While not technically a 455 swap, I did replace the diesel 350 with a 455 Olds in my dads 81 GMC. Stock 71 455, TH350C trans, 3.08 gears, runs and drives excellent. Easy 17mpg highway, it has that great “big cubic inch, lotsa torque” feel, and it had zero trouble pulling my car to all the Olds races.


I have a 4L60 to swap into it someday. I think with some 3.73 gears and the overdrive it would be really fun to drive.

 

The LS swap is a hard argument to win. I get it. I have mentioned my LS friends here many times, we all started out with old school carbureted engines.

About 25 years ago when we all started getting serious with our cars, I had the quickest car in the group. We all started out in the low 13s, got the cars into the 12s, then into the 11s which is where I’m still running. Then the guys in the group made the LS swap and almost immediately skipped right over the 10s and deep into the 9s. Since I refuse to put a cage in my car, I’ll forever be in the 11s.

The short block in my car is 18 years old. I have done 2 Drag Weeks with the car (winning quickest Olds in 2016) parts of 4 Power Tours, I have driven it all over the Midwest, who knows how many street miles and full drag strip passes, and is still going. To be honest, if it spit out a rod today, I couldn’t be too upset.

On the other hand, my LS buddies have pulled junkyard engines, put a turbo on them, and made 1000 reliable hp. I can’t blame them, for what a good set of pistons cost for a 455, they can buy a junkyard “race” engine. And if it blows up? Who cares, go get another junkyard engine and go racing. As a matter of fact, one of my friend did that 3 times on drag week a couple years ago. If my engine suffered major problems on drag week, I was done. What are the odds of me finding a 455 anywhere affordable??

I have had pretty good luck with the 455. I’m convinced the key to keeping them together is a good machinist, and not trying to out engineeer the Olds engineers. They knew what they were doing. Unless they are heavily modified, they won’t make
power at high rpm, so why spin one that fast?

 

I'm disliking the wheels and doors more than the engine swap... Yuck!

 

The Lambo doors and the gosh awful wheels. No complaints on the LS motor because it is in its right to produce better performance, more gas economy, without spending lots of cash.

 

X3...wheels and doors.

 

same here.

 

Not a fan of Lambo doors and those wheels, but I could fix that in few hours of work.

To me this is ruined, cause it's not something that can be reversed easily.

 

James Garner built one...

 

No different than a donk. What i'm trying to say different strokes for different folks. Some will say that's cool cause it's 4x4, some will say that a car on 22's is cool. I could care less about what others do to their cars, as long as they are not letting them rot away. You wanna put lambo doors, big wheels, 4x4 frame whatever, your car your money. I also could care less what people think of any of my cars, cause I build them for my enjoyment.

I don't see the point of these threads where somebody's car gets posted and people bash it cause it's not to their liking.

 

LOL Ilike the 70 from NY too (i got a problem i know)

Pretty sure thats just sitting on a blazer (or other frame)...days work to put it on a A body from and drive (maybe tak eoff the visor and wing too)

 

I love that. It just needs a proper long travel 4 link suspension.

 

 

* because Florida

 

I personally like this. As long as it has some dirt a d mud plastered everywhere (a clean indication it was built with a purpose in mind, and fulfills that purpose!!) I think it’s great. I would hope the builder used a beat up rusted car to build the hybrid 4x4, no need to destroy decent sheet metal. You don’t build a d use something like that and not expect it to suffer some body damage.

I’ll never understand the hydraulics, the huge wheels, low rider, or some of the other modifications people do to their cars. The huge rims ride like crap, the low rider stuff looks like crap (and rides like crap) what purpose does the hydraulics serve?

I get it, to each their own. Build it the way you like.

 

It's not a "different strokes for different folks" thing. That phrase always struck me as an overly tolerant platitude. This is a website for classic oldsmobiles. The people here are interested in stock restorations and mild mods. There is a racing section. While people can do their own thing, it is silly to expect widespread acceptance and enthusiasm for something other than what we are here for.

I bash people's cars that stick corporate GM engines in cars of makes that were killed by GM corporate policy. I also bash cars of people who put modern engines in old cars. The engine is the heart of the car; putting a new, modern engine in an old car instead of restoring the old one is the difference between saving someone from dying and reanimating them into a zombie. I am not overly tolerant of other people's bad decisions, nor do I think that tolerance is a virtue. You're welcome to do what you want, and I'm welcome to make fun of it, and vice versa.

 

Koda I usually agree with most of what you say. However I disagree with you thoughts on putting newer engines in older cars. If nobody did that we would have never had a hot rod. All 32 Fords would still have their original engines. The SBC would have never been put in my 40 Ford I had in high school. I really don't see the current LS engines different that the original SBC. I know there are lots of folks on here that don't like and even hate SBC's and I find that ridiculous. How could millions of them still be out there running. I question the guy on here somewhere that is taking a pristine W30 convertible and putting an LS in it. No way I would do that but his car and his money. I have a 57 Chevy that I am going to put a SBC 327 in because I want it to be more old school. I could probably buy a decent LS for what I will have in the 3x2 setup. It will also have a Muncie 4-speed. If I was driving this car cross country I would probably consider an LS with overdrive. Enough of my ramblings. This is just my opinion and I will stick with it.

 

That's valid. I should say I draw a difference between a 2005 LS going into a 57 Chevy than a 327. Thank you for the thoughtful response.

 

I don't expect widespread acceptance, as a matter of fact I think I made it clear that I could care less what anybody thinks. I did the swap for my pleasure. My Cutlass is the least valuable of all my cars and I also drive the Cutlass the most. Since the swap, Aug. 2020, I've put on almost 10k on the car, including a 1k mile trip. I drive it almost daily. So LS/4l80e was a no brainer.
The people here are interested in a lot more than just concourse restorations and mild mods. Take a look through the site, and see for yourself.
It's attitude like yours that turns people away from this site, especially younger generations.

Using your analogy, if the engine is a heart of the car, when the heart goes bad (and you have 3 unsuccessful bypass surgeries), do you transplant another old *** heart in? or would you rather have a younger, healthier heart?

LS swaps are the new SBC, they are cheap and plentiful and they make ridiculous power with stock parts. They are superior to old engines in every way.

I respect everybody's build, I may not like it, but I respect it. It's somebody's vision, hard work, time away from family and hard earned money spent. Personally I've built a few from ground up, in the process of building another, and I know very well what it takes so I would never bash anybody's car, just because it's not built the way I like it.

 

Since you pulled out the Californian shaming language on me and "my attitude," it must be true that you could care less (the expression is "I COULDN'T care less.") I'm well aware of the content of this site, being much more active here than you are, and I summed it up fairly well. I don't think my attitude has enough influence here to turn anyone away, and I AM of the younger generations.

Leaving analogies aside, if I had had three engines go bad on me, I'd learn to build a ******* engine right.

 

I apologize if I didn't get the expression right, I'm a fu##ing foreigner, English is my 3rd language.
I am not an engine builder, nor do I claim to be one. I can do everything else, I can assemble an engine, but I am not an engine builder.
All I can do is pay best people in the game to build it for me.
My last engine was built by Mark Remmel. It lasted 30k miles. Crankshaft walked, wiped out the bearings, not his fault at all. I mean it lasted 30k miles so I’d say not builders fault but weak Olds block.
What else could I do? Dump another $10k into another Olds engine?? That 463 left a bad taste in my mouth. All I want is a reliable 500hp car that I can drive on daily basis. I mean that’s nothing compared to what some people run.
I have a BBC that pushes out 642hp at the crank with nothing more than ARP studs on the mains. I’ve been abusing it since 2002, and it still runs like a champ. I lost the mileage count cause it was in few different cars. It was even raced for a period of time.
When everybody was telling me to build a Chevy, I had another Olds built cause I wanted to keep it Olds. And I was babying that 463, making sure I don’t spin it over 5700rpm, never raced it, never done anything crazy with it. Couple of burnouts when it was still new, that’s it. Daily drove it for 6 years and seeing the oil pressure drop lower and lower was heartbreaking. I almost posted the car for sale for few grand just cause I didn't wanna deal with it anymore. Started thinking about an LS swap. Never done it before, it was a learning experience, it kept me busy during months when we had shelter at home and results are amazing. Win win. Got to keep my Cutlass and it runs better than ever before.
I will continue to drive it as much as I can, even more so now that it has an LS and 4l80e.

If somebody wants to sponsor another BBO to keep Olds Gods happy, I'll gladly swap it back, still have all the parts.....might keep the 4l80e.

 

if the bearings went, it was the crank, not the block that was weak. Guessing it was a cast N......

 

This original thread was about the car with Lambo doors, huge ugly wheels, and a 350 Chevy engine...
Then it got derailed arguing about LS swaps...

From all that I've read on this site, LS swaps are generally accepted, and even popular, unless we're talking a rarer car, like a 442, Hurst, etc...
I've wanted a big block Olds since highschool, so I don't see myself ever swapping my car.
I do get the feeling that most people on this site hate the big wheels and Lambo doors on classic cars.

 

those lambo door hinges are crazy dumb on a classic car, Can't imagine not having enough room to squeeze into a 68 with the door opening being so wide.

 

Electric Motor swap anyone Discuss.....

 

El Camino would be a good candidate, plenty of room for batteries.

 

I'd say give it 20 years, change LS to electric and this will be the same conversation we're having now. Need people to get used to electrics and swapping, maybe throw in a government reg or two.

 

thank God I’ll probably be too old by then to still be fooling with engine (motor?) swaps. No thanks.