Anyone deal with olds 307s?

[usetaboost]

Found an 87 Regal with the 307. DOn't know if its got the overdrive tranny though. The guys says it needs a head gasket. I never got around to popping the hood. THe car needs a few patches on the quarters, lower patch on the passenger door, and a header panel. Interior is ok. He said I can have the car for 300 or take the shelled out car with it that has nice quarters for 450. SHould I look into this more or pass?

 

[corymc]

what do you want the car for? to drive or to part out? i had a Cutlass with the 307 in it it would be a alot less work to change a head gasket in that than a tr. Its not a 90 degree block its like a 110 degree and there is more space and less stuff to take off to change the h.g.

 

[usetaboost]

DO a cheap fix up for a driver. Half as the body work with metal patches and bondo and paint it, yeah just for a beater. Where I live they throw salt in the winter so there wouldn't be too much sense in getting serious with body work beings the car wouldn't be worth much anyway, mechanically would be another story. Just want to try getting it all done under 1k. What do they typically get for gas mileage?

 

[whtT]

What do they typically get for gas mileage?

With the old rear gears in the 2.2x to 2.5x range, I think I was getting 15-16mpg with a badly tuned carb. After the rear gear swap to 3.73, I think it dropped to somewhere near 12mpg. I have the OD trans too.

 

[turbofish38]

What do they typically get for gas mileage?

Its kind of like comparing apples to oranges but I had a 85 Riviera with the 307 and 2.73 gears and I could pull down 22MPG on the highway and average 18MPG in the city. It wasn't a hotrod so I drove it like an old man until the body rusted out. It had almost 225K miles on it before I stuffed in a 35K mile motor I found in the boneyard. Nothing wrong with the original motor but it had hydraulic roller lifters and it always had a tick that wouldn't go away. I used to sell a lot of harmonic balancers for the 307 when they were popular. Somebody was trying to tell me the tick was from the balancer and not the lifters. Now I have another 307 Riviera with about 110K miles on it and some moron had his fingers in the carb and got it all screwed up and on a good day it will get double digits but its very rare to see 10MPG with the F'd up carb. I never had one apart so I dont know how easy they are to work on.

 

[corymc]

i remember i wasnt doing too hot for gas milage like 13-16 but i had a crappy carb on it too

 

[usetaboost]

What's your guys opinions on the headgasket deal? I've heard of these motors doing this but never saw one go back together, they always threw in a sbc. I know these motors aren't known for power I'm just more concerned about the reliability issue. I have a very reliable car now, I would just like to have a daily driver gbody again.

 

[GNTIM]

What's your guys opinions on the headgasket deal? I've heard of these motors doing this but never saw one go back together, they always threw in a sbc. I know these motors aren't known for power I'm just more concerned about the reliability issue. I have a very reliable car now, I would just like to have a daily driver gbody again.

I used to work on alot of those motors and they seemed O/K as long as they were maintained. Don't remember doing any head gaskets but a lot of intake gaskets. They leak at the corners of the intake where the coolant passages go through. Mostly the front. Maybe thats why they think the head gaskets are blown? They are pretty much powerless though, like the Chevy 305.

 

[SilverSleeper]

Mine had a 307/200c/2.14 setup before I converted over.
Probably pulled down 16mpg, maybe 18 sometimes.
Got 125k mostly reliable miles out of mine before it kicked the bucket.
It was a good driver. For a daily, if you can live with the mileage, go for it.

 

[turbofish38]

I used to work on alot of those motors and they seemed O/K as long as they were maintained. Don't remember doing any head gaskets but a lot of intake gaskets. They leak at the corners of the intake where the coolant passages go through. Mostly the front. Maybe thats why they think the head gaskets are blown? They are pretty much powerless though, like the Chevy 305.

Good point. The intakes are aluminum and have a nasty habit of corriding so much that they start to leak. I can remember selling a few intakes and I see a few 307s in the boneyard missing them.

 

[usetaboost]

Yeah I was kind of thinking it was the intake. My tpi camaro did the same thing at the corner. With all the grease there it made it look like an external leak from the head. I wanted to go look at both the cars again this weekend but might have to wait. It's only gonna be like 15 degrees out this weekend, then snow, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! My grand am with the 2.5 gets 20 in town 27 on the highway if I'm driving lawfully. Usually if I'm driving something that has no power I wont bother on beating on it, so the car will probably get driven like my mom's driving it! My 79 sport coupe got 15 on the highway at best, that sucked.