We recently bought a 79 trans am and it has a w34 toronado 455 in it, we plan on putting a ls1 motor in it and wanted to see ig there is any interest in these motors. It seems to be a powerfull engine but we arent in to oldsmobiles so we dont know a whole lot about them, thanks

 

What year W34? What signs pointed towards that?

 

I believe a 70, the guy we got it from had a tornado gt with the w34 package.he wrecked the car and pulled the motor and put it in the trans am, ill try to pull some numbers off the engine tommorow

 

There are no external numbers that will prove this is a W34. In fact, the primary difference from any other Toro motor is the camshaft. Of course, any 1970 Toro motor has big valve heads and 10.25 compression, so even a base motor isn't a bad thing.

 

Right, and value-wise they pretty much worth the same. If it was a GT, it was definitely a '70. If the distributor is original (which also can't be proven) the W34 will have a 442 distributor not the Toro one. Just an indicator.