 3.8 liter V6 used in todays GM vehicles is in fact a Buick engine, there were other V6's produced by different GM divisions). I hope this explains a little behind your car. Is it unusual, yes. However I would not dump a ton of money in it as it will never be a super valuable car.
Thanks for the reply Brad I appreciate it. I am glad somebody finally believes me. Maybe I should just part the car out and move on to another project. It will take alot to restore it. That is quite the collection of cars you have. Very nice Thanks again Steve
stick shifts i remember 4 speed cutlasses in the mid-late 70's . not many . never saw a 5 spd . u could also buy a 455 ci engine . friend had a 77 cutlass , white , with a 455 & a/t . here is something neat about the cutlass of 1981 . i purchased a new 81 cutlass brougham & there was only one transmission available . there were no stick shifts . it was a th350 but u paid extra for it as it was classed as a required option . believe it or not .
cutlass i have seen stick shift 260 cars and most were lame even with a stick i would atleast dumps the heads for 350 heads and intake as intake ports are twice the size of the 260 heads , almost any car is worth fixing if you really want it to be that car basiclly do you like the car enuff?as for the 260 a big or wide block not really most olds engines are the same on the outside but it is a small block. old bigblocks where 400,425,455 small blocks where 260,307,350,403 any would work nicely in that car my favorite is still the 76 buick free spirit century -means nothing just wanted to say :Brow:
