I finally got myself a 455. I originally saw an add for a 455 crankshaft for $100 bucks. I asked him about it and he said it has not been ground and is in great condition. He also told me he wants this stuff gone and he has the rest of the engine he will sell me for another $100 bucks. He then tells me that it has been sitting outside for about a year and some water has got into it, and he thinks one head is cracked. I kinda doubted the block was even useable. I go up their today to at least buy the crank and to look at the block. The crank is exactly as he described it with no grooves or scratches. The cylinders in the block were a little rusty, but not very bad. The head was definetely cracked and that same piston looked like it had had some pretty decent damage from the coolant going into the hot cylinder and the top ring land on the piston was broken off. The cylinder really did not have much damage. The bad thing is that it was a low compression motor with J heads, but at least the one head was junk(makes good scrap metal). It also comes with all of the accesories, brackets, carb, manifolds, etc.

So, do you all think I got a good deal???

 

Sounds like a good deal to me.

Does the engine spin freely? If so, new heads on eBay and fire it up

 

It was already completely disassembled. He knew someone who wanted the crank so he took the engine apart, but the guy backed out of the deal.

 

Any 455 is a good deal, congrats.

 

Its a good deal, now you can start building. The low compression pistions are not a problem as you will most likley have to bore the cylinders anyway and can install higher compression pistons when you do your build. You can pick up G or GA heads at a fair cost throught the members here depending on where you live. I have a set of good GA heads and I am located in Bothell, WA. Good luck on your build

 

Excellent! When you rebuild the engine consider putting the TRW 2323F pistons in it. Especially if you are doing a mild rebuild. They are forged pistons that are reasonably priced.

 

If you do use the "TRW/SpeedPro" pistons make sure you have .005 piston to cyl wall clearence. If you use "KB" hyper pistons use .0035 clearence. With "KB" pistons make sure you gap the rings according to the instructions. The "TRW/Speedpro pistons are heavy, "KB'S" are lighter

Gene

 

Cool, another one saved from the scrapper! Good luck on the build