[buddiiee]

Thanks alot guys, good info here, keep it coming. And I was typing too fast, and not paying attention. What I meant to say was, I'm going to try and bulletproof his bottom end, by using quality rods, studding in the rod caps with arp studs (if it's possible) and studding in new main caps for the crankshaft. My mistake. I can sometimes type too fast for my brain. (the ptsd kickin in again.)
About the advertised power ratings.. I know some are way off. Some down for insurance and factory regulations, some up for sales. It's just thru your personal experience that you find out which was which, over the years. For example, our buicks were 10 off from the factory on both hp and tq, and about 3 tenths quicker in the quarter than advertised. I know it's not much, but it's padded nonetheless. The two fastest chevy 427's were also off. And by quite a bit as well. At any rate, I'm here for the 455 info. Thus far, I am only his acquiantence, and I have no clue what he did to the engine. I was just asked to help out, and that's what I aim on doing. When he gets his money straight, we're pulling the engine, stripping it down, and taking it to the machine shop for a diagnosis. We'll go from there. It was my guess that he knew just enough to be dangerous, and assembled some parts, without doing thorough enough research. It has been assembled for a good handful of years, and it never ran right. Ever. I'm just basically here, doin the legwork for him, trying to collect a list of parts that I can draw from, and parts to stay away from, for the next rebuild.