Hey guys, I'm ramping up to build my olds 455 this spring. I've been looking online for information and I thought I should check here and see what the community recommends. My application is an 85 lesabre, originally born with an olds 307. I have a 1976 block and a set of "C" heads that are bare. This car will be a weekend driver and will occasionally pull a pop-up camper. I'm trying to get this motor around the 400hp 500lbs of torque range. As I look online I can see this project snowballing out of control easily money wise and I just want to make sure I'm not subscribing to gimmicks or wasting money on items that won't matter in my application.
I've used the comp cams cam selector to find what I think would be a good cam set-up the 275-DEH? Of course I'm not taking this as law at this point. My big questions do I need to use items such as a windage tray, oil restrictors, larger rear gallery plugs and larger a larger oil pan. While I think a larger oil pan wouldn't hurt, I'm wondering if that other items would be a good idea, or would actually cause more harm than good? I've also been reading a lot of negative things about Mondello products, but is Dick Miller racing a option for some of these specially parts? THe majority of my build will likely be purchased from summit racing. Anyway, any advice from the experienced builders on this site would be appreciated.

 

So basically a stock 1970 Toro W-34 motor. Shouldn't be that hard and it certainly doesn't require anything exotic.

 

Don't over think it...you'll just end up hurting your brain.
A clean up on the heads with hardened valve seats (make sure they use Olds specific seats, NOT Chevy seats or there WILL be problems), use L2323F pistons and a good cam with around .500 lift and around 230° at .050 should get you where you want to be.
You don't need to go exotic on the valve train so long as to keep the lift at about .500 lift or under.
Unless you are going for max power a windage tray really isn't needed. And I think that oil restirictors are over rated. You are doing a street build in a cruiser. A basic build with quality machine work will make you happy and the engine will live for a long time.
My $.02

 

IMO your money should be spent with a good machine shop that knows Olds engines, clearances are critical if you want the motor to "go the distance". Since you have power brakes, pick a cam for good vacuum, I run the Comp XE274, and vacuum is on the low side for PB's. I'm a fan of oil control, so I modified the cam bearings with a larger hole(.040) instead of restrictors, also opened up the oil returns in the heads, and blue printed the oil pump.
Good luck with your build!

 

Thanks for the help guys, it was beginning to hurt my brain. My heads don't have valves at the moment, does anyone have any recommendations? I was thinking of some stainless Milodon valves from Summit?

 

That's fine. You're going to do a valve job anyway with the new valves so you might as well get the 2.07 intakes.

 

Hi, I like the idea of where you want to go with this project.

Have you been in contact with a machinist or shop that can do this work for you? It sounds like your'e up for some of the work but having his opinion would weigh greatly on the end product. He might be able to source many parts too, maybe saving you some money. Or maybe not.

I'm all for building a similar to stock engine with just a few upgrades. Nothing crazy, you really don't need race parts to get what you want.

 

Hi, I've gotten a few leads on some good shops in my state that know Olds motors. I am up doing some of the work, but I'm not against weighing the options either. If I can get the machine work and assembly done on my block from an expert for a little more money, it would be a no brainer.

My plan right now it to bring the heads into one of the shops I've been researching and having those done. If everything looks good with those, I can look at the blockwork and maybe have them do the whole longblock.

It's nice to be able to chat with everyone on this forum and get ideas.