Good morning folks,
i am about to start to pull my 455 and rebuild it. I have a few questions that i have and im hoping for a little help as i know many of you have much more experience than me. Any help is greatly appreciated.
1. Dont know anything about motor (specs) i bout my car used and have no idea what has been done ove the years. So my question is can a machine shop check all the specs such as deck height etc?
2. Im thinking of buying a stroker rotating assembly from CNC motorsports and was wondering if its decent but also what would i need to do to install (machining for clearance?)
3. I have a pair of big valve C heads and need to know what i should have done to them for good performance without braking the bank?
4. I love the choppy idle sound and would like to know what would be the best cam for this and also performance? I will not be racing but it is not my daily driver just a weekwnd warrior type car.
5. What compression ratio should i shoot for? Im thinking about 10.5 to 1 should be good for me but i would love to hear some opinions on this.

i have a torker 2 manifold and a holley 770 street avenger on it now and will most likely keep that setup for now. It also has headers.
I am hoping for around 450 hp when im done.
All assembly will be perfomed by my son and I (father son project) and im sure learn many things along the way lol.
Maybe with the help of all you gurus it will be a great motor when were done. Would it make sense if i do it in steps and report back?
any help would be awesome and i look forward to any advice from this site. Im sure i probably forgot many things so please help me out.
have a great day.

 

If you are going to run the C heads 10.5:1 compression will require high octane fuel. Do you have a link for the striker kit? You do not need to stroke a 455 to get 450 hp. It would help to know your budget.

 

10 to 1 would be more user friendly. I run 10.25 to 1 on the street on my iron headed sbo with pump gas 93 and have ran 91 with no issues. You are trying to make a hair under 1 hp per cubic inch which should be fairly easy. Rebuild the heads , get a good valve job, open up the bowls under the valves get a good intake like an RPM , the biggest key to the build will be the cam shaft. I slapped together a J headed bbo the heads where fully ported . It had a roller cam and it made about 420 ish based off of weight and track times but the same combo ran 450 on the Dyno. On that set up the pit falls where the J heads and torker intake.

 

im trying to keep it under 4500.00. Does high octane mean above 93?

 

i have a rod knock now so i was looking at a complete rotating assembly and there is not much difference in prices between stock and stroked so unless there is a disadvantage to strocking i thought it would be a nice upgrade if i planned on going for more HP one day

 

For 4500.00 you'd better forget about the stroking. First you need to find a quality machine shop that can grind a dimensionally correct crank and knows how to CK bearing clearance along with the finer details in machining heads. Do your home work on the machine shops available to you..........best advice.

 

What town do you live in? Find a virgin 455 crank. Stroking puts more demand on the already weak Oldsmobile cylinder head.

 

i found a place that sells the entire rotating assy with eagle crank, H rods, diamond pistons/rings, harmonic balancer, flywheel and all the bearings as well as balanced for 2100.00. I have a guy who knows olds heads and he said he can rebuild mine with all new springs, valves, hardened seats etc for 750.00. So with my rotating assy and heads im looking at 2850.00 that leaves me with 1650 for any machine work for the block and a cam and lifters. I may be ok on the cylinders (motor has 45000 miles on it and was babied most of its life. Hope i just have to hone the cylinders.

 

Im good with 10:1 compression. What cam/lifters would you recommend? I do want to hear the cam etc. It might sound stupid but i love that sound. Of course im looking at performance as well.

 

FIRST THING would be to find a shop who can build an Oldsmobile engine !!! They may have built one, but thats a long ways from a shop that has built many Olds engines. I could care less how many Ford, Chebby or Buick engines they have built. There are people who specialize with building and Olds.
Have the depth of pistons "in the hole" measured before the short block is disassembled. Have the combustion chambers CC'd. Measure the cylinder bore and taper.
1. Pass on the stroker kit. A good crank, rods and pistons are important.
2. Get different intake manifold and a carb in the 850 CFM range.
3. Have the heads reworked.
4. Get a good cam and springs.
5. Get new pistons, especially if the block is bored oversize. The pistons will help determine your final compression ratio. What compression ratio pistons are in the engine now ?
What differential ratio do you have ? What transmission will you use ?

 

thanks for the input. Some good advice.
dont know what pistons are in it as of now.
I have 3:36 lsd for rearend. All new parts with about 1200 miles on it. I also have the TH400 which is in good condition. Just curious but why pass on the stroker? Its not much different in price if im buying the whole rotating assy?

 

you will get more power from cylinder heads and camshaft than you will from gaining cubic inches with your budget. Find a competent machine shop and have them asses the damage. Talk with either cutlassefi about a set of reworked procomp heads and a roller cam. Bernard Mondello also sells reworked procomp heads as well. I had good success with having a cam ground from Bullet cams also. Having a custom cam ground to your specific vehicle is the best way to get the power and sound you want. Also dont be afraid to look at the classified section for used parts to stay in budget. With your budget you can either do a built bottom end with stronger parts and stock heads, or a stock bottom end with upgraded aluminum heads and roller cam. Your carb and intake will work ok for now but know if you want more power they will need to be changed as well.

 

thanks. That makes sense. I will have the crank checked out before i decide.

 

The only reason I say stick with the irons is because the stock heads with very little work will support 400 + easily. And the cost for a little bowl work and new valves and stuff will still fall under less than the edlebrocks or even procomps. As far as cam shaft goes you will need something in the 230 to 240 duration range with 10 to 1 compression and that should sound good. I personally love lunati cams and always suggest the voodoo line if you are gonna go with an ( off the shelf grind)