Oldsmobiles always have their own little unique rumble.. i love it.

My school days buddy had a 70 Cutlass 350 4 speed. His dad was friends with A.J. Foyts crew chief. He built that engine in their shop and it was a high revver.

Great video, another home run. Who couldn't love an Olds Rocket 350 belting out 400 HP?? I could listen to it all day long. Thanks Nick and Vasily. Semper Fi!

damn strong 350 Olds there, I had 2 Cutlasses with 350 Rockets in them, most reliable cars I ever owned. a 70 ragtop, and 72 hardtop

Stays late to do an intake manifold swap just because he's curious. That's a man that loves what he does. :)

It’s that adapter, it’s choking the flow from the carb into the intake. In the 80’s that same adapter was available and it was known to be a dud. It was just so you could put an easier to tune Holley on your car since the Q-Jets were hard for most people to tune. But a well tuned Q-Jet will make more power than a Holley on a restrictive adapter.

This is an honest effort and super refreshing to see. I have a dyno (SF-902) in my shop and I have also built some Olds engines and was not surprised to see the Edelbrock manifold outperform the stock. This engine does not breathe deep enough @ 5600-5800 RPM to be worried about a little extra cross section with the stock iron manifold. Also I have never seen a spacer arrangement like you were using work either. It was very refreshing to see the truth on the internet for once! Good job and nice engine, oh and decent video production. Keep it up!

Nick inspires me in so many way and also makes me hate that I don't do what I love as he gets to do. He's BLESSED

Nick, Thank you for sharing the video. For so many years I've been watching you on KZfaq. It's amazing with the diversity of nostalgic automotive parts in some of the auto restoration you've done it keeps hope alive for some of us older enthusiast . Big Tony's family .....I know that guy..... thank God for you and your Automotive Crew. Doc Martin

I have a mildly built 350 in my 71 Chevelle, but once I get my finances back on track I am going to have Nick build me a 383. Pandemic hurt our body shop so we are hanging in there at the moment. I have been watching the channel for a long time and just love how passionate and skillful the man is. Keep up the great work guys.

Good video. This is why people like Bernard Mondello are worth the money. So many people say port matching intakes is silly and a waste of money. Bernard knows every atom of metal when it comes to Olds products and if you want a magical number he has the answer. Nick knew the correct answer and showed us why. I love his technique of teaching and explaining. 400 from a 350 is a damn good result on any 350. I would like to see Nick squeeze this motor to 425 hp without touching the cam. Some head porting and polishing and he would be there.

Nick, I am an old hot rodder originally from Brooklyn, NY. I now live in Florida. You bring back the memories that meant so much to me. Thank you, David T.

Best engine builder hands down guys dedicated to doing what people want even if it means staying late from michigan ..keep up the good work to all you guys!!

Those engines like the quadra jet carbs. Experimented with with a holley and quadra jet years ago on 350 olds cutlass. Only had a seat of the pants dyno but the quadra jet was the better for sure.

Impressive........I really hope Velocity can have a peak at this type of video and make something out of this , we need more shows like this............this is entertaining and educational...............THUMBS UP.

I had 3 79 trans am’s with the 6.6 olds 403 and they were beast I loved the but the ex wife made me sell them should have kept them and let her leave a few years early

Nick's Garage best channel to rebuild engines and make customer dreams come true. 👍

I enjoy watching Nick's videos, he is old school and does it well

Nick, I really enjoy your videos. I can tell your passion for making engines sing....and sing they do...

You can tell Nick loves what he does. You can see the passion he has for building and testing engines. Awesome human being Nick is in all things. Love watching a person with so much passion for work and life.

Had the Rocket 350 in a 73 Olds Cutlass. Good memories of that motor!

Damn, that's a stout engine for a 350 olds!

If your going to build a motor, this is the kinda guy you want working on it. Old school, and tons of experience. Experience is king...it can't be taught.

Great content! Thank you for taking the time to give us a look into your passion amd your shop. Very educational and even confidence inspiring. With a bit more research, I think its time I pulled the small block out of my '72 Ford and give the love it deserves. Thanks!

If you love what you do, you will never WORK a day in your life!

These videos are awesome, keep em' coming Nick!! Thank you for being passionate and "old school" so to speak, it is refreshing.

Great vid. Thank you Nick. Olds Rocket motors are monsters. A friend of mine had 400 rocket olds from a late 70's model trans am stuffed in a 69 cutlass convertible. He tweaked the stock quardrajet carb, new exhaust/headers, removed any smog equip, etc., gear for that year 3:08 maybe? and 2 speed power glide. We got clocked down a local drag/highway at 137 mph with the top down LOL. 1986. The state trooper who pulled us over back then said "what are you crazy"??!!! I think he gave us a break because he liked the car. If i had to guess car would have pulled mid 13's in the quarter. Peace from Boston.

I am in awe of Nick's commitment and dedication to his customers. This video also shows original parts can be retained and reused.

My old man had a Rocket 350 in a 68 Cuttlas with a little known optional package called a "Ram Rod" package. The car had a turbo 400 trans and 12 bolt posi rear with a low gear in it. It was very quick for a plain looking Olds. I saw that car beat big block Chevelles and Camaros. It was quick.

Edelbrock offered two performer olds intakes, the 3711 which I believe you have and the 7111 rpm version. The 7111 has a raised carb height of 2 inches. It is also rated to 6500 rpm instead of just 5500 as the 3711 is.

you out off control Mr. Nick if you can't do it no one can keep them going .. teaching that young man all your knowledge and tricks can't wait for my motors turn to get its turn (455) KEEP UP THE EXCELLENT WORK

That olds 350 sounds mean. Meaner than some much bigger engines I've heard run on their dyno.

My father had a '68 Olds Cutlass w/ one of those 350 Rocket engines he used to rave about. Sadly, that car got rear-ended and we pulled the engine/trans, before it went to the scrap yard and he installed that drive train into a '67 Chevelle to go drag racing. I recall thinking how cool it was to have a gold engine gleaming at you when you open the hood, like a piece of precious metal created by a mad alchemist - iron to gold. He sure won a bunch of class trophies w/ that Rocket.

The only way to do it! I enjoy your videos and your talents. I love the way you keep it old school! I'd be pleasured to hang with you and do some building! GOD bless you brother Nick! You are awesome!

God Bless the GREAT Nick ...... Talk about a work ethic. This incredible man is the REAL DEAL...!

...and this is how we Greeks...made every horse came out from a motor!!greetings from Athens Greece!I wish you were here so you can tune my olds 350 motor!

It's kind of interesting that after they swapped to the original manifold using the same carburetor that they had to go up the Jets because it was too lean. That would seem to indicate that it was in fact flowing more air. Otherwise it should have been rich. Kind of interesting great video as always

My favorite episodes are when you did this olds 350 love your work and passion Keep on doin great work hommie

Nick Your Dedication Is That of A Hero My Hero

I am proud of my Greek brother, Nick. We Greeks love to work hard....

I had a 350 rocket in a 4 door hard top. It was bone stock and had 2:73 rear gears so it wasn't a stoplight champion but it could bomb down the interstate a triple digit speeds with no effort.

MAN YOU GUYS, ARE HELLVA REAL CAR BUILDERS PLEASE KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK AN PAST THESE KNOWLEDGE ON,; NO I WISH I REALLY WOULD HAVE KEEP MY 74 Delta88 350 Rocket in stock form it blew past 120 mph with the 375 TH Transmission & 3.08 Gears.

Stuck one of these in a 77 Chevy short bed pick up for my son in the early 90s ( for all you Chevy guys, if you take a piece of 1 1/2 inch strap iron, bolt a Chevy motor mount to it so it straddles the middle of the 3 tapped holes in the olds block just above the oil pan, it will drop right in. Shorten the drive shaft 4 1/2 inch for the olds trans. Cheap 300 hp.

Put a 780 Double pumper spread bore Holley on it with the right jetting and will make more power than the setup with the adaptor plate. The restriction in the middle of the stock manifold is robbing it of horsepower, even with the adaptor. Some mild porting work will help a lot as well on the stock manifold. Even the Edelbrock manifold could use some porting work. We call it gasket matching on both the heads, and manifold, and it made a huge difference in both torque and HP. Great video and it shows the difference between stock, and aftermarket

350 rocket is a good motor man.

Man!! I really glad I found your channel Nick!!! Keep up to GREAT work!!!!

I was happy with mine at 310 HP. So cool he loves what hes doing like that. Nice to see the young guy also getting into it.

Motor sounds amazing Nick. Love the show!

A man with a passion for perfection. You don't often find people like him these days. /subscribed

This is a key example of why bigger is not always better. With a carburetated engine you always have fuel suspended with your air charge going into the runners and ultimately into the combustion chamber. You're goal is to always keep the fuel atomized as much as possible. If the velocity is too low the fuel falls out of suspension, which is kinda what I'm suspecting is happening here. The smaller port actually is making more power because the fuel is better atomized due to the velocity vs the pure volume.

Hi Nick ! I think your videos are great ! I always learn something new when I watch one.

I just recently inherited a 84 Chevy C10 4x4 that my Dad put a Rocket 350 in about 10 years ago. Im trying to determine what year it is and it only has a 2 barrel carb on it. I cant wait to see if I can do some mods and get it really running!!! Great video! Thank you!

The film work is outstanding. Just like watching discovery or the history channel. The engine there is nice, but amusing. The Olds 350 is one outstandingly reliable engine. It's amazing the struggle to get 400 gross rated hp out of those things. This is no knock on Nick, just pointing out the amazing difference in technology. Now days 400 gross hp is a cake walk, but none the less excellent work Nick. You built a nice motor that took pull after pull after pull and didn't care. The power is what it is. The engine took the work out and kept on trucking. Nice work.

I was working on engines back when I was 12 years old with my dad and still doing it today one of my favorite hobby's wish I had a dyno though

I also have the same engine in an 85 olds custom cruiser. enough torque for a big car and the sounds are great. greetings from Finland by the way😊

A pair of rpm heads is all it needed. Great video

I had a 74 olds omega with the gold v8..always had chock white tail pipes...great engine!!

My first car handed down from my parents with this motor...back when we were more free on Eastern Long Island these motors run up top!

In the early 80's I had a 350 SB in a 72 Nova. Raced on an airport runway that was not yet open to the public. There was a 66 Galaxie 390 4 sp, and a 68 Olds 442 with a 350 Rocket. My Nova had a 2 bbl carb, 3 sp, All my motor had special was the 461X heads. I won all the 1/4 mile races that day! It would almost pull the front wheels with bias ply tires in back!

Shaving down the intake plenum divider plate would likely give his 400hp, possibly more.

Great video. I have run a few Oldsmobiles many years ago both in streetcars and in jet boats... This was fun to see and I would be very interested to see what the stock intake manifold would do with the entire Center Milled out

Try port matching the aluminum intake to the heads!

Nick, you are down to earth and entertaining. Nice shop. Thanks for posting!

Every time I watch a video by this guy; I'm glad I subscribed!!!

Great videos Nick, keep them coming

I was doing engine development work on the 70 440 6pack in 69. I got a work order to install a new supplied aluminum intake. I installed and it became part of the improvements for the 1970 model year.

Wow the dedication i want to build my 1st engine this is my motivation 👍

When I was in high school I had a 64 Cutlass that had a 330 in it. Looked exactly like the 350. I rebuilt the engine and put in an Olds part number, "police pursuit" cam, It was otherwise stock, not even headers. I don't know how much horsepower it had but it would pull strong right through 6000rpm. I had lots of fun in that car, got a lot of tickets and a lot of, um, trim. ;-)

Just watching this again, ive always wondered how a good performance spreadbore bolted directly to intake would have worked vs the adapter...i have a tall transdapt 2" adapter for spreadbore carb to square intake for a modified Qjet to an old torker intake on my 355 sbc, works decent. i always wondered the dyno results of it over the shorter more abrupt transition 1" version. Itoo love messing with engines because well the obvious but its the excitement of choosing a combination of parts and seeing the end results then tweaking tuning and swapping to improve your results, thats why i love building custom exhaust because you never know what it will be like till you turn the key, every custom exhaust is unique. Anywho hope alls good.

Wow I love the old school tradition, back in the day when a guy would win a street race. It was because of his combination of head work, cam choice, gear ratio, and driving skill. In today's world its all about how much you are willing to spend. You could have a 1000 HP and it wouldn't be uncommon for someone to pull up next to you with 2000 HP. Hmm I wounder who has the faster car. You know what I mean. There was a time when point dwell made all the difference.

Now that's determination! Great effort on that old Rocket, well done Nick!👍

Most of the time back then the guys at the factory knew what they were doing from the start

his apprentice is a super smart guy, you can tell he is a natural at this and was born with way above average intelligence. with all that, the young man appears to not be full of himself at all. his lack of huge ego allows him to do the most important thing he needs to, remain quiet when Nick is talking shop. when Nick is talking motors, he stares him directly in the eyes and hangs on every word he says, smart kid. well done

Yes love your videos keep up the good work. I agree ive been building my own carbs for years and when built right the Q jet is hard to beat i use them on all of my builds right now i have 2 on my 10 second Cleveland.

This is really awesome stuff thanks for putting out this video

I had a 72 Cutlass Rocket 350, that was one sweet running motor

Agree with Nick, would love to see that cast iron put on the mill to remove all that excess under the carb, and see what happens.

Great video Nick! SO CLOSE to 400 HP! I built a few Olds engines; (2) 350's and (4) 455's. I was glad that you pointed out the really good design of the original 350 manifold. Olds 4 barrel intakes from '67 - '72 performed especially well. They really liked a 1" thick 4 hole spacer with a 800 Q-Jet; that may have got you to 400 hp (but that wouldn't go with your customer's car!). The only problem with those intakes was they were HEAVY! Especially the 455's. Just changing to an aluminum intake on my '69 442 raised the front end up when parked about 1 1/2 inches! Olds also made aluminum intake versions for the 350 (1970 W-31) and 455 (1970-72 W-30), but they are near impossible to find today; mostly all wasted on show cars! A bigger cam would probably have got you there. I used a Mondello JM22-25 on a 350, and though it sounded like it was really radical at start up, it actually mellowed out when the motor got good and warmed up, and made enough (11 - 12") vacuum to run the power brakes and A/C. The JM22-25 was a split profile cam; and Olds engines really liked them too, as the intake port flowed much better than the exhaust port. Conversely, the original W-31 cam, with .475 / .475 lift and 308 / 308 duration was very radical and really too wild for street use. Olds didn't even offer power brakes and A/C with the W-31. Let us know if you actually got it to 400 hp. I'm betting you did! Thanks again.

A job you love, you will never have to work a day in your life. Living the dream Nick and Vasili.

I would love to see you do a Dyno testing a Rochester Rochester quadrajet 750cfm vs a Holley 750cfm

So, here it is 2 1/2 years later. Did Nick ever get 400 horses from this engine?

1964 Olds Jetstar 350 cubic inch.Installed 4 bbl.quad,dual exhaust,planed heads and posi.Father knew best.85 mph in 1st(2 speed) auto.

This is simply one great channel !!! I watch every episode...thanks Nick!

Really nice work guys! Enjoyed the video. Those gold valve covers look so familiar haha. I had a 1972 Cutlass Supreme with a Rocket 350 and it only had 186HP from the factory. It got even worse in later years. Emissions standards wrecked these cars' potential so badly starting in 1971. 310HP was on the upper end of what these made. I think 325HP was the highest rating ever from the factory for this motor. It's an awesome engine though. A bulletproof legend with its roots from the 303 c.i. in 1949. To have Nick double the horsepower in mine would have been so dreamy. I have to admit the car would have been dangerous. I'd have needed some disc brakes (it was drums all the way around) and of course, bigger tires.

That Olds motor sounds sweet. My first car was an Olds 98 with a 425. Needless to say it never sounded like that.

Q-JET , CORRECT SPACER , GOOD CALIBRATION ,BINGO!

I believe that if you upgrade the Harmonic Balancer to something such as a Fluidampr, you would easily hit your goal. With that said it's pretty impressive what you are able to accomplish with what only little you have into this build. Great video, hope you hit your goal !!

"as long as i got the energy and my health i will do this forever" amen sir. ill die with a tool in my hand or behind the wheel of my olds or other hot rods.

This episode reminds me of the time nick needed a starter, and I thought he was gonna pull it out of one of the other Mopar's. but when he said he had one, he meant he had a brand new one back on the shelf, but this time....... bingo ! ! ! Takes the part off a different car you got a love this guy awesome ..... GURU‼️®™️

Put a higher ratio full roller rocker setup on it...BOOM! There is your 10+ HP. Great video.

He's Canada's Smokey Yunik! A screaming genius of an engine builder and a national treasure!

The factory intake normally does pretty well. I bet a little porting work would make it even better. And it's hard to beat the factory intake for low end torque!

Nick, I appreciate your passion and commitment. I saw someone marking the distributor location. As you know you don't have to pull the dist. when swapping intake or heads. Take care sir.

these olds 350 motors from 60s were really good motors you can pull alot of power out of them with the right work and parts

with the elderbrock intake taken off ,maybe tap and plug those holes at the bottom of the intake base .prevent exhaust gas from being put back into the intake charge .or try a air gap intake ,or a small electric vacuum pump ,for crank case depressurization.

Growing up in the 80s when young people were into late 60s-early 70s cars, I quickly learned these aftermarket companies were in business to sell parts. The results weren't always what they claimed, and were basically never what they claimed if you didn't build a full and well matched high performance setup. A few HP difference from the hi-po intake. Great if you're happy with a few HP, but that's about it.

Nick,great videos.I like the old school stuff.

1967 425 (F1) Super Rocket is the badestassed stock Olds motor. But the old 350 is a sturdy motor though, run them dry on water for 20 miles, let it cool, fill it up with antifreeze, and they're good to go.

That port being smaller on the Edelbrock intake is a anti reversion dam. That is why the fuel mix ran leaner with the factory intake. Less pulsing at the carb. I have many times setup a mismatch the same for this reason. The 9-10 horses can be had going with the RPM performer but the old regular Performer might just give a tad more average power.

I'm thinking that mismatch between the spread bore manifold and square bore carb was what held that thing back. Plenty of sharp edges to pull fuel out of atomization. A few minutes with a die grinder would have gone a long way