Leaderboard

I'm back and ready to restore my Z-34, again! I'm looking for advice on the following: 1. Where to find hard to find parts. 2. Interior restoration. The Florida sun has destroyed mine again. 3. Repair suggestions. 4. etc. If anyone has any suggestions on where I can start, please let me know. Lumatic

I don't see any of them around the Memphis area either, except in my driveway lol. All '97 coupes had the lip spoiler and taillights, regardless of trim level.

It amazes me how seldom I see a W-body Cutlass Supreme on the road anymore. I get it, we're talking about cars that are 23-31 years old but still, I see plenty of Regals and Grand Prix's and even a fair number of Luminas and mid-late '90s Monte Carlos, but almost never a Cutlass, despite living in a city that had one of the top three Oldsmobile dealers in North Carolina. I'd had my '95 CS convertible for more than a year before I glimpsed another one crossing an intersection in front of me about a month ago but the day before yesterday, I pulled into a Walgreen's parking lot (in my Impala) and parked next to a very well maintained CS coupe, white with a tan interior. It was a later model ('95-'97) with the redesigned interior but a base trim level with cloth bucket seats manual climate controls and no steering wheel controls for the radio or A/C. One curious feature that it had was the rear lip on the taillights and trunk lid, usually associated with the 3.4L DOHC engine option but with a single exhaust, indicating it had the 3100 engine. The backup light bezel was also black instead of body color and it lacked the "DOHC" badging on the font fenders. My guess it was a '97 model and they were using up some leftover parts as they were winding down production, which Oldsmobile often did in that era. I would have liked to talk with the owner but it was cold and rainy so I just admired it for a moment and went on my way.

Had me worried.. In your OP you said clattering, im thinking Flex Plate, or rod... But thats just lifter noise. As stated, you could continue driving as is, or get it fixed. The engine will last longer, and perform better if repaired.

That sounds like a bad lifter to me. Change the oil. Put in a good multi-grade synthetic. My go-to oil is Mobil-1 synthetic. Fwiw, my Quad 4 engines always had load lifter sounds. Iirc, they are both near/past 200K miles. A bad, fast leak down, lifter isn't the end of the world. That noise is the valve *slamming* against the valve seat. Depending on the length of time, and the miles, you'll put on the car, you "could" ignore the bad lifter. If you have experience working on cars/engines, _in general_, replacing lifters isn't "horrible". I do not know the specifics of that engine, nor the common "PITA" things that can break/be-a-pain when replacing the lifters. Imho, don't replace the lifters yourself, if you need the car "right away". You may have to order gaskets, sensors, etc. Fwiw, on my '77 Olds 350, I put in a "3/4ths" race cam (hey, that's what it was called). I was young and foolish. It was WAY too much cam for the engine. I put on Rhoads lifters to "tame" the cam enough to get "okay" vacuum and performance with city driving (that I did ~95% with that car). Rhoads lifters are "fast leak down" lifters (like a bad lifter :)). However, the purpose is to lessen the valve lift and duration at low rpms (like idle). But, at higher rpms, the lifter doesn't have a chance to leak down, do the full effect of the cam is used. It's a mechanical way of having variable lift and variable duration for the cam. I had stainless steel valve, and custom valve spring forces(higher) for the cam. I ran Rhoads lifters for well over a dozen years in my Olds 350. I put well over 100K miles on the engine with those lifters. The heads and valves were fine. But, again, mine were not stock valves or valve seats. However, most people back then used the stock heads. For a head/valves in good shape, imho, lasting 50K+ miles, using Rhoads lifters, wasn't even a concern. The video below gives a good idea of what Rhoads lifters sound like. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0s_nwahCBU 1970 El Camino 383 Stroker with Rhodes lifters Dick Fitzwell Good Luck!