My brother recently bought a 65 442 that has a 455 installed. I know it's a 455 by the casting number. It has B heads and it's painted gold. Are B heads correct; and were 455's ever gold? By the way, what happened to 442.com?


Thanks,
Wilson

 

65 442 never came with a 455, it had a 400 with B heads. As far as color, the 400 was bronze. You might be interested in this site 442bro dot com

Was there ever a gold 455? Most that I've ever seen were either blue or red from the factory - depending on year. IIRC gold was reserved for the SBO engines up till 1973.

 

Allan, I think you've got that backwards. The 1965 400 was a B block and it had A heads on it.

Wilson, it sounds like you've got a franken motor but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. You said you knew it was a 455 from the number. Sorry, I don't have the numbers memorized but if its a 455 block then it will have a large F or large F with a small cap. A to the lower right of it. The B heads were used in 1966 on a 400 with a E block, or 425 with a D block.

Don't pay attention to the paint, it could have been painted any color over the years. The 400 engines of that vintage were bronze, the 425's on Toro's were a strange shade of green. I think, but could be wrong that 1966 425's could be red on the full sized cars other than Toro's.

Anything you could find on 442.com can be found here or on wildaboutcars. com. Let us know if you have any more questions that come up. Oh yeah, we enjoy seeing pictures of other people's cars. Please post one of your brothers car when you have time.

John

 

John - yes, you're right. My bad - the 400 block was 389298B

A 455 will be 396021F

 

The block is the 396021 F. So does that mean he has B heads from a 400 on his 455?


Thanks, Wilson

 

To clarify, "B" heads were used on all 400 and 425 motors in the 1966 model year (and only in the 1966 model year), so they could have come from any one of those motors. This is obviously a 455 short block with earlier heads added to it. Many people see the bronze used on the 400 motors and think it's gold. Either whoever built the motor thought gold was the correct color for a 1965 400, or it really is bronze. Either way, the paint color is irrelevant since it was obviously applied by whoever built the motor, not the factory, and the gold is more readily available than the bronze, thus more likely to be used after a rebuild.

If you care, the 455 block will have a VIN derivative stamp that will tell you the model year of the block. The second digit of the VIN derivative is the model year, which would be 1969 in the example in this photo.

 

When they came from the factory there was a code stamped into the end of one head. This told what the application was. The V code is for 442 and those heads are in demand to people trying to do a numbers matching restoration. Those and the Toronado heads had the larger intake valves. Otherwise it doesn't really matter what they came off of, if its a good running engine just run them! Here's some examples of the codes.

P4090076.jpg

PC221862_zpscf45a207.jpg

P5210826.jpg

 

Of course, that number won't "match" anything, unless one has the P-O-P from the car they came from...

 

Thanks guys, that helps. Wilson

 

Your right Joe, numbers match isn't the correct wording. But period correct with the right letter code is what people may be looking for. John