Not sure if this should be here or in BigBlocks but here it go's

I have a stock 455 and will be posting the performance gains as I venture for 12's.... I will be adding headers, gears, drag radials, intake, heads, cam etc in stages and will post times as to how it improves ET after upgrades. Many people have questions as to how much horsepower a certain part or upgrade adds I wont have dyno numbers but I'll have real world ET changes.... any comments blast away!

Upgrades in Stages:

1st 3.42 Rearend and 275-15 M/T Drag Radials
2nd GN 200 4R
3rd Headers 1-3/4" Full length
4th Intake I have an O4B, Performer, and Torker (Leaning towards the Performer Hell I may try them all)
Then into the motor

Here's the what I have so far:

71 Cutlass Convertible
70 365 Horse 455 Completely Original Never Opened
E Heads
Cast Iron Intake
Stock Distributor
W/Z Manifolds
TH350
TCI Saturday Night Converter
Stock Suspension
2-1/2" Exhaust to rear bumper with X pipe
2.56 Posi
245/60/14 Radial T/A's

1/13/2012 as Listed Above
14.54 @ 93.52 with a 2.10 Best 60ft Pedaling it till it hooked

Next Upgrade Completed:
3.42 Posi Rearend
M/T Drag Radials mounted to 15x8 SSI's
will post updated results soon.......I should have it weighed in by next post also.

Johann

 

I am looking forward to seeing your results on this build. You should see a nice improvement with the 3.42 posi. Are you planning on doing any weight reduction on the car?

 

Thanks, I'm thinking I may break into the 13's with 3.42s we'll see. As of right now I'm not planning to cut weight. This is really a daily driver and want to keep the comfort features. I like to cruise to the track and back with A/C

 

Seems your going the right way - hope that rear holds-up with sticky tires!
Try playing with the secondary air door on the Q-jet, and some lighter springs in the distributer - that MPH seems a little low!

 

Update: Well I ended up blowing the transmission on a test drive before I could get it to the track so instead of rebuilding the 350 I went ahead and installed the 2004R I had. I just finished getting it tuned in and she shifts @ 5100 @ WOT in OD. I'll have it back at the track soon and will post the new results

Thanks

 

Things that will make you go quicker are as said reduced weight, better engine breathing, better traction, more gear. I would go with a 355 gear, you will save weight with an aluminum intake, headers will make it breathe better but carb may need to go richer for benefit. Sticky tires help but too much bite destroys stock components quickly. You will only be able to go so far without internal engine mods and big increases come with valve/head work and cam and valvetrain.

 

From my experience the performer is good to 11.75. 3.42 is good to 11.60s. My car should go 11.30s this year with ported torker, 275 MT DRs, and 3.42 gear.

 

Update?

How will the 3.42's effect city and highway driving?

 

I figured that TH350 might not hold up. I'd like to see and update also. Too bad you didnt include air temps .

 

Update:

I finally got to test Friday Night and was only able to get a couple runs in as the races stopped alot as cars kept breaking. First run was 15.31 as I expected to hook but lit the wheels pretty good with the tire presure set at 30lbs. Second run was 14.90 @ 88 with a 2.08 60 foot even with a little spin (lowered to 25lb presure) and it definately did not feel like I was getting full throttle. I checked and I was only getting about 3/4 way at the carb to the floored pedal. I fixed the full throttle problem and its opening all the way now. I should be back this week to retest. As far as the comparison between the TH350/2.56 and the 2004R/3.42 it would cruise at 75mph at roughly 2700rpm before and now cruises at 75mph at 2200rpm in lockup. not that cruising was bad before but I definately like the rpms with the new setup. The 14.54 timeslips on 1/13/2012 were in 52 degree temps and fridays were about 68-70 degrees

Thanks

 

Update:

3.42 SH Posi Rearend
M/T Drag Radials mounted to 15x8 SSI's
GN 200 4R
No changes to Stock 455

14.40 @ 91 in drive with 5000 shift points
1.99 60ft
80 degrees

should have headers on it this weekend....

 

subscribed! Fun to see how the headers help.

 

Are you spinning at all? M/T dr's need to be about 18-20lbs at the track. My 3600 lb TA would cut 1.55-1.57's on 275-50-15s. 18.5lbs is where my car liked them the best.

I like how you are shareing the progression. Where in TX are you?

 

Last night I got her to dead hook at 18lbs leaving at 1500rpms. I'm in San Antonio, I've built several cars and figured it would be cool just to do a stock setup with bolt-ons and see what they do in the real world. So far it seams to pull hard at the bottom but run out of steam on top. I'm figuring the 5000 shift points may be a little to far out for stock and slowing her down

 

Good deal! Keep the info coming!

 

I really thought the gear and tranny would do more for the quarter. I remember 10-11psi being the sweet spot for my sticky tires. But they were different tires. Keep the updates coming.

 

I would be real curious if you pick up ET shifting at 4500-4600 since the motor is near stock.

 

These are my thoughts exactly... must be losing et shifting out at 5000
but I calibrated the tranny to shift at 5000-5100 in drive already figuring the near future hotter setup. The 2.56 setup 14.54 et I shifted @ 4800

 

What stall speed do you have?

With the engine falling off at 5000 may be fuel problem. What fuel pressure are you running?
What jet size are you running?
How big is the carb?
With the engine being bone stock, make sure you use very good oil.

Gene

 

What size fuel line??
Headers will help, if you don't lean it out!
Isn't there a difference between big and small block line sizes??

 

It doesn't seem to falloff at 5000 just seems to be nosing over

 

I was able to get the headers installed lastnight just need to reinstall the oil filter housing and starter

 

Post up your time slip with the 60fts, 330, 1/8 & 1/4. It will tell a lot about how the car is performing.

How are you launching? off idle or loading the converter?

You may want to try a few different launch methods like Rolling into it off the line instead of punching it.

My 68 Elcamino (454 HO Crate motor, 2400 Stall, 4.10 gears) was a dog off the line if i loaded the converter or tried to flash it... but if i rolled into it, it was putting down 12.9's w/ 1.8 60 fts all day long. That was with dr's at 18lbs. Took a while to figure out what it needed.

If i launched wrong, it would drop nearly a full second off the time- that motor was all grunt, so if it didn't get it done in the first 330, it couldn't make it up on the top end.

 

Great idea for a thread, Quik. I've always wanted to do this, baseline it and then check for progress along the way. Looking forward to seeing what the headers do.

So this is on points, huh? That's pretty cool. I'm assuming they're in good shape with dwell set to 30? How do you have the timing set?

 

Any updates with the headers?

 

Any updates???

 

Subscribed.

I would like to see where this goes as well. I would think you should be running quicker than you are with what you've got.

Will you be at the BOP shootout in October? I'd love to see the car in person I also sent you an invite to the "Steers and...Oldsmobiles" group for Texas CO members.

 

Yeah buddy I'll be at the BOP Shootout. also got the invite-Thanks

 

Last night I was able to get two time runs in with the best one being 12.91 in drive leaving at 1500rpms. Happy considering I haven't had a chance to fine tune anything in yet. Should have a few more tenths in er....

 

OK you going to share what all you changed? Mid low 14's to solidly in the 12's is a big jump. Congrats on the new times!!

 

Thanks! here is the current status:

Factory Bottom End
Lunati Cam Degreed-in
Cloyes Roller
Large Valve C's 72cc'd
Heads Filled, welded & Bowl Blended by me (have flowsheet)
Performer Intake
Unmodified Holley 3310
Stock Distributor 36* Total @ 2800
200 4R Shifts in ODrive @ 5000 into 2nd, 4900 into 3rd, 4800 into 4th
D5 GN Converter
3.42 posi
M/T DR 18psi

Should go 12.60's once tuned

 

I've picked up .8 with carb re-jetting and dist. re-curve, and I was using the old 780 3310, on a 396 BBC.
Although using a mechanical Holley pump, it 'nosed over' at about 6300 rpm - but I was using stock rocker arms with a .505 lift cam.
Replaced the exhaust as they broke the studs, but should have done the intakes, as they were probably causing 'float' in the higher RPM range.

 

I want subscibe too
joepenoso