This is my 1976 Street/Strip Oldsmobile Omega. I bought this car off the whole sellers line at an Oldsmobile Dealership I worked at as an mechanic in 1984. It was a trade in and it didn't meet the dealership's standards to be sold from the used car department. It still wears the original paint, it looked like crap when I bought it, so I color sanded it and hand buffed it out, it shines pretty good now. Inside, I removed all the original tan interior bench seats, front and back (those things were heavy) and I color dyed everything black and added black Jazz racing seats.
The car isn't a show car car by any means, like it's owner, it's lived a tough life going up and down the highway a quarter mile at a time over the years and it shows some battle scares. It's never been pampered and has survived living in parking lots all over the state of Florida out in the elements (the car not me) including surviving 145 mph winds and flying objects from Hurricane Andrew, when I lived in S Florida back in 1992. I call my car, the BLACK MAMBA because of the stripe that runs down the side of the car, resembles a snake.
It's funny watching people get that puzzled look on their face when they look under the hood, I guess they get confused when they don't see a Chevy engine in there, they'll scratch their head and look the car over again before realizing it's an Omega and not a Nova.
The original Olds 260 had been replaced by the previous owner with a 1972 350, it blew a head gasket the very first time I used Nitrous at the track. One side of the engine had a Orange GM head gasket (which blew) and a FelPro on the other side. It bent 2 rods and scuffed up half the pistons and cylinder walls so I replaced that motor with a 1971 Olds 350 engine that had been pulled from a customers car at the dealership a few weeks later that was smoking real bad, so I bought that engine for $50. I had that block bored .030" over. I installed a new set of TRW 10.5 to 1 forged pistons and Speed/Pro Plaza Moly rings. A set of Oldsmobile 403 rods with SPS bolts, swing on a 10/10 Nodular Iron Crankshaft. ARP Head & Main bolts were used not studs. The engine is externally balanced. I did some mild bowl work on the #7 heads but nothing major and valve job. I re-used some parts from the previous motor, such as the cam, which was a Crane Fireball hydraulic flat tappet cam with 314 degree's of advertised duration, 232 degree's @ .050 and 475" lift, 113 lobe separation and the valve springs, M/T valve covers, Holley Street Dominator intake and Hooker headers. I added a new set of Anti pump up lifters, pushrods, timing chain, bearings etc. With a Holley Street Dominator intake and a Q-Jet carb I bought off a Pontiac Super/Stock racer, this combo ran a best ET of 12.99 but usually ran low 13's. This combo with Nitrous put me in the mid 11's over 120 mph with ease. Not too shabby for a street car in the 80s thru the 90s. Not so impressive after 2000. I decided I needed put some better flowing heads on the car, so I bought a set of #6 heads and spent any free time over the next few years porting them. I added the finished #6 heads to the engine in 2005. I used FelPro #1185 .039" when compressed Marine head gaskets so the final compression ratio is only 9.5 to 1. The heads were milled .013" but after polishing the combustion chambers the combustion chambers CCed out to 69cc. These chambers are smooth and shined almost as good as my intake when I was finished them. All the sharp edges were removed. I started with 400 grit wet/dry sand paper and butter bowl half filled with a 50/50 blend of dish liquid and water and finished up with 2000 grit sand paper, all by hand, just like I did to polish the intake. I used Mondello valve springs, Crane lifters, new Crane pushrods and new Crane stock replacement rockers. I use an Accel H.E.I distributor with the Mr. Gasket external Super coil kit. The home ported heads, along with the highly modified Holley intake and BG Mighty Demon 750 carb. Those three things helped the car run over a half second quicker ET's and added 5 mph to my trap speeds. I haven't used Nitrous as of yet with new top end on the engine because I sold the NOS Cheater system because it was for a Q-Jet carb and I have been thinking about using fogger nozzles in my 4500 to 4150 adapter that you see I use upside down on my engine.
I bought the Holley Street Dominator you see on the motor today from a guy named Tod Richards, that has had 10lbs of aluminum tig welded on the top and sides of all the runners so the runners could be enlarged enough to match BBO heads and the plenum has been opened up so either a 4500 Dominator or Q-jet carb could be used. The intake has alot of history behind it and it has been engines that have run mid 9s in the 1/4 mile by Tod with his 74 442 and it ran high 8s in an 1800 pound Altered by a local guy here in Orlando by the name of Tim Walker who did all the welding and mods to the intakes runners & plenum and added runner extensions as well.Click Here to see more pictures of this piece of history.
I don't have BBO heads on my engine but I opened up the intake ports on my SBO #6 heads to slightly larger than BBO intake ports,Click Here. I replaced the Q-Jet with a 750cfm BG Mighty Demon carb and I replaced the timing chain when I put the ported #6 heads on the short block in 2005. I'm still using the 30 year old Hooker 1 3/4" Headers that came on the car but I replaced the 2 1/4" inch dual exhaust with aluminum coated 3" mandrel bent tubing into a Kooks X pipe and then through DynoMax mufflers with turn downs just in front of the rearend. It runs on pump gas on the street and at the track without any problems. The short block has been in the car since 1985, it has been down the track over 500 times, more than 200 of those runs were with Nitrous. I have put over 68,000 miles on the short block driving it on the street and I have been pulling my boats behind the ole hotrod for the last 25 years, the largest being a 18ft Skeeter bass boat that I towed to area lakes for over 5 years, some more than 50 miles away without any problems. Anyone who says an Oldsmobile won't live, apparently doesn't know how to build one.
I burned up the Turbo 350 transmission that came with the car, running Nitrous, so I replaced it with a Turbo 400 that I rebuilt back in 1987 which included the following modifications. I replaced the intermediate and direct clutch wave plates with flat steel ones. Opened up the direct and intermediate clutch feed holes in the valve body spacer plate to 0.180" Removed and disguarded front accumulator piston spring. Replaced the 1-2 accumulator spring with piece of 1/4" tubing 0.950" long. Removed center seal from the direct clutch and removed the second seal from the center support and plugged the reverse clutch feed hole with a 1/4" diameter cup plug. I only used the modulater, intermediate and reverse/low check balls, the other 4 balls were disguarded. The intermediate front band was also not used and disguarded. I replaced the 16 element sprag with a 34 element sprag that GM developed for the THM 400 that's used in the V12 Jaguar's. Now I have a transmission that shifts hard but not real harsh like some aftermarket shift kits do, and it will now handle just about anything you can bolt up to it. I am currently using a Darrell Young 10" 3500 stall converter and have been for the last 25 years.
Best ET & MPH to date using 
in 2nd & 3rd gear only has been 11.463 @ 123.11 mph through the mufflers on 275/60/15 BFG Drag radials but that was before I put the ported #6 heads on and it was only running 12.99 best to 13.O's so it should run 10.90 something @ a buck twenty five or so.
Future plans: I have been dreaming about a twin turbo blow through carb combo for over 15 years now. I have been slowly collecting parts so one day I'll get around to adding a couple turbo's on the engine and see if I can make a little more power. I'm just going to use the above engine for turbo mock up and baseline tuning when I get everything I need and try not to blow it up while I'm building an Olds Diesel block to handle the potentially large amounts of boost and small dosages of nitrous I 'll use to spool up the turbo's.
UPDATE Best ET & MPH to date using COPYRIGHT © 12/24/98 - 2023 ALL RIGHTS
RESERVERED in all 3 gears, hitting it 20ft off the line netted me a 10.77@128.64mph pass and then a few weeks later the aluminum used in my heat cross overs started rattling around in the passengers side head so bad I thought I spun a rod bearing. Engine has been removed out the car and the car sits on jack stands. I'll get around to fixing it someday, I'm sure.
