OLDSMOBILE CLUB OF AMERICA EASTERN MA. GMO CHAPTER ...

OLDSMOBILE CLUB OF AMERICA EASTERN MA. GMO CHAPTER ROCKET POWER NEWSLETTER!! GMO Party September 30

Issue #20 Ma

September 2006

GMO At All Wheels on Cape Cod By Ted Loranz

The GMO will hold a year end party at the home of Karen & Rich Santucci at 84 Boyd St in Newton on September 30 at 5:00 PM. Karen Santucci and Janine Profenno will be preparing the food (paid for by the GMO) so you can be sure no one will go away hungry. GMO members and their families are welcome. Bring your Oldsmobile if the weather is good and we will all caravan over to the year-end cruise at Pini’s Pizza.

The weather turned out great for the show but the GMO turnout was not. Only Claire & I, Rich & Karen Santucci, Ray Therrien, Bill & Kerry Reilly, Chuck Scheil & Steve Braidman showed up. I believe all of us received a top 10 Oldsmobile award and Chuck's 64 Starfire convertible will be going to the SuperWheels show – congratulations again Chuck you must have a season pass by now.

We were located in our usual spot in the shade and near all the action and facilities. The easiest way to get to the Santucci residence is to take I90 to Newton Watertown (exit 17). If you are coming from the west, follow the ramp up until it joins the main road, follow it as it takes a left over I90 (stay in the center lanes and the road will become Centre St.). Boyd St. is on your left about 4 streets down and the Santucci’s is on your left at 84 Boyd St. From the east, follow the ramp and take a right on Centre St. then follow the same directions to the Santucci’s. This is the year end event and club meeting so make SURE you are present.

Karen Santucci supplied delicious chicken salad, egg salad, roll, chips & grapes – see what you all missed. Thanks again Karen. The most strenuous activity was to keep moving our chairs back to stay out of the sun.

with Torque-Thrust wheels pulled in and parked two spots away from me. I didn’t recognize the driver but he nodded to me and then went into the service center. After a bit, he came out, got in his car and drove away – I should have invited him to join us. Chuck Scheil, Karen and Rich Santucci, and Bill Reilly showed up shortly afterwards and at 7:30 we started the wagons moving west. We didn’t know it until later, but Dave Consoli merged with us for a while in a 1999 Aurora on his way to the show. The trip was uneventful except I kept getting a spray bath from a truck driving through puddles from the night before until we passed him. A little later a flatbed truck went flying by spewing little stones from the bed. I managed to avoid them but Rich and Karen got “stoned”. Paul Iantosca arrived in the afternoon after delivering his daughter to UNH.

We picked up 2 new GMO members: Mark Baravella and Chris Leary – welcome to the ranks! GMO at NEOC Show By Ted Loranz

September 10 dawned sunny and cool – a welcome change from NEOC show days of the past. I arrived at the Westborough Service Center around 7:00 AM because my usual breakfast place was closed. Needless to say I was the first one there. Shortly afterwards, a mid 80’s white Cutlass

We met up with Frank St. Elmo where I95 crosses I84 but our 65 mph pace was to slow for him and he sped on ahead.

The caravan arrived at Schaller Auto World about 9:00 AM and were cars #2, 3, 4 & 5 to enter the show (Frank must have been #1). Everything was well organized and we were instructed to pull through the various stations until we were parked by classes. The weather was superb, the food was excellent (I was finally able to get breakfast) and music was provided by a DJ who also served as Master of Ceremonies.

The awards were given out at about 2:30 and GMO members received the following: Chuck Scheil – Runner Up Rich & Karen Santucci – Runner Up Bill Reilly – Runner Up Frank St Elmo – 1st Place Frank St Elmo – Best of Show A plaque was also awarded to each registered car as thanks for attending the 10th Annual NEOC Show, congratulations to all who attended. We are trying to decide if Frank will be prohibited from entering any future shows – just kidding Frank ;-)

GMO members Ray Thierren, John Anderson, joined us at the show and Dave Wicks, Everett Horton and Manny Leitao were present without their cars.

The ride home was uneventful. Traffic was OK (except for some idiot drivers including a motorcyclist that did a 65 mph wheelie for about a mile – I think in an effort to impress us). The caravan of four started out together again but Karen & Rich had to stop for gas early. Bill Reilly had higher gears than Chuck and I so he sped ahead on I91 north. Chuck & I stayed together, stopped for gas, and continued until Chuck exited I90 at Rte 122. One Owner’s Story By Doug Estabrook

When I was a kid, I became "car crazy" very early on. My sister had two boyfriends (yes, at the same time, but that’s a story for another newsletter) one had a '64 Pontiac Tempest with a 421 motor and the other (who is and shall ever be, I guess) had a black '63 Impala with a 425 hp 409. Many "dates" that ended up in a fight left me with indelible memories of engines, smoke and noise.

But, there was one car in my youth that my Dad owned that never really registered as a "muscle car", but was actually the one that got my "gearhead" ball rolling. It was a '62 Jetfire with the all aluminum 215 CID V8 - 215 HP supercharged engine in it. But I remember my brother-in-law having a green ‘67 442 after the Impala and mentioning a couple of dealerships that, if you wanted to go fast in an Oldsmobile, you went there - one was Brainbeau and the other, Berejik. That 442 and those dealerships were the ones that got the "Oldsmobile thing" started. Well, my Dad’s little Olds went to its death way too early (a blown motor as I remember) and I drifted on the other subject matters of automobilia. A friend of mine and I drag raced a 1966 Ford Fairlane for a few years and then I drag raced a '63 Plymouth Savoy Max Wedge car on my own. But, around that time, my "family commitments" were starting to get more and more "anti-car." I took a few years off to raise them, get them schooled and marry them off. Oh, I never stopped loving cars and racing, and made the occasional trip to Epping, NH or Englishtown, NJ, but one of the things that I started to notice was that I liked other cars rather than Fords, Chevys and Mopars. Then, one time, I saw a car that just "grabbed" me. It was a 1971 (sometimes '72) Oldsmobile 442 that was raced in the Stock Eliminator class. Now most of you know that I build scale models as a hobby and was so taken by this car, that I built a replica of it. That year, the gentleman, whose name is Johnny Williams, ended up winning a World Championship with that car. So, as sort of a congratulations, I presented him the model of his car. And two lifelong friendships started - with Johnny and with Oldsmobiles. About 3 years ago, I turned 50 years old and started to realize that I was indeed mortal, so, after doing my family thing and having a little equity in the old homestead, I went car shopping. Now, just being a working class slob, I had a limited budget set and had to stick to it. I realized early on that I had been out of the "musclecar" scene WAY TOO LONG! I didn't pay the kind of money for my first home that these people were asking for these cars, but I forged on.

One night, on my way home from work, I bought a Want Advertiser and started "shopping." Lets see - Chevy, Chevy, Mustang, Plymouth, blah, blah, blah. Then, I saw it - "1970 Oldsmobile 442 W30 clone, built motor, excellent shape, call...." And so I did. Always LOVED the '70 442's-those nasty hood scoops, all that power and there wasn't one on every corner. Called the gentleman up and he informed me that he had it listed on Ebay if I wanted to see pics of it. Came home that night, got online and it was love at first sight. Well, made a bid, got outbid, made another, so on and so on until it was getting to the point of being serious money (to me, anyway) for something I couldn't see. So, the car was in Mass, so I ran up and looked at it and drove it. That’s about the time I found the GMO club, as I did a Google and there was Ted’s name. I called him, and not knowing the ins and outs of Oldsmobiles, asked him if I was throwing good money after bad on a car that was basically a Cutlass in 442/W-30 clothing. I told him what the car was and I remember what he said like it was yesterday-"Except for the serial number, its a 442." SOLD! Fast forward a couple of days, and I won the bid. Went to pick it up, brought it home and sat for almost a whole day taking in my new "toy." Yup, it had some rust, a few chips in paint, it wasn't numbers matching, but it looked plenty good to me. I heard someone describe it as a "10 foot car”. The more I drove it, the more obvious it became that there were a few "issues" with it, but that’s OK, for the money, it was a great car. I drove that car around getting "thumbs up" and waves from other classic car owners and was genuinely excited about what I had bought (although my wife didn't like the color at first...). Shortly after buying it, I joined the GMO club for two reasons - to find out all I could from the experts on all things Oldsmobile and to find out where all the Olds things were happening in the area. Meeting George Berejik was a great thrill and finding out that Oldsmobile were considered "hitters" in a lot of forms of racing really got me excited. So, went to a few club meetings and some shows and started having a great time. Then I went to a show that almost stopped it all for me. Continued next newsletter.

A Little Rocket History

Technical Corner By Ted Loranz

From the FAQ section of www.442.com

I don’t know how many of you read Hemmings Muscle Machine magazine but, in my opinion, everyone with a vested interested in this hobby should. It features unbiased reporting and offers a wealth of information about most things automobile.

Oldsmobile was the oldest continuing car marque in the U.S. The Olds Motor Co. was incorporated in 1897 with an initial capital investment of $50,000.00! In 1897 the company produced 4 automobiles. On September 21, 1997, Oldsmobile celebrated it's 100th birthday! Were you there in Lansing?

I just received the latest issue and guess what? Your GMO got press again. Editor George Mattar, who consults us whenever he has an Oldsmobile question, wrote a feature article on a one owner 1970 442. The GMO was mentioned prominently as the local Oldsmobile club.

The full name "Oldsmobile" was first used in 1900. Prior to that, the automobiles were known simply as "Olds", built by the Olds Motor Works of Lansing.

I often turn to the “Ask Ray” technical questions first. When I did an answer to a reader’s question about pump gas jumped right out at me. The reader was concerned about what gasoline and additives he should be using in his newly acquired 1967 327 Camaro. The answers were something we all need to know. According to the answer, while everyone thought the valves in muscle cars would be destroyed by unleaded gas introduced in 1974, that has not turned out to be true. According to Ray, 30 years later it has been proven that older vehicles run fine on the unleaded gas with no problems. As to the question of Octane, Ray stated that in the late 60’s & early 70’s Octane was measured differently than it is today (presently the octane rating is the average of the research and manufacturer’s octane numbers). The end result is that by some standards, today’s 93 Octane pump gas would have been 99 to 100 Octane by late 60’s & early 70’s standards. The Jury is still out on the 10% ethanol issue but Ray has had no issues running the reformulated fuel in his 1940 Ford farm tractor. No evidence has yet surfaced that it attacks older rubber gas lines but you shouldn’t be using 25 year old rubber gas lines anyway.

In 1903 the Olds "Pirate" sets a World record at Daytona Beach covering 5 miles in 6.5 minutes. In 1905 two Oldsmobiles complete the first transcontinental race from New York, NY to Portland, Oregon in 44 days. In 1922 an Oldsmobile establishes another record, traveling 1000 miles in 15 hours. Cannonball Baker drives a 6 cylinder Model 30 from New York to LA in 12 ½ days. Total car vehicle production: * 2 millionth in 1941 * 20 millionth in 1978 Ransom Eli Olds also put his name on a line of trucks: REO's. Rocket Era 1949 – 1990 The Oldsmobile Over-Head-Valve (OHV) Rocket V-8 was first produced in 1949. Originally named for its principal designer, Charles Kettering, as "Kettering Power". Corporate GM policy disallowed that, so the powers that be opted for "Rocket Power". The plant where these engines were built was named "The Kettering Engine Plant". The Olds OHV V-8 was the first to be produced in a sustainable quantity. It was the second mass produced OHV V-8. In 1917 to 1919, Chevrolet produced a 265 CID OHV V-8, but production ceased. In 1955,

Chevrolet introduced another, the 265 CID OHV V-8. The first Ford OHV V-8 was produced in 1954.

In 1957 Olds released the J-2 Golden Rocket. This was a 371 inch engine with a six-pack (it only came with a six-pack) that put out 312 horses.

The first serious attempt at a commercially viable V-8 was by DeDion around 1910. Cadillac examined this design as well as the Hall-Scott aero engine, and released their vastly superior engine in September 1914. Cadillac is generally regarded as having the first successful production V-8 engine. They were also the first to introduce an inherently balanced V-8 (quartered crankshaft with integral counterweights vs. a flat 4 cylinder crank). However, none of these were OHV designs.

I guess that once Olds hooked onto the Rocket name in '49 and people associated it with Oldsmobile, they continued to use it for many years because of that association. You could say that any Olds built V-8 from 1949 up is a Rocket engine.

Oldsmobile produced an "L" head or flat head V-8 from 1916 to 1918 and from 1919 to 1921, but it was a side valve engine, not OHV.

All Olds V-8 pushrod engines produced between 1949 and 1990 are considered "Rocket" engines. The "Rocket" designation comes from the general design of these engines, not the HP rating. Super 88's with Rocket V-8s won many races in 1949 and through the 1950's. The Rocket V-8 has been credited with starting the quest for more power and hot rodding.

Oldsmobile also built the Viking V-8 in 1929 and 1930. A 90 degree, 81 bhp 260 CID V-8. It used a horizontal valve design with triangular type combustion chambers. The block is a mono-block casting. Some of the early V-8 engines are of fairly unusual design, beyond the early connecting rods. I believe the 1917-18 Chevrolet Model "D" V-8 was made up of two castings, basically split down the Center line of the crank. They were identical castings that were simply bolted together. Monoblock V-8's didn't hit until much later. Ford said they were the first to make a 'low cost' monoblock V-8, with their inception in 1932. This indicates that one or some of the higher priced V8s must have been mono-block prior to 1932. The Rocket engine debuted in 1949. It was termed the Rocket 88 engine. This engine was big in NASCAR, in fact with the automatic (no manual trans available early on), the Rocket won 8 out of 10 races in 1950. This engine had a number of interesting features: overhead valve train, hydraulic lifters, over square bore-stroke ratio, forged crank with counterweights, aluminum pistons, full-floating wrist-pins, and a dual plane intake manifold.

The word "Rocket" on the air cleaner decals was dropped in in the mid 1970's, maybe with the 1977 model year.

You may notice different variations of Rocket on air cleaner housings. Here are some: Name Years Golden Rocket 1957 – 1958 Rocket Rocket 88 1949 Sky Rocket 1961-1963 Super Rocket 1965-1967 4-4-2 Rocket 1967 Jetfire Rocket 1967 Starfire 1967 Tornado Rocket 1967 *Ultra High Compression

CID 371 303 394 425 400 330 425 425

Notes 3x2

UHC*

The Musclecar War started when Oldsmobile introduced the first overhead valve V-8 in a relatively light body in the 1949. The war became hot when Pontiac brought out the GTO and Olds countered with the 442. As the decade of the sixties ended, more of the corporate limits were removed until they were building almost all out race cars. From 1968 to 1971, the 442 was a separate line that could be identified by it's VIN. The 1970 model year had more "trick parts" than almost any other year.

General differences among the power ratings of Rocket V-8s produced between 1949 to 1964, and 1964 to 1990 are in the manifold, carb, and air cleaner. Some small bracketry and the like is also different, of course. The distributor is slightly different in terms of either vacuum or mechanical advance, but nothing major. The main internal difference is in the pistons, with the 4-barrel hicompression pistons having a more shallow dish than the 2-barrel ones. Heads and camshafts are pretty much the same, with W machines and 442's (hi-performance applications) using different heads and camshafts. Generations Oldsmobile engines can be basically broken into the following generations: 1949 was the beginning of production of the Oldsmobile Rocket V-8 engine. 1964 represents a new generation of engines. This was the last year for the 394. 1990 was the last year of the two valve OHV Oldsmobile V-8s. 1995 represents another new generation the Aurora DOHC V-8 - the A8.

First Year Items 1926: Oldsmobile starts using chrome plating. 1931: Starts using a synchromesh transmission. 1953: The complete Olds line changes from 6 volts to 12 volts. 1956: Disposable spin on oil filter? 1963: PCV system in use on all Oldsmobiles, no more down draft tubes for crankcase ventilation. 1967: Disc brakes are an option on full size Oldsmobiles. Ultra High Voltage (UHV) system available. This was the forerunner of HEI. 1970: First year for the windshield antenna. 1971: First year for induction hardened valve seats in heads. 1972: First year for a factory coolant recovery bottle. 1973: EGR is added to Olds engines. 1974: HEI was offered as an option in 1974 Oldsmobiles and became standard in 1975. 1975: Catalytic Converters are added to all Olds exhaust systems.

Eastern Massachusetts GMO Chapter 114 West Street Medway, MA 02053-2226

First Class Mail

GMO Officers President & Editor Paul Iantosca – 617-543-0777 [email protected]

Events Coordinator Bill Reilly – 781-820-6552 [email protected]

Vice President Rich Santucci – 617-899-9109 [email protected]

New Member Recruiter Karen Santucci – 617-899-9109 [email protected]

Secretary / Treasurer Ted Loranz – 508-561-7613 [email protected]

Club Representative Everett Horton – 401-435-7139 [email protected]

GMO Chapter Website – http://clubs.hemmings.com/olds-gmo