here is what I am working with (Olds 455):


(after disassembly, before machine work)


Block has been cleaned, bored .030 over (to 461 cubic inches) and honed
Crank turned .020/.010 (rod/main journals)
heads cleaned, magnafluxed, and pressure checked
intake and oil pan cleaned
factory rods reconditioned
ARP rod bolts installed

Parts (finally) on the way:

forged pistons
chromemoly rings
rod bearings
main bearings
cam bearings
all gaskets/seals/etc.
high volume oil pump
freeze plugs
Edelbrock Preformer-Plus Cam/Lifters (214/224 @ 0.50 472/496)
Edelbrock Performer RPM valve springs
Rollmaster CNC Machined Billet timing set


Already have all valvetrain parts (pushrods, rockers, etc) cleaned. Have all the paint ready, have the oil and filter ready. I am reusing my alternator, Holley carb, water pump, power steering pump, flex fan, and recurved HEI. All that stuff is way too fresh to justify replacing. I forgot to mention the camshaft will be degreed upon installation.

Still need to get the oil pump pickup, a couple hoses and some antifreeze.



[Edited on December 16, 2004 at 7:39 PM. Reason : edit]

12/16/2004 7:39:01 PM

doing any modifications to the heads? Just wondering

12/16/2004 7:43:38 PM

No, I am just doing a very thorough cleaning, lapping the valves and installing new valve seals- because either a set of aluminum Edelbrock heads (~$1000) OR a totally redone set of cast iron ones my buddy has (~$300) will be going on in the near future.

[Edited on December 16, 2004 at 7:52 PM. Reason : actually my girlfriend is going to assemble my heads while I supervise... ]

12/16/2004 7:50:57 PM

sweet man thats gonna be a beast of an engine

good luck with it

12/16/2004 8:07:19 PM

that shit is hot yo, keep us updated

12/16/2004 10:16:39 PM

you got your girlfriend to help you rebuild an engine? what else can you do? turn water into wine?

12/16/2004 10:42:44 PM

i used to know this girl that totally rebuilt the engine in her truck.. she was pretty cute too...

too bad she moved away..

12/16/2004 10:50:03 PM

she should be a torque monster when your're finished?

what model 455 heads/intake are you useing?
cause stock hp in some years was only 250

12/16/2004 11:09:00 PM

I dont understand what you mean, all Olds motors were known as torque monsters, even when stock. In '71 (the year my engine originally was) you could get 4 different versions of the 455, ranging from 2bbl single exhaust version with 280hp to a 4bbl dual exhaust version with 350hp (and around 500ft-lbs of torque). All that with stock heavy cast aluminum pistons and something like 8.5:1 compression. I dont have the exact numbers in front of me right now so I might be off a little.
The engine I am building has a much more modern cam profile with more lift than stock and around 9.6:1 compression forged pistons. I know a guy running this cam with stock manifolds and slightly ported heads whose 3700lb car is running mid-12's and gets 20mpg daily driven. He leaves the line and manages to get the left front wheel off the ground. He is making: "RWHP 326.4 at 5000 RWTQ 408.3 at 3300". I feel there is more left in this combination but I cant tune what I havent built yet. I would be pretty happy with those numbers in a daily driver though. An Olds engine isnt quite like a Chevy. LOL

12/17/2004 12:30:29 AM

Is that going in your coupe, or did you pick up that '71 442 at the drug auction?

12/17/2004 12:58:42 AM

its going in the coupe

12/17/2004 6:49:56 AM

looks nice, btw, I do have respect towards your experience.

12/17/2004 1:45:31 PM

ok I found the stuff I was looking for last night

my engine originally came as:
'71 455 2bbl
280HP@4200rpm
445ft/lbs@2000rpm
8.50 compression ratio

other '71 455 included a 320HP, a 340HP and 350HP W-30 version, all making 460ft/lbs under 4000rpm

the '70 versions had 10.5:1 compression and even the 2bbl version made 500ft/lbs

12/17/2004 11:39:39 PM

you know,

that'd make one asskicking coffee table

12/17/2004 11:46:56 PM

its a little heavy for a coffe table, I can turn a bare Olds big block vertical and lift it maybe 6-8 inches vertical myself but it putting it in a truck bed it at least a two man job.

12/19/2004 12:18:44 AM

^^^whatcha estimating your's will dyno at, when everythings said and done?

-ZiP!-

12/19/2004 12:27:37 AM

I really dont know. I do know one thing, its probably a good idea for me to pick up another spare transmission. I have some other issues with the car that will need attention once I get it back on the road again too, some interior things and taking care of the rust that has reappeared in the 3 years since it has been driven daily. I cant really dyno it till I get some tires anyway. Well, one tire.

12/19/2004 12:46:10 AM

hey optimus, who does your machine work? i've worked with car quest for some other things and they're ok, but I've never done motor work with them. I've got a '72 Buick 350 that might get a rebuild soon.

12/19/2004 5:12:58 PM

http://www.handcraftedracing.com/

12/19/2004 6:41:04 PM

you'll never get that piece of shit olds motor to run right.

12/19/2004 7:37:13 PM

it'll run right its not hard to make a carbed motor run right... just a good wiring job w/ no shorts and the right jets and she'll run like a dream.

Its a cool motor but reminds me of my 312 ford in the fact that hp isn't really there but when it comes to torque WATCH OUT.

ohh and it was the pontiac 455 that had only 250hp even the 4 barrel didn't have much. Is there a difference between the two motors? i'm not really olds/pontiac savvy i know ford dodge and chevy quite well though.

12/19/2004 8:10:52 PM

buick, olds, pontiac, chevrolet and cadillac were all different motors back in the day. the last real caddy , pontiac and buick v8 motors started dying out in the late 70's early 80's. olds always had the oil fill tube up front, buick had the distributor in the front and I forget the specifics of the pontiac and caddy engines (except the caddy blocks are about the same size as the big block olds) but I can tell them apart at a glance. dont we all know what big and small block chevys look like.

12/19/2004 9:20:37 PM

caddies still have fairly unique engines... the HT4200, 4700, and I think 4900, then the Northstar

[Edited on December 19, 2004 at 9:53 PM. Reason : they did use variants of the 350 in the late 70s and early 80s i think though]

12/19/2004 9:49:52 PM

so the 2 455s are completely different... what a waste of money cause its not like one was a short stroke big bore and the other was the opposite they're both seem fairily "truckish" (low rev torque monster)

12/19/2004 10:31:59 PM

yeah truckish, thats it. exactly.

ok, got the kit in today, got the oil pump pickup screen the other night, waiting on the rollmaster, the cam/lifters and valvesprings now.

12/21/2004 9:19:16 PM

Billet rollmaster timing set just got here, and damn its bueatiful! I didnt know FedEx delivered at 11PM but I am not complaining.

12/21/2004 11:41:51 PM

^ they are making every fedex worker work this week I believe. Some odd 50,000 people. Btw, where do you work? just wonderin.

12/22/2004 12:46:02 AM

Quote :

"the last real caddy , pontiac and buick v8 motors started dying out in the late 70's early 80's."

I think the Olds 307 was available up until 1990 or so. Mom's '86 Pontiac had it, and it was in an '88 Cutlass Supreme Classic and a '90 Custom Cruiser that I was interested in once upon a time. But perhaps I'm being nitpicky...

12/22/2004 3:31:23 PM

and perhaps I said

Quote :

"the last real caddy , pontiac and buick v8 motors"

12/22/2004 7:45:32 PM

heh olds the bastard child

12/22/2004 8:08:31 PM

^ ? He is right about the Olds V8 being produced until 1990- within GM only the modern Caddy and Chevy lines still offered V8's at the time

Oldsmobile Firsts
first assembly line (1901)
first to offer automatic transmissions (1940)
first to produce a modern FWD car (1966)
first to offer drivers side airbag (1974)
Cutlass Supreme was best selling domestic car of 1976
first factory on board entertainment system (1999)

bastard child indeed

12/22/2004 8:23:56 PM

i mean if any car guy rattles off their favorite car brand out of 100 their are probably 2 guys who would say oldsmobile and they probably own/ed a 442 or similarly packaged cutlass or a tornado.


i'm not saying they were bad cars although currently i would say they are but thats just me.

[Edited on December 22, 2004 at 8:33 PM. Reason : .]

12/22/2004 8:31:40 PM

bastard child would be a term better used to describe a car that came about by the cooperation of two previously unrelated automakers, like Toyota + Chevy = Geo Prism or Isuzu + Chevy = Hombre or Mazda + Ford = B series pickups...

12/22/2004 8:39:20 PM

but they all have fathers ?

12/22/2004 8:58:06 PM

But the definition of bastard is not that it has no father (tell me how that's possible...) but that it is born out of wedlock. I don't think Ford and Mazda count b/c Ford owns a giant slice of Mazda, but the others seem to work...

12/22/2004 9:27:12 PM

chevy owns izu

the chev-ota is probably the best and they've been doing that for years

12/22/2004 9:30:13 PM

^Have they always? Seems really curious to me that a GM owned company let Honda sell a badge-engineered version of one of its models (Rodeo/Passport).

12/22/2004 10:02:24 PM

I love my Olds too optimus, I guess we're in the minoritiy!

12/22/2004 10:37:44 PM

no they have not always but i think it was izu who made the passport and honda only made the motor. honda still doesn't know how to build a truck framed anything

12/22/2004 10:45:55 PM

Why didnt you take your motor to Boyettes in down town raleigh? Just wondering?

12/24/2004 11:07:07 AM

^^wrong, rodeo/passport is all isuzu. the isuzu oasis is all honda odyssey. the acura slx is all isuzu trooper. the isuzu ascender is all trailblazer/envoy. the hombre was all s series truck. then you had some really bastard vehicles, like the early gm 2.8 troopers and 3.1 rodeos. all of the big 3 have had similar relationships, and own a large chunk of a jap company. ford has mazda, chrysler has mitsubishi, and gm had isuzu. isuzu has recently bought themselves back from gm though, and will be regrouping in the next couple of years and putting out a whole new line of vehicles.

12/24/2004 2:32:09 PM

Maybe because I dont know the guys at boyettes.

12/24/2004 5:35:40 PM

got the cam this afternoon, dropped the pistons off at the machine shop today so he could finish up the block honing and install them on the rods...

also picked up the heads so they can get put together.

I gotta pick up a ford 460 rear main seal and special order me some intake gaskets oh and gaskets for my carb spacer. might as well grab a new thermostat and some hoses, and maybe a new HP aluminum water pump and hell, I might even spring the $15 for a new furl pump too.

12/28/2004 6:21:57 PM

this is gonna be so gangster

i cant wait

1/1/2005 1:24:01 AM

only if it's goin in this bitch


[Edited on January 1, 2005 at 9:35 PM. Reason : :]

1/1/2005 9:35:09 PM

it actually came out once upon a time. you can almost make out the layer of burnt rubber plastered on the quarterpanel behind the rear wheel.

this motor is headed back into the cutlass.

1/1/2005 10:45:42 PM

hit a couple delays, but engine is ready to be picked up from machine shop

...

1/12/2005 8:55:46 PM

You might want to think about replacing the oil pan with a toronado oil pan, since that engine is known for sucking up all the oil after extended periods of high revs.

The Toronado oil pan is 5 quarts versus 4 for all other 455's, I think. Also Mondello sells a 7 quart one.

1/12/2005 9:06:47 PM

The toro oil pan is also for a FWD application. Which my car is not. Using the toro pan was a old school trick that has proven to not really be worth the trouble. You have an olds?

1/12/2005 9:13:18 PM

Ooooh. Those are Sealed Power pistons with the coated skirts.

Shit makes my dick hard. Especially in an Olds.

1/12/2005 9:20:15 PM