There's a gentleman who has 1969 Toronado engine for sale. Asking g price $700. Complete, with the exception of the carb... (exhaust manifolds, flywheel, brackets, etc. I myself think the asking price is a touch on the high side. One pro: The guy lives 30 minutes from me. Engine is stock. Never bored. Currently disassembled, and everything looks good. Heads are bare "C". What do you guys think? Any pointers? Things I should look for? Any and all responses will be greatly appreciated!

 

As it sits it's a core and will need to be gone through by a machine shop.
unless you have a toro, the mounts, exhaust manifolds and oil filter adapter won't do you any good and have no value to you.
if it were me I'd offer him $350 and go from there. Everything will need to be checked for cracks at the shop. Remember you are dealing with 50 year old iron, so use that as a negotiating point.
don't go over $500.
My $.02

 

Thank you for your response! Whether I make this purchase, or another in the future, what should be done to make a thorough assessment of the block? Thank you.

 

The major castings (block, heads, crank) need to be taken to a machine shop, hot tanked, and magnefluxed. That will involve a several hundred dollar investment. One of the "C" heads I recently took to the machine shop had a crack between the intake and exhaust seats on one cylinder, so it's junk. Fortunately, I have "a few" stockpiled in the barn and just pulled another off the pile.

 

The early 455 engines are better than later ones. 68-69-70... High compression 10.5/1, possible 2.07 intake valves, nodular iron crankshaft, threaded hole for clutch linkage on block and thick block castings good for a couple of over bores. The price sounds ok, that will be a drop in the bucket of total engine rebuild expenses to get it back on the street. Tom

 

Nearly all 455s got nodular cranks. Compression is a function of pistons, which get replaced in a rebuild. I've not seen any difference in wall thickness from F to FA blocks. The clutch boss only matters if you are running a manual trans, and while rare, some FA blocks DID come with the boss threaded.