oldsmobile 350
 

looking at a malibu on ebay that has an olds 350 engine in it, does the engine have any value to it ? any olds guys out there?

Bonesmobile
 

The engine can be valuable to an Oldsmobile restorer if it is a vintage year. That is a relative term, I know, but if the engine has #5 or #6 heads it is likely early 70's. The heads are one way to date the engine, color is the other if again, if is original, Bronze is a good indicator. One caution is that every olds small block can have any olds cylinder head bolted to it if someone changed them for what ever reason. If it runs well and you don't care to use it, then 700 bucks might be a reasonable sale price if you don't want that awesome Olds torque :lol:
If you give me more info regarding color of the block and the large # off the head near the the ends facing up, that is where the #'s are. They will be like 7A or 6 and so on. The lower the # the older the head generally.
I know that you are on E bay looking at an ad, but if you saw the casting # on the heads between the center head bolts below the valve cover the best #'s are 147 or 742 made between 68 - 70 and the best stock W31 pieces are # 405585.
Bruce

thanks for the great info, IM going to e-mail the seller and see if i can get some # off of it. but even if he doesn't get back to me at least I know what Im looking at. thanks , mike

If I remember corectly. Sometime in the mid to late '70s olds produce a "Windowed main" block. It was made with less material and you can't put alot of horses to it. The name Mondello has been synonmous with olds performance for years. You could ask them. http://www.mondellotwister.com/

and one more thing
 

The blocks that Dennis is speaking of have the cubic inch stamped right on the side of the block. Nearly all Olds 403's and all 307's have windowed mains and have there CI stamped on the sides of the block. That is the give away on the window blocks. The window blocks are not preferred over the solid mains for all out racing, but both are fine for general performance use in daily drivers and drive to the track race cars.
Bruce

I had a windowed block once...but it was a 400 small block chevy and I put the window in it myself....right in the side.

IN HIS LISTING HE SAYS HIS BUILDER SAID IT IS A HIGH NICKLE COUNT BLOCK,i DONT KNOW HOW HE WOULD KNOW THIS, i WOULD ASSUME THAT IF IT IS A STOCK BLOCK IT WOULD BE THE SAME AS ANY OTHER STOCK GM BLOCK OF THAT VINTAGE. HE SAID THE ENGINE CAME OUT OF 70 OR 71 442

I don't know anything about Olds engines, but SBC block numbers and casting codes can tell you if it has a high nickel block.
An 010 or 020 cast number under the timing cover with tell you it has high nickel content. Also the last three digits 010 at the end of a rear block number tells you the same.
Get the block casting numbers and Google it up to see if any other racers out there have the block code number references for you to check... that is if he doesn't lie to you and give the numbers he wants you to believe they are...?

THANKS FOR ALL THE GREAT HELP GUYS :D