1990 Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser

71k miles, loaded and looks great. Seller is a collector who has a comparable white 1990 Custom Cruiser also currently on eBay. Looks to be no reserve.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1990...3441922?pt=US_Cars_Trucks&hash=item2ec3cc4d82

 

What a beauty! There are only 2 things I would change from stock on this one. That gutless 307 and the front seatbelts, which I would change to the 89 type mounted to the B-pillar. other than that, this is one sweet car!

 

OK, Mike. Won't be able to touch it for quite a while, but what would you think would be the easiest way for me to get decent power and torque in my Safari, replacing the 307?

 

KK, drive it first....it it ain't broken, why fix it? Unless your after a zillion HP I really don't think your going to have power problems. My 87 Buick 307 is on propane, yet I can still keep speed eazy traveling up our Mallahat Hyw, and it's all up hill. The steapest part for a few miles is a 20% grade and I can still keep the tank (me,wife,the dogs, and some stuff) at 100kph (60+MPH) and still have room in the peddle. IMO, if anything you should first beef up on the suspention, thats where these big GM wagons have week knee's. On windy moutain roads I find it's the suspention that slows you down, not the 307...........and then brakes, for when your coming home flying down the 20% grade towards a 75 degree corner!

 

KK: Live with the 307 first and see what you think. I had one in my 84 Delta 88, and it was not very quick, especially when loaded. it wasn't particularly good on fuel, either, seeing as the 84 was replaced by a 78 Buick Electra with the Buick 350, Tubo 400 3 speed, and the fuel consumption was the same! I think and Edelbrock intake and Q-Jet spread bore carb would be a help, that's for sure. If you ever decide to change the engine, I'd be tempted to go with a Pontiac 350. Nice strong engine, and connected up to a good overdrive should be able to get better mileage than the 307. That Olds engine is just not as efficient on fuel as it could be.

As Tedy suggests, I would do some serious upgrading of the suspension. Start with the heavier front anti-sway bar from the Handling Package, and add a good bar to the rear too. If you need to do much in the way of upgrades to the front end, check out the poly-graphite rebuild kit from Performance Suspension Technologies. If you get the complete kit, you get a healthy discount on heavy duty front and rear anti-sway bar kits, including the bushings. Keep in mind, too, the centre links on these G.M.s seem to be a weak point. The other big thing for handling in these big old cars is the tires. There don't seem to be any really, really good 225/70R15 tires left out there. My next tires are going to be Pirelli P-6, size 225/60R16 on some sort of nice 16 inch rims. There are 2 different lines of P-6. One is a touring tire, the other is a high performance. I'm going with the high performance line, and I run them at the max pressure for the tire. Always seems to work well for me.

 

KK - I agree with the others...live with the 307 for a while. My 4000+ lb Cadillac has the 307 and it isn't amazingly fast, but it holds its own in day-to-day traffic. I can merge onto the freeways and go up 5% grades well. I've been told on the Cadillac owners forums that the 307 is pretty reliable, as well, when properly maintained.

I have a lot of spark knock with mine. I've heard this is a common issue with the 307. I've had the timing adjusted to try to compensate...big mistake. Spark knock went away...along with all power. I've only found that running Premium Unleaded is the only way to go. Costs me about $3.50 more per fuel fill, but it seems to work. Use your Fred Meyer fuel station and get your $.10/gallon discount...it offsets the extra cost by 50% (over Regular Unleaded).

You can get a lot of useful info about the 307 from the Cadillac owners forum.

http://www.cadillacforums.com/forums/rwd-19xx-1984-deville-fleetwood-1985/

Hope this helps.

 

This Olds is looking like a potential bargain. Bid to only $3350 with just under 20 hours left in the auction.

 

Sold! $4049.99. I would call that a heck of a deal!